Saturday, February 28, 2009

Oh, Saturday...

Things have been a little busy around these parts recently. This is why today, instead of being at young adult snow camp at RMMC, I am here in sunny but chilly Denver, in my pajamas at nearly 11 am. I love a good mental health day, and I sure required one after the past few weeks. So far, I have slept in, read in bed with the sun streaming in the windows, and eaten a glorious breakfast. You see, last night I made mention that I had a hankering for donuts for breakfast. When I came into the living room this morning, I spotted a tell-tale brown paper bag with grease stains on the outside. My favorite fiance got up before me and walked to the panaderia for fresh mexican donuts this morning. My contribution was espresso made in the stove top espresso pot--dominican style with LOTS of sugar. What a great way to start the day...

Busy, you ask? How busy? Well, this past week, my middle school after school program began. I now spend two afternoons a week teaching a room full of unruly but fun 6th-8th graders about bugs and spiders and adaptations and all that jazz. I also started teaching on-site classes. In my non-work life, I planned worship for the second week in a row, and my brother came to visit. Everything was awesome and fun, but it meant that there wasn't any time for me.

And this week? Yesterday I taught a class to a group of preschoolers....who also spoke no English. I think I rose to the challenge, and was able to teach a lot of the class in spanish, and to rely on my translators as little as possible. I don't know how much the kids got out of it, but I think they know spiders have 8 legs and insects have 6, which is pretty good, as far as I'm concerned. My second class that day was a group of kindergartners whose school I had visited earlier this month for outreach. Often when I do outreach, I wonder what the kids have learned when I leave. But at the end of our class at the BP yesterday, one little girl raised her hand and told me that she remembered me from my visit to her school, and that I had brought Rosie (the tarantula) and a black spider with a red stop sign on its back that you shouldn't ever touch (black widow). I grinned from ear to ear, so glad that I'd made an impression. I got some hugs after that class.

Also yesterday, I spent several hours in rehearsal with the CO Chamber Players, working on our Insect Fables event for next week. Yours truly will get to narrate 6 fables with insects/spiders in them, while the chamber players provide the music (original scores written by folks in the group), and large groups of school kids get to learn about music and science at the same time. I'm pretty pumped.

So I've been a little busy. Today's day of indulgence (which will hopefully include such pleasures as getting new books to read from the library and shopping at Goodwill) is well deserved, and I plan on relishing it.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

How to tell if you might be distracted...

As I added detergent to my second load of laundry, I realized that the first load, now nicely folded and presumably "clean", was actually washed without soap of any kind.

The housemates and I decided that the soap residue that must be in the washer, coupled with the high heat of the dryer made my clothes clean, even if I washed them without laundry soap.

I decided that I need to focus on the task at hand, instead of thinking about all the other things going on in my life.