That Daybook thingie

Simple Daybook

For today Wednesday January 20, 2010

Outside my window ... Melting snow, but there is still a whole lot.

I am thinking... about my plans for the Knitting Olympics.

I am thankful for... space heaters

From the learning rooms ... that working part time doesn't necessarily give me extra time to do things I want to do.

From the kitchen... left over ham and beans. Very yummy ham and beans, if I do say so myself.

I am wearing... gray sweats

I am creating... socks

I am going... eat popcorn, knit, watch TV. I am not very ambitious today.

I am reading... Julius Cesar, I start teaching it tomorrow.

I am hoping... that my career path settles down soon.

I am hearing... Sly eating. Can you tell I don't listen to the radio or watch TV much? I love a quiet house.

Around the house... a few dishes and laundry, and one very scary dirty bathroom

One of my favorite things... ham and bean soup even with all the farting.

A few plans for the rest of the week: if the snow melts, riding the Harley.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...




My plans for the Knitting Olympics.

Happy Knitting!

Simple Woman's Daybook

Simple Daybook

For today Monday January 11, 2010

Outside my window ... Snow, and more falling. We have had a lot of snow this past week. There are several feet on the ground right now. It has been cold, but it was colder last year.

I am thinking... not much really. Today is a slow day. A little house work, a little grading for tomorrow.

I am thankful for... automatic washers

From the learning rooms... Still spinning

From the kitchen... Sly has requested Corn Chowder

I am wearing... long underwear -- my winter PJs

I am creating... a clean house

I am going... to take my Christmas tree down, finally.

I am reading... One of the knitting mysteries. I started it at work Friday during SSR (silent sustained reading)

I am hoping... I am too content right now for hope.

I am hearing... nothing.

Around the house... hung new draft blocker curtains, need to vacuum

One of my favorite things... oatmeal

A few plans for the rest of the week: mostly work -- maybe go out with Sly on Wed (we are both off).

Here is picture for thought I am sharing... it has been a while since I posted a picture of Buddy.

Happy Knitting!

Simple Woman's Daybook

Simple Daybook

For Today

January 6, 2010

Outside my window ... snow, but a clear, sunny day. We had a lot of lake effect, so the ground is buried under a couple of feet. At least another foot will be here by Saturday.

I am thinking... my mom's birthday, today.

I am thankful for... my mom

From the learning rooms... lesson plans are on going....................

From the kitchen... chili, corn bread, hot things

I am wearing... long underwear, tee shirt, sweater, wool socks. These are my winter PJs

I am creating... ply some yarn, and make soap!

I am going... to remember my first day at Bendix for the rest of my life!

I am reading... The Knitter's Almanac. Thinking I might spend the year knitting with EZ.

I am hoping... that my second day at Bendix will be better than my first.

I am hearing... nothing.

Around the house... laundry.

One of my favorite things... a nice cup of tea.

A few plans for the rest of the week: work, avoiding driving in the snow too much, knitting, spinning, reading, and making soap.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing... the front of my house.

Happy Knitting!

A New Years update

I really don't want to do a list of resolutions. In a week, I feel guilty for breaking one of them, and forget the rest of the year that I made them. I do, however, want to just recap what I have done this past year.

Actually, I have to say, that the past two years have been like one really long year. Starting in 2008, I began the Transition to Teaching program at Indiana University South Bend. The idea behind "T2T" is to help people who already have a Bachelor's degree to change careers and become teachers. It was an extremely intensive program that took up a great deal of my energy. Last year at this time, I had just finished a semester of working full time at Boston Middle School during the day as a Remediation Assistant while taking 10 credit hours at night. I was also getting ready to student teach.

Student teaching was an interesting experience, and I have already blogged about it, so I won't go into all that again. After earning my teaching license, I began my job search. Looking for work was challenging, but I was able to find a temporary position at Griffith Middle School. I am thankful for the chance to work with the students, and I am very sad that I will not get to spend the rest of the year with them.

In December, I started looking for work again, which is a difficult time for a teacher to look for work. I applied for several jobs, and I had lots of interviews, but none of those worked out for me. Then, out of the blue, I got a call from South Bend Community Schools. I had put in an application over the summer without getting a call. The interview went very well, and I was excited about working in the school, so I was thrilled when I was offered the job!

So, starting this year, I will be teaching high school English (several grade levels and classes) at the Bendix School in South Bend. I am pleased to be working in a district closer to home (GMS was an hour commute). I am hopeful that I will continue to work in South Bend.

What are my other plans for the New Year? Well, knitting has been put on hold for the past two years. I would really like to finish some projects that are bigger than hats. I got a new spinning wheel for Christmas, and I am already addicted to making my own yarns! A couple of years ago, I had a small garden, and I would like to have a garden again this year. Even though we sold the RV, I still have tons of camping equipment, and I hope to take several trips this year. DH got a Harely, and I hope the bike will feature in our summer plans.

Above all, I want to be safe, happy, and healthy. I wish the same for all of you.

Happy Knitting!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

I found this idea for simple, basic questions to answer on a weekly basis as a kind of running journal and glimpse into daily life. While I have no wish to fully participate in the blog, I will provide a link so my readers know where I got the idea.

For Today

December 29, 2009

Outside my window ... snow, but a clear, sunny day.

I am thinking... about how awesome the universe really is.

I am thankful for... my wonderful husband who is picking Greek take out (I love Greek food).

From the learning rooms...the Big Bang.

From the kitchen... leftovers from Christmas dinner. I am thinking a bean and ham soup would be nice.

I am wearing... rose PJs

I am creating... lovely yarns with my new spinning wheel.

I am going... to start my new job in less than a week!

I am reading... textbooks that I will be teaching from.

I am hoping... that my career path with settle soon.

I am hearing... Trooper grunting.

Around the house... laundry.

One of my favorite things... I love this video clip:

A few plans for the rest of the week: Creating lessons plans for new job that starts next week. I will be teaching part time at the Bendix School is South Bend. It is an alternative high school for at risk students, and I will be teaching English 10 and 12 and a GQE (graduation qualifying exam) class.

Here is picture for thought I am sharing... I added the video, so I am not adding a photo here.

Happy Knitting!

Some Really Awesome Kids!

I will miss these kids a great deal!

Bad, bad, bad Blogger

In my defense, I have been very busy the past few months. Being a first year teacher is time consuming. I think I am hitting my stride though. I hope to know this week if I have a regular job or not. I will keep you all posted.

Speaking of keeping anyone who still looks at this blog posted, I have a goal to write something, anything at least every three days this month. I know that people try and hit everyday in November, but that won't be happening.

So, let's just see how I do, and forgive me if I fall silent again.

Happy knitting!

I accepted a job

It was a long search, but I have accepted a job teaching 8th grade Language Arts. Right now, the job is temporary, but there is a real good chance that the job will become permanent. Sadly, I will be filling in for someone who is young and very sick.

I am happy with the school district. I accepted the job because of the small town feel, the clean and friendly town, and I really liked all the people I met in the school. I am making arrangements to see the classroom and pick up my curriculum materials. I am so excited.

Happy Knitting!

Happy Fourth

And Happy knitting!

Today is my birthday!

I am two days younger than the Yarn Harlot!

I am spending most of my day filling out job applications. The last one took two hours.

All the crap that I haven't been blogging about

Well, I applied for a job at the school I had been working at for several years. Some of you may remember when I got this job. The pay was extremely low, and the work was difficult (mostly because I was given little to no instruction about how to do the job to begin with). I worked hard, learned a lot, and was successful. The main reason I took the job was to get my foot in the door, make a name for myself, and hopefully, get a good job.

So, I got my teaching license. There was an opening at the very school I had been working at. I had a letter of recommendation from the building principal. I had it all, good letters, excellent grades, and superior test scores. I thought I had done everything right, and that I would get the job I wanted. The student even like me.

There is no loyalty in education.

I was passed up for the job. While no one will admit it, I know that it is because of my graduate credits. I have had a BA for several years, but I couldn't get a teaching position last year because I didn't have a license. So, I got the license, but now I can't get a teaching position because I had to go to graduate school to get the license. In addition, I had dropped out of grad school (for an MA in English) several years ago. I am being turned down for being highly qualified and well educated. I am totally pissed about it too.

So, I am sad, depressed, and mad as hell. I am applying for other jobs, but very upset that I didn't get the one I SHOULD have gotten.

I'll post something happier about knitting latter this week. Knitting has been a great comfort to me.

Happy knitting!

DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE

I have finished (finally) student teaching. While the job outlook is a bit grim, I am working my connections (it is nice to have a few). Right now, I am just happy to be done with all the classes, and teaching in someone's classroom (very hard to be a guest in someone's room after having my own, however small it may have been). I am going to start knitting Hey Teach to reward myself (and give me something professional and hand knit to wear).

Happy Knitting!

Student Teaching update and Martha Stewart Nerdiness

The new placement is going well. I like the new teacher, and she is so much easier to work with. I am on Spring Break this week, and then I have two more weeks to go. I am very happy that I am almost done. I can't wait to start looking for work.

In the meantime, I found some knitting related goodness over on Martha Stewart's web page. I want to make one of these (be sure to click the photo for a totally nerdy video with Mo Rocca that will give any knitter a nerdy crush on him). I also want to make a few of these for fun. I saw this, but to be honest, I just poke a hole in the lid of an old coffee can. It is a great way to keep yarn free from dirt when camping. I never thought of Martha as a knitter, but there is some fibery goodness for the knitters on her page. It'll keep me busy during my week off.

It is supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow. Some Spring Break.

Happy Knitting!

Well, Duh!

Watch CBS Videos Online

More of my totally nerdy finds

see more puppies


see more puppies

Stuff and Things

I am still waiting on a new student teaching assignment. Hopefully, this week.

Sly's plant shut down last week. Actually, they laid everybody off for a week. So, he could not use his vacation time. It seems they will be doing these type of shut downs as needed over the next year. It sucks because we really can't afford going without a week's pay. My job wasn't much, but since I am out of work (to do the student teaching that I am not doing), we don't have extra money.

One good thing about being home is that I have the time and energy to cook, saving us the eating out money. But, I am getting board. I have been finishing up all my WIPs and posting them on Ravelry.

Today, my baby boy turns 21! I am going to go cry somewhere.

Happy knitting!

Words Fail Me

No, seriously! I don't even know why anyone would want to design something like this.

Student Teaching

I have been quiet. I started student teaching in January, and I was looking forward to a rewarding time that would shape my future career. So far, it has not really worked out for me.

There will little things in the beginning. The classroom teacher would say and do things that I thought were totally inappropriate. There were incidences of racism and humiliation towards the students. However, I wasn't there to judge the teacher.

He was no help to me in lesson planning. In fact, he never read my lesson plans. I know because I handed him the same lesson plans two weeks in a row. He didn't notice. He never gave me the kind of support a classroom teacher is supposed to give a student teacher.

I tried to talk to him. I tried to point out that racism and humiliation have no place in a classroom. I tried to get him to live up to his arrangement with the university. I finally had to report the man to my school and the decision was made to pull my from that assignment. Sadly, I had to turn those poor kids back over to the heartless teacher.

So, I am sad now. What should have been a happy, productive time for me turned into a nightmare. The past week, I could not even stand to be in the same room as the man. I am happy to be out, but very sorry for those students.

The school is giving me some time off to relax and prepare for a new assignment. Wish me luck.

Happy Knitting!

Hey, Kool-aid!

It is still very cold (last night -20 actual temp, today about -8). Since I had a whole day and nothing to do, I thought I would do some kool-aid dying.

EASY STEP BY STEP KOOL-AID DYING METHOD

1. You will need white or cream colored yarn. I used some Lion Wool that I got on sale for $2.50 last summer (yeah, $2.50 wool).

2. Unskein the yarn and make a large loop. I used my laundry drying rack for this step, but you could use a person. Just have them hold their arms roughly 36 inches apart.

3. Tie the loop of yarn in four places. I used a colored bit of yarn so you can see. Using ties on the yarn like this will keep it from getting tangled.

4. Wash the yarn is warm water with no-rinse wool wash. This does two things. First, it washes your wool, and second, it opens the fibers so they will soak up more dye. Do not swish the wool around a lot. A gentle swish and 30 minute soak should do the job.

5. Place yarn in microwave safe dish. Place the yarn is such a way that it is mostly in one layer with no overlap.

6. Mix one packet of Kool-aid powder with 8 oz. of water per ounce of wool. I had 3 1/2 0unces of wool per skein and I used three packages of Kool-aid and three cups water.

7. Pour the Kool-aid over the wool. You can pat the wool down so that it is compleatly covered with Kool-aid; however, I like lighter colors and white bits to be in the yarn. To do this, just pour the Kool-aid over the yarn without making sure all the wool is covered. The wool will soak up lots of dye in the microwave, and you will get a more "kettle dyed" effect in your yarn.

8. Microwave on "high" for 2 minutes and let rest for 2 minutes. If the water still has a lot of Kool-aid in it, microwave for 2 minutes again (letting the wool rest for 2 minutes). The water should be clear, or only lightly murky. The dye should be trapped in the wool.

Pre-microwave

Post microwave (yeah, it is a different color)

9. Gently dry your lovely yarn.

The blue is Blue Rasberry Lemonaid, the purple is Grape, and the red is a two tone effect (that does not show up at all in the photos) with Strawberry and Black Cherry. It is much prettier in real life.