Last Day of Summer, Part Two

School starts for EMS students tomorrow, so today was a busy day of final preparations for me.  Since Hannah hadn't yet gone 24 hours without a fever, she and I stayed home while Sophie and Charles went to church.  I used the time to get quite a bit of planning done for school.  Hannah entertained herself with a game of Life (played against Blankie again) while I was working.

She's always been good at entertaining herself.  She's wearing the headphones because it was thunderstorming outside.  I'm not sure whether she won or Blankie did.  I'm thinking they may not have finished their game.

Charles worked hard outside yesterday, so he took the opportunity today to take a nap to get rested for the week ahead.

In the meantime, the girls were hard at play in the playroom.

They also packed their lunches and backpacks and set out their clothes for school tomorrow.  Since everyone has been fever-free today, we should all be able to report for the first day of school tomorrow.  Hannah is excited since she's had to miss a number of other things this week due to her sickness.

I went to school to work around 3:30.  I finished some last things there, had a little supper, and then reported for duty for our Back to School Night for grades 6-12.  I'm hoping we'll all be able to get everything done and get out the door in decent time tomorrow morning.  It may be hard to get back into our school morning routine this week.

Busy Friday and Saturday (in pictures)

I'm feeling stressed this weekend about the amount of work I still need to do to get ready for the start of school.  Typically we've started on Tuesday, but this year our first day is Monday.  That gives me one less day to prepare.  Given my level of busy-ness, today's post is in pictures.

 

Dad in charge while mom was shopping at Wal-Mart on Friday night.  Every clip was used!

Here's the back side

Sleepy/sick girl who had awful coughing fits last night

Thankful that she slept in this morning,

while her sister got up and ready very quietly.

New shoes and socks surprise from Wal-Mart, discovered this morning.

Found this on Hannah's dresser this morning.  Apparently it's been there for a few days and says "I hope you get better soon."  They are very sweet to each other sometimes!

Anxious to wear the new outfit she bought with Grandma yesterday.  Kept her fever down half the day but was back up to 100 degrees by dinner time so we started the antibiotics we got from the doctor's office on Thursday.

Went to the B'way Farmers Market this morning

and picked up a donut (or two) as usual.

Also hit the library for books and the video store to try to find a copy of The Sound of Music.

Lots of pumpkins came out of the garden today!  I am planning to puree and can the flesh for later use.

Cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers out of the garden.  Canned 7 more pints of diced tomatoes this afternoon.

Grease mustache from working hard to replace a belt on the lawn tractor

Watching The Sound of Music and eating popcorn.  Hannah has been asked to play Grethel in our school's production of the musical this fall.  She's thinking about it but hasn't made a decision yet.

Our resident royalty

Nice, cool evening for roasting s'mores

Hannah must not like hers...

Definitely enjoying his

Back to School Night

Morning cobwebs glistening with dew

More meetings at school for me today, except that I missed the first bit while taking Hannah to the doctor.  Her fever was still off and on, but the coughing got worse last night.  This morning she was complaining of her chest hurting, so I wanted to make sure she didn't have any chest congestion that should be treated.  The doc listened to her and said she's clear, which means she's likely on the tail end of a virus.

Because her temperature is still 100, however, she's missing her Back to School Night this evening.  It's a potluck dinner, followed by visiting the classrooms, meeting the teachers, dropping off supplies, etc.

Potluck food I won't get to eat

School supplies (and little girls) ready to go

Evidently Sophie enjoyed the fried chicken

Here's a fun picture of Carter:

He's busy snuggling with the "blanket" and pillow that Hannah and Sophie stitched together for him, while laying on his new ABC padded play area.  We miss you, Little C!

Finders Keepers

Found this when I went to check on Hannah before going to bed last night:

We had thunderstorms yesterday afternoon and evening.  She doesn't like the thunder and fell asleep with the headphones on to drown out the noise.

Found these outside a colleague's classroom this morning and claimed them for my room:

They creates a comfy place that students can sit to read or work.  I may sit here myself from time to time during my planning period.

Charles found this in the garden this evening:

A 22-pounder!  It wasn't as red as we were hoping but still tasted quite sweet.  I think I may have some with a glass of wine.

Getting Ready for School

I spent the morning in my classroom today, trying to get organized a bit before Faculty Conference begins tomorrow.  So far my largest class is only 16 students, so I'm hoping I can keep the arrangement below that allows for a lot of space to move around the room in between tables and such.

Four groups of four

I left school a little after lunch so that I could come home and can a batch of tomatoes.  With the remainder of what I got from Becky plus some from our garden I had enough to can 7 quarts of diced tomatoes.

Aren't the orange WV slicers pretty?

I also tackled the pile of squash and zucchini that I got from Heidi yesterday.  I chopped a gallon bag and put it in the fridge to roast on Thursday for the EMES Back to School potluck.  Then I put the rest of the squash on the stove to cook for puree.  I decided I would can it for use in pies or other baked goods.

Squash cooking in the pot

Five pints of puree

Then I shredded the rest of the zucchini in the food processor.  This I'll freeze for use in zucchini bread or other baked goods.

9 quart-size bags of shredded zucchini

We had a good storm this afternoon and evening, and the girls were excited to see this rainbow in the east as they were getting ready for bed.

A picture doesn't do it justice

They were supposed to go to a friend's birthday pool party this evening, but we had cancelled because of Hannah being sick still and Sophie appearing to maybe be getting a temperature as well.

Tomorrow Faculty Conference begins with our annual omelet breakfast at 7:15am.  That's early!  I've been getting up early this summer, but I haven't been finishing my morning routines until about 8am, so I'll need to hustle tomorrow.  The girls will be going with Grandma and Grandpa to the mountain tomorrow.  I'm sure they'll have fun.

Overflowing Gardens and Sick Girls

Today was my first day back to school.  The students start next Monday and the rest of the faculty starts Wednesday, but we had our middle school meeting this morning.  I have totally taken the summer off from school and wasn't sure I was ready to go back, but hearing about everyone's summer and thinking about the kids that will be returning next week is getting me back in the "school" frame of mind.

After our potluck lunch I had several other informal meetings and then tried to do a few things in my classroom.  I knew I needed to get my computer plugged in, but wasn't sure what to do beyond that.  Usually I have a "to do" list a mile long by now; my plan is to create that list tonight so that I have some focus when I go to school tomorrow.  Since faculty conference doesn't officially start until Wednesday, I'll have the entire day to work in my room tomorrow since Grandma is graciously watching the girls all this week.

Speaking of the girls, Hannah is still not feeling well.  Today her head was hurting her (along with her throat) and her temperature was up to 103 degrees.  We gave her some meds to help with the pain and fever.  I'm hoping it will break overnight so she'll start feeling better.

Sick girl

On my way home from school I stopped by my friend Heidi's house to raid her garden.  (This seems to be a theme of late.)  She's gotten so much zucchini and squash this season that she's sick of it and doesn't want anymore.  We found a bunch of HUGE specimens for me to bring home, 22lbs worth in fact.  I'll probably shred and freeze a good portion of it.

22lbs of squash and zucchini

I also need to can another batch of diced tomatoes since my windowsill is quite full.  Maybe I'll have time to do this after working at school tomorrow.

Tomatoes ready to be canned

Last Day of Summer

New (old) watch that was my grandmother's.  I'll have to start wearing one again tomorrow.  I don't wear watches during the summer as a matter of principle.

I'm beat.  I can't even tell you what the girls did with most of their day because I spent the whole day in the kitchen trying to preserve items from the garden before I go back to school and meetings tomorrow.

I started my day with a 4-mile run in the brisk morning air.  I crossed over the one-lane bridge that will soon be replaced with something bigger and more modern.

New bridge construction on the right.  I'm glad they're keeping the old one as a pedestrian bridge. It has so much character.

After a shower and breakfast, I got to work in the kitchen.  First I made a batch of fresh salsa to take to the middle school potluck lunch tomorrow.  I washed and cut some celery for the week and then began making a batch of salsa to can.  My old friend Becky graciously let us pick tomatoes from her garden yesterday, otherwise my garden wouldn't have produced enough tomatoes for this project.  The tomato plants are getting blight, so I think their days are numbered.

10 pints of salsa canned today

I didn't like how vinegary the last batch of salsa was, so this time I used a little lemon juice instead of vinegar and then processed the jars in the pressure canner.  It tasted good before going in jars, so I think this is the method I'll use in the future.

Charles worked in the yard and garden all day today.  He's currently asleep on Hannah's bed while she does her evening reading in the TV room.  I guess that means he's beat too!  He picked over 100 ears of corn from our second planting.  Some of them were not mature or never fully developed, but we ended up with around 85 decent ears.  We picked the best ones out for dinner tonight and froze the rest, 11 quarts worth.

Peaches 'n cream corn ready for freezing

We had guests for two meals today.  Chris and the boys stopped by for lunch on their way back from a Jeep event in Pennsylvania.  Since Charles was busy in the garden and I was knee-deep in salsa in the kitchen, we decided to just order some pizza for everyone.  They had lunch and hung out a bit before heading home to Charlottesville.  Then we invited Grandma and Grandpa to join us for dinner.  I'd been craving stuffed peppers so we had those along with our garden-fresh corn on the cob and some delicious cantaloupe.

The cantaloupe is from Becky's garden too.  Thanks, Bec!

Now that the kitchen is clean and both girls are showered and ready for bed, I'm ready to relax.  School starts tomorrow!