While being home for the past two months, we have faced different challenges.  One of the challenges we tackled this week was David’s hair.  It’s been driving him crazy so he decided that maybe he could cut it himself.  He started studying numerous YouTube videos.  He studied for almost a week, and finally he decided that with my assistance, he was ready to try it.

Here’s the before picture:

After more studying and learning, David was ready to attempt to cut his hair.  With my help and some borrowed clippers from a friend, he began.

He gave me specific instructions, and I helped with clipper blending in the back and a few scissor touch ups.  David is a perfectionist so the process took awhile, but the end result was a good one!

He may never pay for a haircut again!

I titled this “Back to the Blog” because Davey noticed that this is a frequent title of my blog posts in the last few years.  Apparently I’d write a post that I was back to blogging, and then I’d not show up again for quite awhile.  So the other day for some reason, we were talking about my blog, and Davey started reading it.  He read on it for a long time.  It goes back to 2007, and I used to post daily, so there are a lot of posts.  He really enjoyed it and has been encouraging me to write again.  He liked reading the stories I wrote about him over the years.  It’s really kind of  a history of Davey.  Plus I have always liked sharing about my knitting and sometimes about what I am reading. We mention David occasionally as well. 🙂

And because knitting has always been a big part of this blog, I have to share my current project: “Breathe and Hope”.  It was a pattern that a designer named Casapinka offered for free for awhile in return for knitters supporting their local yarn shops by buying yarn for the pattern.  Here’s the pattern: Breathe and Hope.

This is not a difficult pattern, but I was just having trouble with focus at the beginning.  I must have started over six times, but I am finally settled in and it’s going well (my 2nd graders and I know that I just couldn’t do it YET and I just had to keep on trying!). My sister is knitting this pattern at the same time so it’s fun to share our progress.  I will have to share pictures of her progress as well.

And if there has ever been a time to journal about what we have been experiencing, I’d say this is the time.  Davey keeps asking when we are going to get back to “normal”.  It’s a great question,  but it makes me also think about the positive things that have happened as a result of our quarantine time.  I want to write about and remember those too.

I have started reading poetry with Davey.  It’s so fun sharing the poems with him that I used to read with my classes when I taught at RMCAD.  I love teaching 2nd grade, but I do miss talking about poetry with the college students.  So it’s so fun to start reading it with Davey.

I started with William Carlos Williams.  He is one of my favorites.  His language is so simple, but I love that language and how he constructs the poem.  It’s a great example of how every single word in a poem is carefully chosen and is crucial to the poet’s intent.

We read “This is Just to Say”.  We talked about it, and now we’ve memorized it.  Not that it’s any great feat to memorize.  It’s not exactly lengthy.

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

Davey likes to tease me and quote the poem as “so sweet and so juicy”.  We’ve had fun talking about it and memorizing it together.

It’s August.   I am working on getting my classroom ready.  Davey is preparing for the beginning of his last year of elementary school.  David still has some time left before he starts back, but he’s busy organizing and packing as we get ready to move to a new house.

My knitting has slowed wayyyy down.  I have not completed many projects over the last year.  This pair of socks may be one of the few things  (I really need to document better so I remember what I knit and who I give it to).  Oh!  I made a Gap-tastic cowl last fall.  I never get tired of making those.

Here’s my socks.  I bought this yarn from fibre space when we were in Virginia last winter (That is a great yarn shop.  It is up there in my top favorites along with Fancy Tiger in Denver and of course our local Yarn Folk.).  The yarn is from “The Lemonade Shop”.  The name of the yarn specifically is “Alternative Facts” – such a nice yarn with which to knit!

As usual, I worked from the Susan B. Anderson pattern – “How I Make My Socks”.  It’s just a simple pattern, and I have used it over and over.  It’s a great pattern, but I really ought to try a new one for my next pair.

It’s been a fun summer.  Davey’s learning to play golf which has got us all inspired to play more again.  We went to Silverwood for the first time which was a lot of fun.  Buster participated in the Doggie Olympics in Roslyn.  He was awesome in peanut butter licking.  He also worked well with Davey in Musical Hoops.  Davey had fun doing the obstacle course in our Gladiator Dash a few weeks ago.  We are not quite done yet!  Still a few weeks of summer left!

Hi! I’m Davey! I just started knitting so I am not too great at it but I am excited to learn! I am trying to knit a tealish color scarf right now and I am really having fun. Knitting is VERY relaxing!

After I finish the scarf I plan to donate it to the cold weather shelter. By the way I want to write on this blog as I start to knit and my mom will start blogging again too!

Bye!

(Davey is doing great!  For some reason, I started him out with size 7 needles.  He is doing fine with them, but I may see if he wants to bump up to 9 or 10.  I  have had those size 7 needles almost since he was born though; they are among my favorite needles!)

I have been on Spring Break this past week.  It began with Easter weekend.  David, Davey and I went and had brunch at this fun restaurant in the canyon along the Yakima River.

Davey is just growing so much!  We were looking up something on my blog this morning.  It has become kind of a reference over the years.  We’d made a salt dough map a few years ago and were thinking about doing another one.  I knew I’d blogged about it so we did a search and found it!  So anyway, it got me thinking about how I enjoy reading about our memories in my blog.  Davey and I went back and read quite a few.  There are a lot of stories I tell about him from when he was little that I’d totally forgotten about.  I’m thankful for the blog, and I figured I’d better continue it!  So I can thank the big kid below for that inspiration.

David and Davey had school this week.  I took Davey to lunch one day, and I enjoyed taking him to school and picking him up all week.  He took Friday off; David had the day off too, so we had a nice family day.

I also went hunting for some books for my classroom.  I am getting antsy for more yard sales to start, but the local thrift shops had some books for me, and I found some more at a yard sale this morning.

I found some great ones, and I can’t wait to share them with my students on Monday!

Today I have gotten out a knitting project that I have been working on for a long time.  It’s a way to use up some leftover yarn.

The afghan pattern is called “Catch Some Waves“.  It’s a free pattern from Caron.  I am starting to get close to the length that I think I want it to be.  I think I have more than enough yarn to make another one.  I will have to start a different “stashbuster” pattern next.

Davey is inspired now by my blog to start knitting.  We actually just spent a little time working on it, and he’s gotten the hang of it.  I have tried to teach him a couple of times before; this was the first time that he’s really taken off on it!

We are settling back into the routine of school days.  Last week we had our 90th day of school.   We have been tracking the days as we count down to the 100th day of school.  I am over halfway finished with my first year of teaching!  It is hard to believe.

I’ve begun a pen pal project with a good friend from Oklahoma.  We grew up in the same little town, and he teaches 2nd grade in Oklahoma City.  (He has been teaching lots longer than I have.  I think maybe he had an easier time finding his calling than I did. :))  I am looking forward to our classes communicating back and forth.

My students are growing so much.  It’s inspiring to see how far they’ve come since the beginning of the year especially in their reading.   The vast majority of them began kindergarten speaking very little English so it’s just incredible to work with them and see how much they have learned.

My students are also a source of therapy for me.  For example, the other day the subject of my dad came up.  I don’t remember what started it.  It happens from time to time.

Students:  “Your dad died.”

Me:  “Yes he did.”

Students:  “What happened to him?”

Me:  “He had a heart attack.”

Students (one in particular who is the most curious little boy) :  “So his heart stopped pumping blood?”

Me:  “Yes, that’s right.”

Students: ” Do you miss him?”

Me:  “Yes.  Every single day.”

Students:  “Do you want your dad back?”

Me:  “I sure do.”

They are my talking therapy that I don’t do enough of.  I love them.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and on every New Year’s Eve of my life, I have had herring salad.  I guess that’s not literally true.  I am not sure at what age I started eating it.  I do remember liking it though even when I was pretty small.

Herring Salad is a German dish and part of our New Year’s Eve tradition. The primary ingredients are potatoes, herring, beets, pickles and mayonnaise.  It’s very dark pink and as you might imagine, it smells a little fishy.

This year was the first time I had made herring salad without Papa.  Of course he has rarely been here with us physically on New Year’s Eve since we grew up, but  he was always very much a part of our herring salad preparations no matter where we were.

We’d almost always have an annual chat about the herring salad, and he always would ask me if I added an apple to it (that’s a secret ingredient).

Some years he asked me if we had added Spam because this is something we used to do when I was little.  This became kind of a joke because none of really eats Spam anymore.  (nor do most of us eat herring except for on New Year’s Eve – except for Papa. He did.)

After we all had digital cameras, phones, email and social media, we would share our pictures of herring salad with each other.

I was looking through old emails this morning and I found this one from Papa.  He wrote it on 12-31-12:

“This is very essential. Do not put Herring salad in a plastic bowl and do not eat with plastic fork or spoon. Happy New Year to all of you. Papa.”

(Papa never liked eating with or on plastic ever.  Just in case you thought the herring salad might cause the plastic to disintegrate – it does seem like it has that power).

This year I felt the comfort of tradition.  As I chopped up all the ingredients, I felt as though Papa was right there with me.  He knows that I added the apple, and that there is no Spam in the salad.  He’s happy that the tradition continues.  Happy New Year!

I realized today that I haven’t blogged since two days before my dad died.  My world is now divided into before and after him dying.  On August 5th, I wrote a post and had no idea that two days later everything would change, and that it would be terrible.

But Papa enjoyed reading my blog, and he’d be glad that I was going to continue writing.  He’d love my stories about teaching.  I wish I could share them with him.

My mentor and friend told me that I should keep a journal about my teaching.  I am 50 days in now, and I haven’t written anything down.  I am going to try to be more diligent about writing.  Teaching keeps a person darn busy.

I am teaching 2nd grade at a school comprised of primarily Hispanic students.  Every one of my students are Hispanic and are English Language Learners.  They are the absolute best.  They are energetic and chatty, and man do they challenge my patience every single day.  But at the same time, they are so curious, loving and generous, and I could not be happier to be spending my days with them.

A couple of little stories: They like it when I play music for them, and lately their favorite song is “Country Roads Take Me Home” by John Denver.  I have no idea how they even know that song.  One student knew it I think, and he asked me to play it.  They all love it.  I’ve started ending the day with this song.

They bring me stuffed animals as gifts.  I say “are you sure you want to part with these”?  They insist and I display them on my former tv stand above my desk.  One day, a student brought me playdoh.  “I thought your son might like to play with this.”  These kids typically do not have a whole lot, but they share everything they have.  They love hearing about Davey too.  They want me to bring Davey, David and Buster to school so they can meet them.  I will make sure that happens.

I have a bracelet that Papa made me on his lathe, and I wear it every day now.  One of my students was so curious about how it was made.  He kept asking me when I was going to show them a video of how to do it.  I finally found a youtube video of a person making a bracelet on a lathe.  He loved watching it.

This is not an easy fall for me, but I am very thankful for these students.  I am glad I decided to start writing about them, because it reinforces to me just how lucky I am to be teaching them.

Last Christmas, I got some yarn to make David a scarf.  I began knitting on it here and there throughout the year since then, and I actually finished the scarf last week!  I made it with this amazing worsted weight squishy wool yarn which I am almost 100% sure is Madeleine Tosh (but which might be Malabrigo).   This is not a great picture, but you can kinda see what an awesome yarn this is.

I just did a basic 1×1 rib and slipped the first stitch of each row.  One of the very first things I ever knitted was a scarf in this pattern.  It was a basic Jared Flood pattern.  When I made that scarf back in 2008, I was brand new to kitting.  I read his pattern, and I had no idea what it meant to slip a stitch.  So – I emailed him and asked him.  He was kind enough to email me back and patiently explain to me what it meant to slip a stitch.  He wrote me an answer in which he did not at all suggest that this was probably the easiest thing on the planet to do in knitting.  You literally just move the stitch from the left needle to the right needle without knitting it.  You just move it.  I always thought that was just so nice of him to be so understanding of the cluelessness of an inexperienced knitter.  I have followed his knitting ever since (and his founding of his own American yarn company!).  He and several designers write the most beautiful patterns for Brooklyn Tweed.

Here’s another not great picture, but I got Davey to help me out:

This is a great pattern for a beginner (once you get the whole slip a stitch thing down), and it’s a great pattern for mindless (or maybe better put meditative) knitting.