My students send me work in envelopes decorated with stickers.
Who can resist getting the mail when the mail looks like this?
They are old enough to create detailed work that demonstrates their learning.
The assignment called for an “appropriate image”.
The written portion was detailed and accurate, too. I sincerely enjoy grading fifth grade work. These students are awesome.
Working in an old building has its perks. High ceilings, big windows, wood floors, lots of wood overall. The beauty of the aged building balances the cubicles and the computers. As a group, we like our office. We’re happy to be located where we are.
Old buildings have a down side, though. When winter arrives, those lovely big windows are drafty. The under-insulated walls around those windows let in the cold air more than they would in a brand new, tightly closed and insulated office.
We like our location, though. We groan a little on the coldest Wisconsin days, and then we open up our desks and get out the tools for working in the cold. Coffee cups with covers, blankets and snuggies for our laps, scarves around our chilly necks, and our favorite accessory: gloves. We can handle just about any part of our work while wearing fingerless gloves. In fact, some of us own more than one pair.
Daisy’s collection – next to a cup made for hot cocoa!
Typing with gloves on – simple.
Keeping warm while answering email or grading papers
Using the phone, making curriculum based assessment calls
or simply staying warm and fuzzy.
Now that “texting” gloves are popular, there’s a much greater variety on the market. Bring on the wind chills; we’re ready!
Maybe you’ve seen – or maybe you haven’t – this simple Haiku.
Refrigerator. Of course.
Our refrigerator stopped making sense, too. Thanksgiving weekend the freezer continued freezing while the refrigerator quit refrigerating. Thanks to the Internet, we found and implemented a fix. As we got closer to Christmas, the freezer started warming up. Losing cold? Whatever. The ice cubes were still ice, but the ice cream was getting softer. Chuck asked (rhetorically, of course) “Why do our appliances taunt us whenever it’s a major holiday?”
Don’t answer that, people. Just don’t.
This time, at least, we had two advantages. 1: Chuck and I did the homework at Thanksgiving in case we needed to buy a new refrigerator. We knew what we needed. 2: This month, Mother Nature gave us an alternate storage place called Snow on the Deck. Storing the frozen food was easy. Some went in a cooler, and a few of my frozen market goodies went right in the light and powdery snow.
Getting it out was another story.
But wait – there’s more! I used a broom to brush away the layers that had accumulated overnight and found strawberries and blueberries, also frozen last summer.
Not stepping stones: tops of coffee “cans” full of frozen berries.
All is calm, and all is cool, at least for now. If I forgot anything, it’ll show up in the next thaw. Next: clean the oven.
2012 was an incredibly eventful year. For better or for worse, here are the first posts from each month on Compost Happens.
January 1st: Last year’s retrospective, looking back at a very eventful 2011. Read ahead for links to the first of each month in 2012. One year from now, you’ll be reviewing 2013. That thought is both frightening and exciting.
February 1st: In a year fraught with conflict, I wrote many letters. Some were real and landed on desks in Madison and Washington, D.C., and others landed in cyberspace on Compost Happens.
March 1st: Writing is therapeutic. Blogging and email fit the category, too. Last March I reminisced and quietly rejoiced in my new-found state of normal.
April 1st: I didn’t post on April 1st, and April 2nd featured pictures of my cubicle (cute, but not exactly thrilling content). Instead, I give you March 30: the power of refusal and the word No.
May 1st: The strength of grass-roots organizing – the 4 by 10 method.
June 1st: 2012 was an eventful year in the political realm. As we geared up for a gubernatorial recall election in Wisconsin, I spent a little volunteer time as a Holder of the Lights on a local overpass.
July 1st: Why my life would make a lousy reality show.
August 1st: Perspectives on trees and pondering fortune cookies; the two are related. Trust me.
September 1st: What does a progressive blogger post during the Republican National Convention? Analysis, that’s what. Here’s a brief analysis of some of the worst prime time moments of the RNC’s gathering.
October 1st: Busy? Did I say busy? October is typically a wild month here at the O.K. Chorale, and this year was busier than most.
November 1st: Encore posts can come in handy. On November 1st of 2012, I was experiencing scary symptoms of a possible stroke. I set this encore to post so the blog wouldn’t be empty. November 2nd explained what happened at the hospital as I lay on the gurney hooked up to all kinds of beeping machines thinking “Thank goodness I voted early!”
December 1st: Sandwiched between a rant about the Clinic That Shall Not Be Named and pictures of construction vehicles in the front yard, I pulled up an encore post to remember how much my young ones have grown and matured.
Here’s hoping 2013 has more achievements and happy occasions and fewer tragedies than 2012.
