New Month -- New Color

I am so excited to switch to PURPLE for August.  I am ready for a change.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Last Blue Day

I finally got a camp update from Anna.  She loves sailing tutorials, she rocks at wake-boarding, and she wants a care package. 
Sewing time has still been difficult, but I am planning to devote the morning to playing with some blue scraps.  I got them all ironed and organized before I had to clean everything up for a ZOOM job interview.  I've been tutoring two Chinese girls in the evenings and that is taking up lots of time right now.  The rest has been spent trying to figure out how to get all of our teachers ready to teach kids in person in class and at home simultaneously when school starts again.  I am happy that we have moved back the start day by two weeks.  Maybe by then they will have figured out that the virus is out of control in Florida right now and we are only going to make it worse by cramming a bunch of people together and shuffling them through different classrooms all day.  Maybe.  They did cancel the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, so at least there is starting to be some acknowledgement that it is a real thing and not just fake news.  My list of people I know who have it is growing.  I'll try hard to to add myself to that list. 
I might make some more masks today too.  The pretty ones all seem to have disappeared. It makes me glad that they are getting used.  I know the college kids are both going to need a good supply before they go back as well as it is a requirement for both of them. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Trying not to be Blue

 We saw our first new baby sea turtle of the season making its way to the ocean. 

 Some days there are funny surprises

 Some mornings just make you appreciate life for a while. 

Yesterday we stopped to talk to a recent graduate of UCF as she was surveying a newly hatched nest.  She counts all the egg fragments and looks at the embryonic stage of each unhatched egg.  

I am so thankful for morning beach walks to keep my world centered right now as everything seems to change on a daily basis.  

Last week the proposal was to send kids back to school on a block schedule with no mandated masks.  This week the masks are "expected" and the schedule is still a block, but the teachers will be simultaneously teaching the kids who are in school and those who are choosing to still stay home.  

So with three weeks left before the start of school, I am to redesign my curriculum for multiple classes to fit into a single semester, develop a robust digital plan and figure out how to manage virtual and physical students at the same time while trying not to let everyone get sick and die.  Someone did the math and decided that statistically only 17 students in our school district are likely to die.  

I've been actively applying for online teaching jobs, but I really do love what I do and virtual teaching seems so impersonal.  I ended up with a tutoring job out of the search, but I'm not sure that I can keep it up when the school year starts.  

No pressure. 

So maybe a bit of sewing will soothe my soul.  

ScrapHappy Saturday Feeling Blue

No sewing for me this week!  I was in school working on the curriculum for homeroom and got caught up in all of the school reopening drama.  I know that all the moms and dads out there are going through some serious soul searching right now.  Figuring out what is safe and what is best for our kids right now is HARD.  As a teacher, it is even more difficult. I'm fortunate to be younger than some and in good physical shape.  Even if I do get sick, I have pretty good odds of surviving.  So many of our teachers are not young or have serious medical concerns.  They are in a much rougher spot. 
The administrative staff was briefed on the plan on Tuesday and Wednesday.  They weren't allowed to tell us yet what it was, but they were all looking shell shocked.  Then Thursday there was a board workshop where the plan was presented to the board. I love the elementary school plan!  Parents can choose 100% virtual of course, or 100% in person, but they can also choose any blend of the two.  They can send their kids in for language arts and then bring them home to do online math in the afternoon.  Apparently that choice has always existed, but we just haven't advertised it.  The big change though is that parents can choose "virtual at school from home".  They are in a class with a regular teacher and follow through their entire day and normal schedule with the teacher online.  Then, whenever things get better, or if it isn't working well, they can choose to transition back to the classroom. 
Then for the secondary, they would like to switch all schools to a block schedule.  Again, I love the idea!  Half as many students every day, half as much risk, half as much to make work when we all shut down and end up at home anyway.  I now understand why the principal and assistant principal were looking so green around the gills.  This is a nightmare for them.   They have to completely rebuild the master schedule, have students choose extra courses, re-shift staffing.  It is simply too much to get done in a month.  The school board will vote on Tuesday, so there isn't much to be done yet.  I'm not good at waiting though.  Maybe I can use some of this nervous energy to get some serious sewing done this week. 
I hope your blue is going well.  I am grateful to have another chance to try to get the blue bin under control.  Why is it always the one bursting at the seams and ready to explode?

ScrapHappy Saturday - Dark and Blue

My first dip into the blue this month was a group of string blocks.  I'm getting close to being done with this collection.  

I tried hard to remember that today was Saturday.  It gets harder to tell the day apart.  

Monday was a good day.  

 As we enjoyed our morning beach walk, I saw sand flying into the air from the dunes.  We sat a respectful distance away and waited patiently until this Mama sea turtle emerged from her nest after laying her eggs. 

By the time she had lumbered her way back to the tide line, a group of the beach walkers we see on a regular basis were gathered to cheer her on.