Okay, I'm doing that thing again where I use a quick takes post as a nudge to keep on grading. I have 32 final exams to grade, and 38 papers but I think they're going to have to wait for Monday. If I divide the exams into batches of 5 and write a quick take after each one, then I'll be done with grading final exams when I'm done with this post. Onward!
1. I have been working on my neglected garden, in which I was mostly growing creeping charlie and maple seedlings. When we had that crazy warm weather in April I put in some herbs; I have some volunteer frisee along with some of the allium gang that showed up for a return engagement (onions, garlic, and leeks). With some help from my Petely, I have put in seeds for radishes, beets, peas, and letttuce, along with seedling zucchini, tomatillos, acorn squash (which is not my favorite, but the lone butternut squash plant didn't look very healthy; I am optimistic that I will enjoy it more if I grew it myself), an unfamiliar variety of sweet pepper, and seven basil plants. Mmmmmm, I love summer pesto. I also moved the two healthiest volunteer tomato seedlings from out of the shade of the asparagus ferns into full sun. Pete is snuggled up next to me, helping me remember what we planted. Still to come: more herbs, kale, chard. Pete assures me that he's on the case.
2. This week I am the resident whip-cracker. We wound up accelerating my oldest son in math this year, with the result that he is required to finish up an online trigonometry course before he returns to school in the fall. Since he's going to be gone most of the summer (he's a CIT! so excited for him!), we want him to push hard to get it done early. I think he is waiting for the Trigonometry Fairy. She, mysteriously, seems no more reliable than the Grading Fairy.
3. We just had a birthday party, and I am sad to say I was not looking forward to it. Sometimes I worry that my children will look back on their childhoods and remember me as a sour-faced pucker-mouthed shrew shrieking "NO FUN ALLOWED!" Well, not shrieking. I don't shriek very often. I wonder, though: will they remember how much fun it was to set off the firecrackers, or will they remember me saying that we should stop before the carelessness intensified and save the rest for Fourth of July?
4. One of the items on my summer list is getting Stella out of diapers. She has zero interest in this process -- zero. Everybody says girls are supposed to be easier than boys, but that is not the case for this particular girl. Although -- maybe it's not a girl thing or a boy thing. Maybe it's a me thing. I am bad at the whole get-them-out-of-diapers deal. I expect I will manage it after a vexing week in which there is lots of peeing on the carpet, but we shall see. Neither the Dora underwear nor the sparkly princess underwear is proving an especially helpful incentive.
5. Oh, you guys! This never happens. I mean N-E-V-E-R. When I am grading I am always acutely aware of how many things I have left to grade. My inner calculator is constantly adjusting the percentage done/percentage remaining. But this evening I got a happy surprise: I thought I had six exams left to grade but it was only three. Whee! I'm finished grading the essay portion of the exam; all that's left is the papers. And a bunch of the papers (I've been interspersing papers with exams) have been really interesting, which is not the usual descriptor for student writing.
6. I just cooked a dinner that was delicious and good for us and inexpensive, and the kids ate it without a word of complaint. That also never happens -- N-E-V-E-R. I chopped beet greens and some radish greens finely (I wound up composting some of the radish greens from this week's CSA delivery, but I think I'm okay with that) and sauted them with green garlic stems and bulbs. That turned into brown rice pilaf, which got a flavor boost from homemade beef stock. I marinated skirt steak in olive oil and lemon juice and garlic, and ran it under the broiler until it was medium rare. The meat-eaters ate it on top of the pilaf; the vegetarian had chickpeas instead. Everybody had baby beets with butter and lemon juice. A hit, with minimal hands-on time.
7. The sun hasn't gone down yet, and Elwood left half of his beer behind when he left to take the boys to a movie. (A documentary about a sushi chef, which all four of them were eager to see. Weird, huh?) I am going to finish his beer and eat my salad, and then perhaps I'll grade a few last papers before Monday. Over and out from the lecturer who is almost done wearing the Dr. Gladly hat for the summer, and who is eager to be just plain Jamie for a while.
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