Friday's Fave Five, 3/28/14

Link to Friday's Fave Five

1. The women of our church fed the teachers soup on Tuesday as a thank-you.  Very kind.  And - an unexpected gift - anonymous - was in my box on another day, expressing appreciation for the years of teaching at our Christian school. Maybe that person is reading this - if so, thank you!!

2. I've discovered that our nearby Bi-Lo grocery puts mark-down vegetables on a cart in the produce section on Saturday mornings.  And--they are still really quite nice.  So I made creamed corn last Saturday--one of Mike's favorites--with fresh corn.  In March!!  He really liked it.

3. My colleague Matt gave a fantastic presentation to my junior English students on The Great Gatsby.  That's a book that you want to teach carefully, and he was a big help.

4. Got a nice video from my son.  Here is the link to him teaching his Chinese students.

5. I have not slept well this week but have had some nice times reading, praying, and thinking in the middle of the night.  That made it a good week.

Andrew Teaches

I hope this will work OK.  It's a video Andrew sent of his students - to his friends and family, and to his  "momma"!  He said they are working in groups which is why they are segregated.  He has obviously not lost his personality. . .

Friday's Fave Five - 3/21/14

Link to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog

1. Last Friday I went to the SCACS Fine Arts Competition with my students.  I didn't have any groups this year, but another teacher was needed to go to keep order on the bus.  So - guess who got elected.  It was a very long day - had to be at school by 5:45 a.m. and got back at 10:00 p.m.  But it was a good day being with the students and seeing several old friends from other schools.

2. This is spring break week!  It has been so nice to be at home and get things done - a lot of grading, organizing, cleaning things out, finding things for a yard sale.  I like weeks like this.  I cleaned my entire house yesterday, complete with putting fresh Future on the vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms.  It smells really good, and looks nice and clean also.

3. The birds are feeding furiously even though the weather is getting nicer.  They plow through both sunflower seeds and suet like crazy.  We've had two new birds in the past week - brown-headed nuthatches, and yellow-rumped warblers.  We've seen them in the past (the nuthatches at our old Anderson house, and the warblers when we still lived in Greenville), but this is the first time at feeders. (The picture is of a chickadee, not the new birds.)

4. On Monday, I went to my daughter's school and had lunch with her.  It was a pleasure to see her school, and to meet her advisory teacher, her class, and the other 4th grade teachers she works with.  

5. Last night I got an interesting phone call from my son in China.  He was teaching and called directly from his class as an example of technology in the world today.  One of his students conversed directly with me.  It was fun!

Problem Solved

My thumb has been slowly healing and is much better than it was three weeks ago.  However, a new nail has started growing in, and I assume that is part of why there are still times that it hurts quite a bit.  Bumping it accidently on things has not helped.  However, the worst is when I am cooking.  The combination of cold things and wet things makes it throb.  Tearing lettuce, filling glasses with ice, working with cold meat and cheese, and many other movements, have made it difficult to work in the kitchen.  Amazing what you never notice when all body parts are working well, but notice intently when something has been injured.

I checked into what several drugstores might have, and didn't find much.  Metal braces aren't right and would cause more problems than they would solve.  Then, this morning I was walking through Walgreens, and just happened to glance at the foot section.  And there was an elastic bandage which was labeled for use on toes.  But in small print it said--useful for fingers also.  I bought one and tried it on.  It is perfect.  It has just enough compression to stay on, and it protects the end of my thumb much better than a bandaid.  I'll be wearing that most of the time for protection and comfort.

However, I don't want to get it wet.  I had tried using a glove by itself earlier, to protect from moisture while cooking and washing dishes; it did keep it dry though did not eliminate the pain of temperature differences.  But--a glove on top of the elastic bandage works great.  Problem solved.  $5 for the thumb sleeve and $.25 per glove.  Not bad.

Frances

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures.  It was taken on Thanksgiving day of either '95 or '96, when we met several years for the holiday at a farm belonging to one of Mike's sister's in-laws.  The family was shooting skeet, and Mike was giving Frances a lesson.  I think this is a beautiful shot.

I met Frances (Mike's aunt - his father's sister) on my first trip to Anderson to meet some of the family.  He took me by her gift/antique shop (an Anderson tradition for many years) and she was warm and welcoming.  I noticed a half a dozen Cherry Ames books on one of the shelves and exclaimed over them, because of my own collection.  Unknown to me, she wrapped them up and Mike smuggled them to the car to give me later, as it was near my birthday and Christmas season.

Frances has been gone for twelve years now, and we miss her.  I often think of how ML would have loved going to Frances' shop and helping her wrap Christmas and other presents.  I can see the two of them chattering away in the workroom.   They would have been great friends.

The children were little when Frances was still around; I was busy with them and other things.  Sometimes I'd think - maybe we'll stop by the shop on the way home.  But time usually got away.  

She could tell a story like nobody's business.  She was interested in everyone.  And one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't take better advantage of knowing that lovely, spunky, gracious, and delightful woman.

Ups

UP:  Thumb is doing better.  Still hurts, especially if I use it too much or hit it on something.  But it is healing.  Mike says I will probably lose the nail.  We'll see.

UP:  No school Friday.  Thursday will be a killer, as we have an open house that evening, with students required to come back so we can hold actual classes.  But the carrot is that we don't have to come Friday.

UP:  Daughter's first day holding the complete student teaching load in her classroom went well.

UP: Good Sunday dinner with lots of leftovers so I don't have to cook much this week.