Temperatures have dropped below 80 degrees finally, so I'm back to wearing layers and layers, and I put the big cuddly blanket back on the couch. The boys all wander around the house in shorts and t-shirts, when I'm bundled against a cold they don't feel. A side effect of my lowered thyroid meds? Possibly. For a while there, I felt like my thermostat was more like a normal person (ha!), but now I'm back to being too cold or too hot a lot of the time. I don't get it.
The weekend was a blur of Thanksgiving preparations, helped along a bit by the fact our internet was down for most of it. It's amazing what you can get done in the real world when you're not spending hours online. In general I've been better about that since I have too much to do, but the temptation is always there.
There's only so much you can do so many days ahead: dry out the bread for stuffing, make the cranberry sauce, that sort of thing. The apples are ready for the pie, which was the probably the most time-consuming of the prep tasks. Tuesday afternoon I'll be making the pie crust and popping it into the fridge to be ready for baking on Wednesday. There's still some laundry and general cleaning to do, also, but that can wait until Wednesday, too, because our house guests' flight doesn't land until 9PM.
One more day of school this week and my heart is just not in it... I want to be home cooking and baking or just under a blanket reading a good book or knitting. In the face of all the many tasks I have ahead of me, I still found the time to start that scarf project. So far it's working up nicely, but we'll see if I actually like the final product! I do like the pattern itself, but I'm not sure about the weight of the yarn I'm using for it. Since the pattern is so flexible, there is no "wrong" yarn to use, but I'm not sure I'll end up with a scarf that I would actually wear! We'll see.
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Monday, November 18, 2019
missed one...
Yeah, last week wasn't a great one, so it's no wonder I missed my weekly post.
Apparently, I'm doing fine on the thyroid meds, so I should just stop worrying about it. I'll have a blood test in another couple of weeks and we'll see what the doctor says about my levels.
Ironically, the weekend was long and lovely. I had time to finish everything I needed to do, and I even got to work on the alterations to the dress I bought over a year ago, to make it fit for work (that is, long enough -- I sewed some wide lace at the hem). Many compliments when I wore it, too.
Since Monday was Veterans' Day, we had a short week, but short weeks with Monday off are always the worst. It just felt like crisis after crisis, albeit minor, and/or every time I turned around something else was popping up to take away class time.
I survivied, we all survived. DH has a brutal cold right now and DS1 was making noises that he was coming down with something, too. So far I'm healthy, thank God.
Trying to be good about doing my tiny exercise set each day, and I do think it helps. Still not doing very well at getting to bed at a decent hour, though. I'll sleep when I'm dead still rattles around in the back of my brain some days, but that attitude convinced me that it was OK to read an entire (albeit not very long) book last week, Bernard Cromwell's Agincourt, which I adored. Way too much fun, and I did spread it out over three days, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Also not as bad as it could have been: the number of peppermint mochas consumed by me last week; was it 4, or 5? I just want them all the time now, they are so delicious.
In another fit of insanity, I bought some beautiful (very cheap) yarn and a new, simple but very cool knitting pattern to work it up in.
Now to get caught up on my grades so I can actually start that project!
Apparently, I'm doing fine on the thyroid meds, so I should just stop worrying about it. I'll have a blood test in another couple of weeks and we'll see what the doctor says about my levels.
Ironically, the weekend was long and lovely. I had time to finish everything I needed to do, and I even got to work on the alterations to the dress I bought over a year ago, to make it fit for work (that is, long enough -- I sewed some wide lace at the hem). Many compliments when I wore it, too.
Since Monday was Veterans' Day, we had a short week, but short weeks with Monday off are always the worst. It just felt like crisis after crisis, albeit minor, and/or every time I turned around something else was popping up to take away class time.
I survivied, we all survived. DH has a brutal cold right now and DS1 was making noises that he was coming down with something, too. So far I'm healthy, thank God.
Trying to be good about doing my tiny exercise set each day, and I do think it helps. Still not doing very well at getting to bed at a decent hour, though. I'll sleep when I'm dead still rattles around in the back of my brain some days, but that attitude convinced me that it was OK to read an entire (albeit not very long) book last week, Bernard Cromwell's Agincourt, which I adored. Way too much fun, and I did spread it out over three days, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Also not as bad as it could have been: the number of peppermint mochas consumed by me last week; was it 4, or 5? I just want them all the time now, they are so delicious.
In another fit of insanity, I bought some beautiful (very cheap) yarn and a new, simple but very cool knitting pattern to work it up in.
Friday, November 08, 2019
from the outpost just past exhaustion
This was a very long week: parent-teacher conferences. For what I believe is the first time, I was ablae to meet with all my students' parent(s) in the space of a few days, plus one other. I wasn't at school any later in the evening, but I did get up earlier so I could be at work before 7am. This was a minor inconvenience to me but it also involved putting out DH since we're still sharing cars with the boys. Just now it's the boys who get the cars during the week since I just stay at school all day. At least I get to drive on the weekends!
At any rate, we actually had two half-days of school so you might think I'd be feeling pretty good by the end of the week, but no. Today was our annual party day and that's a semi-fun but mostly boring day of supervising groups of children in various unstructured activities where they can get into trouble if left too long to their own devices. The day went well and the weather was perfect, but it just seemed interminable. At the end of the day we have a sort of "awards ceremony" to recognize the biggest fund-raisers, and if students donate a certain amount, they can put a whipped-cream "pie" in their teacher's face. The third grade teachers had very generous students this year and were basically covered in whipped cream by the end of it, but I got off easy. The one student in my class who met the donation requirement was a sweet girl who really didn't want to "pie" me, but I encouraged her to pick it iup and go for it. She barely touched me with it! I'm not complaining, though. It's not exactly my favorite thing!
I guess I'm used to this new thyroid dose? I feel... calmer, I guess? Less keyed up. Maybe I don't really know. I am able to get things done even at the end of the day, so that' s good.
One important lesson from this past week: last weekend I made up a to-do list and included estimates of how long I thought everything would take. I estimated 3 hours for grading my students' materials and procedures, when in reality it took at least 7 hours if not more. I knew I'd be getting up early every day and really didn't want to stay up late, but that's what happened, and I was a zombie the entire day on Monday. (Even so, I worked efficiently at school Monday and Tuesday, and finished everything I didn't get done over the weekend!) I realized that I'm much better off giving the students class time for these assignments on Monday and making them turn them in before they leave. This gives me an entire week to grade them, so I can spread the grading out and possibly still have something resembling a weekend. This week's project plan papers were due on Tuesday, and I've already graded one class set -- and since it was one of the classes destined for more comments, the others shouldn't take nearly as long. I hope!
It's a 3-day weekend and DD says she's coming to visit on Sunday, she's coming down with some friends. We're all thinking it's about 60-40 she'll show up; there are a few things she needs here, so she has incentive. I've invited her for a belated birthday lunch on Monday. I do hope we get to go.
I feel like I'm making progress on the work-life balance with this week's decison. We'll see how it goes.
At any rate, we actually had two half-days of school so you might think I'd be feeling pretty good by the end of the week, but no. Today was our annual party day and that's a semi-fun but mostly boring day of supervising groups of children in various unstructured activities where they can get into trouble if left too long to their own devices. The day went well and the weather was perfect, but it just seemed interminable. At the end of the day we have a sort of "awards ceremony" to recognize the biggest fund-raisers, and if students donate a certain amount, they can put a whipped-cream "pie" in their teacher's face. The third grade teachers had very generous students this year and were basically covered in whipped cream by the end of it, but I got off easy. The one student in my class who met the donation requirement was a sweet girl who really didn't want to "pie" me, but I encouraged her to pick it iup and go for it. She barely touched me with it! I'm not complaining, though. It's not exactly my favorite thing!
I guess I'm used to this new thyroid dose? I feel... calmer, I guess? Less keyed up. Maybe I don't really know. I am able to get things done even at the end of the day, so that' s good.
One important lesson from this past week: last weekend I made up a to-do list and included estimates of how long I thought everything would take. I estimated 3 hours for grading my students' materials and procedures, when in reality it took at least 7 hours if not more. I knew I'd be getting up early every day and really didn't want to stay up late, but that's what happened, and I was a zombie the entire day on Monday. (Even so, I worked efficiently at school Monday and Tuesday, and finished everything I didn't get done over the weekend!) I realized that I'm much better off giving the students class time for these assignments on Monday and making them turn them in before they leave. This gives me an entire week to grade them, so I can spread the grading out and possibly still have something resembling a weekend. This week's project plan papers were due on Tuesday, and I've already graded one class set -- and since it was one of the classes destined for more comments, the others shouldn't take nearly as long. I hope!
It's a 3-day weekend and DD says she's coming to visit on Sunday, she's coming down with some friends. We're all thinking it's about 60-40 she'll show up; there are a few things she needs here, so she has incentive. I've invited her for a belated birthday lunch on Monday. I do hope we get to go.
I feel like I'm making progress on the work-life balance with this week's decison. We'll see how it goes.
Friday, November 01, 2019
the new normal, apparently
I write here for myself, although I know there are a few others who read here. Life goes by too fast and I want to record some of my internal state, at least occasionally, and I know if I don't write it down, whatever I'm thinking now will be lost forever.
It's always a surprise how much I forget. Just today, when I popped into the blog, I saw the past few entries and thought, Right, that new dose of thyroid meds! Completely slipped my mind in the end-of-grading period business I've been swallowed by. I guess I'm used to it? I feel more sensitive to cold, but the temperature just dropped here considerably, from nearly or over 100 degrees to the high 70s, low 80s. It's delightful, but I'm freezing, or I'm too hot! It's difficult dressing for weather when the mornings are quite literally close to freezing but the afternoons are in 80s and toasty. Layers. Lots of layers. I layer on scarves and sweaters in the morning and then gradually peel them off as the day goes by. This explains why I have so many scarves!
This weekend's necessity: shoe shopping. My existing colder-weather shoes don't work with my orthotic and wearing them without the orthotic is a huge mistake, as I found out Thursday. I was able to make my sandals work because they already had nice cushy insoles with at least some arch support, so I added a metatarsal support and I was good for the day. No such luck with my little black booties, which were very cheap and cute but completely flat. They've got absolutely no support but also no room for an insole. I practically lived in them last winter. I have a pair of Bjorn booties that are getting to the falling-apart stage but I've had them forever and they're awesome... but again, they won't work with my orthotics. My riding boots do fit my orthotics but they're a little snug now, I wore them today and my feet felt better at the end of the day then they did in the morning, when they were still reminding me that not wearing proper footwear on Thursday was a bad decision.
I'm resigned to doing something about this, though, because I can't do my job if my feet are killing me. I feel lucky that just a change of shoes eliminates my symptoms (Morton's neuroma), although the pain comes back if I spend too much time walking barefoot or in bad shoes. It's just a reminder not to screw around with this condition. I will go to great lengths to avoid having foot surgery. I spent the last two summers with my foot in a boot, and I never want to deal with that again.
Once again Friday evening finds me vaguely hopeful for the weekend, and I'm not feeling too swamped. I posted my grades for the end of the grading period already, but of course have new work to grade anyway. (The grading never stops!) But it's November, and the holidays will be here before we know it, and overall everyone seems to be doing just fine, at least for the moment. It's good to acknowledge it, and I am very thankful.
It's always a surprise how much I forget. Just today, when I popped into the blog, I saw the past few entries and thought, Right, that new dose of thyroid meds! Completely slipped my mind in the end-of-grading period business I've been swallowed by. I guess I'm used to it? I feel more sensitive to cold, but the temperature just dropped here considerably, from nearly or over 100 degrees to the high 70s, low 80s. It's delightful, but I'm freezing, or I'm too hot! It's difficult dressing for weather when the mornings are quite literally close to freezing but the afternoons are in 80s and toasty. Layers. Lots of layers. I layer on scarves and sweaters in the morning and then gradually peel them off as the day goes by. This explains why I have so many scarves!
This weekend's necessity: shoe shopping. My existing colder-weather shoes don't work with my orthotic and wearing them without the orthotic is a huge mistake, as I found out Thursday. I was able to make my sandals work because they already had nice cushy insoles with at least some arch support, so I added a metatarsal support and I was good for the day. No such luck with my little black booties, which were very cheap and cute but completely flat. They've got absolutely no support but also no room for an insole. I practically lived in them last winter. I have a pair of Bjorn booties that are getting to the falling-apart stage but I've had them forever and they're awesome... but again, they won't work with my orthotics. My riding boots do fit my orthotics but they're a little snug now, I wore them today and my feet felt better at the end of the day then they did in the morning, when they were still reminding me that not wearing proper footwear on Thursday was a bad decision.
I'm resigned to doing something about this, though, because I can't do my job if my feet are killing me. I feel lucky that just a change of shoes eliminates my symptoms (Morton's neuroma), although the pain comes back if I spend too much time walking barefoot or in bad shoes. It's just a reminder not to screw around with this condition. I will go to great lengths to avoid having foot surgery. I spent the last two summers with my foot in a boot, and I never want to deal with that again.
Once again Friday evening finds me vaguely hopeful for the weekend, and I'm not feeling too swamped. I posted my grades for the end of the grading period already, but of course have new work to grade anyway. (The grading never stops!) But it's November, and the holidays will be here before we know it, and overall everyone seems to be doing just fine, at least for the moment. It's good to acknowledge it, and I am very thankful.
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