What a long strange summer it has already been! It hasn't felt much like a break yet, but I am starting to settle into a new summer routine. We drove back from Virginia on Monday. It is about 12-13 hours by car and we are getting pretty good at the drive. When Kurt goes up for work, he will fly, but with all the kids and the supplies we are still taking back and forth, it made more sense to drive.
With the new job, I am working this summer, but it is a minimal amount. I have two mornings a week scheduled in the office during June and then I'll bump it up to three mornings a week during July. So far I am doing most of the normal summer work that I would have done on my own. What a nice change to pace to have them offering to pay me to do work. That isn't something that often comes up for teachers. In addition to college advising, I am also still handling gifted, homeroom and new teachers. This week I started on the gifted curriculum and paperwork planning. Next week I will jump into the homeroom lessons.
Not lots of blue scraps yet, but plenty of blue skies. We have worked so hard at the cabin for the last two weeks and it has been so much fun! I sleep like a log every night and then wake up ready to start again the next day. Much of the work is just new house things like cleaning and organizing, picking out paint colors. All much fun. Then there is the land that has been sadly neglected. So much trash to haul away and lumber from old out buildings to be burned. So far we have only dealt with the main three acres. The upper seven remains untouched. I haven't taken many photos because everything is half done. These are a few of the structures which have been taken down. I am watching the fire now as we try to burn the last of what can be burned and Kurt hauls a load of the rest to the dump. We have made quite a few trips to the dump and had quite a few fires! Still more to go, but progress is being made.
Ready to head home again and switch gears. I will be working some this summer with the new job and I have a couple of T-shirt quilts to make. One for commission and one for Sydney to take away to college in the fall.
It's a brand new month! Looking forward to making some progress on blue. Why is there so much blue in my bins? I've whittled down lots of colors, but blue always seems to fill up first again.
There is still plenty of work keeping us busy in the mountains. Yesterday we tried to free some apple trees from vines and made a trip into town for supplies. Then we cut fire wood and made mulch. The next time it rains or gets too hot outside, I will finish getting the kitchen put together. Always nice to give everything a good solid cleaning before getting too many things put away. I will bring a sewing machine the next time we come up and try to find a desk to put it on. One thing at a time.....
It has been quite a week! I have been working diligently to move out of my classroom and begin preparations for my new job as a Career and College coach at the same school where I have been for the past 12 years. The students seem excited to have someone available to guide them through the process and are already asking for help.
And because nothing good ever happens in isolation, the movers are coming any minute to pick up the furniture we are having taken to the cabin in Virginia. It would have been so much more efficient to just keep the furniture where it is and buy something new for up north, but I thought our existing stuff would fit better with the mountain vibe. I am excited to pick something more beachy and less wood and leathery to live here. We found something we liked looking online, but we will be sitting on lawn chairs until we get around to going and looking at it in person. We have a day bed from Anna's room to sleep on, so if we can find a card table somewhere, all of our basic needs will be met.
The green scraps are still sitting happily sorted and trimmed waiting for things to calm down for a hot minute. Just to top off all the crazy, I have jury duty on Monday! Life just keeps trucking along. I hope you are having some nice calm sewing time though. I will enjoy your progress and wait for the relative calm of summer break. I will only be working two or three half days each week which should leave plenty of time to catch up on green and move on to the new color for June.
"Life move pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"
My life has moved faster than usual in the past week. I think it was last Thursday when they posted a new job opening at my school. The district is creating a new position at all of the middle and high schools to have a new College and Career Counselor on staff. I knew that they were going to be creating the job, but I assumed it would require counseling credentials. When the announcement was finally made, it was listed as a "specialist" instead of a counselor and I met all of the requirements. Thinking that this might just be the change that I need right now, I discussed with the family and eagerly applied. Much drama ensued and the job description changed several times during the week, but in the end, it was a job that I wanted very much to do and it was offered to me!
So now I need to move out of my classroom and get a new teacher ready to take over AP Biology, learn how to handle all the new job responsibilities, attend training sessions and planning meetings and move into an office. I also need to wrap up the semester, submit final grades, pack and move furniture to the house in Virginia..... I am sure there is more, but right now I am just making lists and contemplating the future. I did get to start in on the green scraps though. I got all the ironing and trimming done. I was just ready to start sewing blocks together when Anna declared that she was coming home for the weekend. Most importantly though, I need to make some serious progress on Sydney's t-shirt quilt, because graduation is just 6 short days away.
It is amazing how relaxing hard work and fresh air can be. We got half of one of the chicken coops taken down. There was lots of wire and posts and mesh all intergrown with vines and roots and all sorts of fun. I used the empty space in front to set up compost bins, so hopefully there will be some compost in progress the next time we are back.
