Category Archives: School

7 Quick Takes: Reasons I’m Tired Tonight Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Daniel isn’t sleeping well. We think it’s him feeling hungry and not knowing how to process that. Because Daniel. I’ve been trying to enforce EXTRA drinking of milk to keep him full and I’ve upped his feed.

— 2 —

PTK induction. I was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa (international 2-year college honor society) tonight. I was invited to join in Fall 2017, but I’ve been a little busy. My mom was watching Daniel and Dad surprised me by showing up.

Dad and me at the induction

— 3 —

Portfolio. My portfolio for my Final Project class is due tomorrow. I have almost everything printed out and done, but Sage was being catty yesterday and I need to redo and print out a report for it. I blame the LA Dodgers.

— 4 —

Puke. I hadn’t been gone for five minutes tonight when Mom called to let me know that Daniel puked (of course) and asked if she should give him tomorrow’s meds as he presumably puked up tonight’s. I was on the road to school, so I said “yes”. Well, I’m not totally sure now and am keeping an eye on him. At least he’s sleeping?

— 5 —

Donald Trump is still in office. His mere existence tires me.

— 6 —

Pentecost. I’m writing the prayers for Pentecost and I need to translate them into Spanish… or at least send them to my translation staff, one of whom came into tutoring last week and scolded me for not having them done yet. (God bless my “translation staff” of students!)

— 7 —

Forged in Fire. I’ve been watching “Forged in Fire” reruns while I’ve done homework lately… and this sometimes has me up too late. Oops!

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: May 27, 2019

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For Today… May 27, 2019

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… sunny. Daniel and I might head to the park later while we’re doing errands.

I am thinking… about job-hunting.

I am thankful… for the men and woman who have sacrificed their lives while serving this country.

One of my favorite things… quiet. Unfortunately, Daniel is home today and in a cranky mood, so he is yelling right now. (Autism is fun.)

I am wearing… black fitted tee from Old Navy and capris from Kohl’s

I am creating… forms and documents for my Document Production class.

I am watching… reruns of Forged in Fire. Thank goodness for On Demand!

I am hoping… Daniel settles down. He had a crappy night last night where he was unable to get to sleep easily, and he’s a pill today as a result. The rest of us are feeling similar and trying to stay out of the way of each other.

I am learning… where my trouble spots are in putting together business reports. It’s frustrating because the things I’m missing are opinion things in the mind of the computer program.

In my kitchen… hot dogs last night. I don’t know if Dad wants to do anything special tonight for Memorial Day.

In the school room… Daniel has a few weeks of school to go. We’re going to work on reading this summer during his daytime feeds.

Post Script… this is a very sweet story.

Shared Quote… “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” — Neil Gaiman, Coraline

A moment from my day… Thinking of Grandpa today.

My grandfather's memorial marker

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: English Only Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Working with non-English speakers. When I walked into the classroom for my drop-in session on Monday, I had to calm down one of the students who was taking a test for one of her classes. Her English is limited and she had been sitting there for two hours trying to figure out how to start her test. Once I got clarification from her instructor on what she was supposed to be doing, we were able to get her working. I’m thankful to a couple of my other Spanish-speaking students for translating because I needed to give her very specific instructions and Google Translate can only do so much.

— 2 —

“English only” people. My experience on Monday got me thinking about the misguided people who make nasty comments about how “this is America and people need to speak English!” Most of these people do not speak any language but English and many of them cannot write English well. For my Spanish-speaking students, it’s the equivalent of learning two languages because you have the words that come from French and the words that come from German. Add in grammar that is complex and you have something that confounds a lot of people learning the language. Other languages are hard for us to learn, especially those with different alphabets, but I see a lot of my ELL students struggling with verb tenses and the number of verbs that have prepositions attached that change the meaning. On the other hand, you don’t have to think about the gender of nouns in English as you do in Romance languages.

— 3 —

It’s about time, Washington! Washington took away personal and philosophical exemptions for the MMR vaccine last week. I’d prefer if they had taken away religious exemptions too, but I’m thinking that most of those people either homeschool or only attend schools of their religious tradition. With the number of measles cases in the state and the fact that it had been eradicated 20 years ago and is now back, I’m glad my state is taking a stand!

— 4 —

Hematology update. I saw my hematologist on Tuesday morning and he is OK with my blood work the way it is. My ferritin is the low end of normal and my red cells are still funky, but there is nothing that is concerning him. He is sending me back to my regular doctor and adding to the recommendation of every medical professional I’ve seen since February that a hysterectomy is a good idea for me, given that my body is depleting red blood cells faster than it can make them. With any luck, I’ll be getting spayed this summer.

— 5 —

For handwriting enthusiasts… This Reddit is fabulous.

— 6 —

Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day was lovely. I got a rose at church, a carnation at Starbucks, and my mom and Daniel surprised me with flowers when they came home from the grocery store. I was honestly just happy to get a craft thing from Daniel that he made in school — I have pretty simple tastes and I don’t expect people to make a big to-do over me. The flowers were definitely a nice surprise though.

— 7 —

Funny… Did y’all know that Green Bay Packers player Aaron Rodgers was the soldier who got immolated on GOT last Sunday? It was interesting to watch.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum. Tell her how cool her new layout is!

7 Quick Takes: Only 6 Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Daniel update. We saw the psychiatrist at the Autism Center again today and he is keeping Daniel on the dose of meds that we titrated up to last week. I didn’t quite realize until we were talking to him that Daniel’s behavior is actually good on this new dose. Now if we can keep him from waking up at 4:30 a.m. and bouncing off the walls…

— 2 —

Interesting… The psychiatrist commented that he has seen more than a few kids with Daniel’s genetic abnormality that is responsible for his autism and they tend to have similar behavior, food issues, etc. In other words, THIS IS NOT BECAUSE WE VACCINATED HIM.

(Seriously… there are STILL people who harp on this despite studies coming out daily showing that VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM.)

— 3 —

Hematology. I saw my lovely hematologist on Friday afternoon and he referred me for more bloodwork. My red cells are funky, my clotting factors are OK, my folate is too high, and some of the other factors are off. I’ve tried googling this stuff and I’m not finding anything conclusive, so I’m going to have to wait until Tuesday when I see my hematologist again to find out what’s up. It might be that they’ll have me do repeat tests every so often to see if/when I’m heading toward anemia. We’re also going to see if a hysterectomy helps with it at all because it seems like my body is losing red blood cells faster than it can make them.

— 4 —

Rachel Held Evans. If you want to understand why I and many other Christians (Protestants and Catholics alike) are mourning her, read this hashtag.

— 5 —

School update. I’m required to do a mock employment interview for my Final Project class and I went to interview with the head of the BASAM program at school… who happens to be a former Fortune 500 VP who worked all over southeast Asia. It was interesting and also really good practice for what to say and how to answer questions that I might be asked. She asked if I would connect to her on LinkedIn in case one of her local friends has a job that might fit me. Score!

— 6 —

Game of Thrones. I’m betting on Daenerys winning the throne. Because girls and dragons! Not that I’ve ever seen more than a few minutes of the show…

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: April 28, 2019

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For Today… April 28, 2019

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… sunny and in the low 50’s.

I am thinking… about my Document Production homework. Bleh.

I am thankful… for my amazing church and worship today. After spending a period of time sitting in church and wanting to be anywhere else but there, it’s wonderful to be excited to go to church again. (That period ended when I returned to the Episcopal Church in 2014.)

One of my favorite things… calmness and quiet. I have it temporarily.

I am wearing… black fitted tee from Old Navy and jeans capris. Church clothes were a t-shirt dress from Old Navy, a cardigan from Kohl’s and my black flats

I am creating… documents for my homework. Woo.

I am reading… Inspired by Rachel Held Evans who remains in a medically-induced coma while doctors try to figure out what the heck is causing her seizures. Please pray for her and her family.

I am hoping… to get some database work done for church.

I am learning… tutor skills. (I’m listening to training right now.)

In my kitchen… probably leftover ham and spinach salad.

In the school room… Daniel is loving school still. His IEP meeting was fabulous this year.

Post Script… my priest’s website is here.

Shared Quote… “The apostles remembered what many modern Christians tend to forget—that what makes the gospel offensive isn’t who it keeps out but who it lets in.” — Rachel Held Evans

A moment from my day… this was our Communion hymn.

Hosted by The Simple Woman.

7 Quick Takes: Dispatches from Snowmaggedon Edition

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

Understatement of the year. So, it’s been kinda snowy here…

Winter finally came.

— 2 —

Super Bowl Sunday. It started snowing the morning of Super Bowl Sunday and didn’t stop until the next day. I blame Tom Brady. (Everything is his fault.)

— 3 —

Snow days. It was forecasted to be a very warm and dry winter (as El Nino is up here), so everybody understocked all the ice melt stuff. As a result, none of the towns and cities were prepared to deal with all the snow and street clearing that needed to happen. Monday following the Super Bowl was a snow day for both Daniel and me. Tuesday brought a 2-hour delay for the kid and another snow day for me because the college was having so much of a problem clearing the parking lots and walkways.

— 4 —

Freezing things off. A large problem is that it was so cold so that instead of melting away as it usually does here, it stayed around. My dad was shoveling like heck and trying to source some ice melt or something to keep the driveway and steps clear. Unfortunately, there was almost none to be found in western Washington, and Amazon wasn’t going to be able to deliver until Monday. Thankfully, my uncle had 100lbs of it sitting at my grandma’s house because she hadn’t wanted it used on her driveway.

— 5 —

Snow panther. Minion thought watching the snow was AWESOME and wanted to go play in it. He would try to sneak out at every opportunity. I finally put him in a snowbank during one of his trips out and covered him with snow, thinking that he might get cold and not want to go out again. Instead, the little demon thought it was the BEST DAY EVER and has continued to do it since.

Cats!

— 6 —

More snow days. It started snowing again this Monday, and campus closed early. We got another two inches on top of the six that we already had. They announced a snow day for Daniel on Monday night and called me at 5:30 am on Tuesday to let me know that the college would be closed. I blame the L.A. Rams.

— 7 —

Melting. It’s been above freezing for a couple days, and all our snow on Monday night was wet so much of it is melted now. It meant that Tuesday and Wednesday were like walking and driving through a gigantic Slurpee. I blame the Dodgers.

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain’t The Lyceum.

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: February 12, 2019

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For Today… February 12, 2019

Simple Woman's Daybook

Looking out my window… 34F and snowing.

I am thinking… about my design project for this week for my Publisher class.

I am thankful… to not have to go out today unless I want to.

One of my favorite things… quiet.

I am wearing… charcoal-colored shirt and khaki capris as I am in the house.

I am creating… business sets for Publisher

I am listening to… classical music coming from another part of the house.

I am hoping… we don’t have another snow day or 2-hour delay tomorrow. Today is my third snow day in two weeks and my paycheck will suffer as a result.

I am learning… design principles.

In my kitchen… defrosting something later.

Post Script… some fun stories to read.

Shared Quote… “I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let people fool themselves. They didn’t bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn’t argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn’t.” — Marilyn Monroe

Hosted by The Simple Woman.