Day 20, A Day in My Life and #weekendcoffeeshare

Jan. 21: Welcome to day 20 of #ADayinMyLife and my Weekend Coffee Share, which is hosted by Natalie the Explorer.

I woke this morning still unhappy about hearing yesterday that we teachers who have books on our classroom bookshelf have to empty those books into boxes or put them away until further notice. They have to vetted by a media specialist, which is something we don’t have in my school due to budget cuts 5 years ago.*In my opinion, not that of my school or district leadership, our state has made very confusing decisions regarding educational freedom.

Here is the Florida law upon which decisions were based to not make books available to students (unless part of the curriculum) if those books haven’t been “vetted by a media specialist” to be appropriate: https://law.justia.com/codes/florida/2000/TitleXLVI/chapter847/847_012.html

At least I can get a massage today. I will need that escape. Today is pretty much a relaxing, self-care day. Yesterday was preventative health care day, as in doing what we must to be or make sure we’re healthy. Here is that short post: https://wp.me/p7aqV2-37X

The appointments of yesterday got me to a different part of town, San Marco, where I enjoyed the views of murals.

In San Marco, Jacksonville.

My dad and his partner got out on their way home this morning. It was a good visit with him and Patsy! I think they’re a good pair, but partly because she keeps him on his toes and trying to be a better man. I’m going to try to get to his side’s family reunion in Minnesota this summer. One of his sisters helped me with genealogy and our family history on that side, which is really interesting. It makes me think of this quote ( found on the internet):

Anyhow, I’m at the gym now, doing my 30 minutes on the bike, jamming to Salt-n-Peppa, being a woman- over -forty- in -short- running -shorts (how dare she)! I feel a little rebellious. People will judge either way I might as well be interesting! I come from a long line of unique individuals and will embrace my freedom if expression. Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Weekend Coffee Share, Surviving Sequestration

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Allison at Eclectic Ali.  I only had half-caff today, but it really invigorated me, maybe because I finally got at least six hours of sleep last night!

I have made it through week 1 of online teaching! Our school district was told there would be no return to school until April 15th, but I suspect it will be longer than that.  I worry about our world, I worry about strangers I pass by in the store, and I worry about how much worse this might get. But I am really happy that I am able to connect with my students again and have some sort of influence on their lives and how they view their world.  I’ve seen students helping each other while online when I can’t reply to their questions right away, and they seem so grateful to be able to chat with me on our educational platform, too!  For a brief while, I forget what is happening outside.  I try to focus on the positives and tell them some jokes.

Sent from a student in the Microsoft Teams chat after being told to start on The Giver or read a book they already have at a set time daily:
“Can’t wait for reading I have a good book to read!” Another messages at 1:50- ‘Yay! Reading time!’**

They warm my heart! Do they know how such things keep me going?  I’ve tried really hard to distract their minds from world news and fill their heads with imagination and art. A number of parents e-mailed me thanking me for being so positive in my educational videos, stating that my videos make the student feel part of a classroom again, somewhat back to normal. Though I admit, I did not teach anything new yet except for how to navigate a new learning platform and turn in assignments, and that is likely the way it should be.  

The above shows my go-to hairstyle these days.  I have canceled hairdresser appointments two weeks in a row.  I am afraid to be around people in that close capacity right now.  My mom is 78 and I don’t want to bring a virus back to her!  I re-scheduled for two weeks from now.  We’ll see.  Meantime, I am growing my hair and putting it up.  I am trying to take at least two yoga or pilates classes online per week and to do ab exercises along with my arm/shoulder workout every other day.  I’ve found many helpful online exercise videos, too.  So, my health is holding

After watching my church’s service online, I went to the grocery store this morning, and guess what: no toilet paper.  I have some on order from Amazon, and a friend ordered extra through some other shopping app.  They told me at the checkout that I could not get more than two of any particular canned food item.  I wish they had started that with toilet paper before this whole fiasco first happened! Sadly, I had 8 cans of Chef Boyardee since I wanted to donate some of them to a Food Bank.  The cashier apologized and said they were just being really strict about that.  

If you are interested in a dystopian/apocalyptic story, you can download my free short story here at https://bookhip.com/HPNJFT  It is called “They Shall Inherit the Earth. I also started on a love story, set in these times of Coronavirus.  It is a little more hopeful and should be available next week or so, and will also be free!

Take care my friends!  Stay healthy and stay sequestered.  We can do this!

#WeekendCoffeeShare. Self-care.

 Photo (c), Pexels

Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Allison at https://eclecticali.wordpress.com/  The weather is quite mild today, but I’m still enjoying a mug of hot coffee!

This week has been another intense one.  I worked on editing three nights this week, and the days have been: work, work, work, crunch numbers, target instruction, plan, plan, plan.  I stayed late Friday and I am ready for the week!  Can you believe the season of Lent is almost here?  Time is flying, and I feel short-changed, because I did not get to yoga last week.  Trust me, I will this coming week!  There was not much time for the blog, but I’ve started a new series about books that are not so well-known, but well worth the read.  Visit Installment One here:     Books You May Not Know Of…     I’ve also been taking care of myself.  It almost feels like indulgence, but I’ve been working hard and I deserve it.  Really, I’ve just decided to do some basic things that I deserve.

One of those is the pedicure.  It has probably been two months.  The nicer weather may bring opportunities for sandals, so I got the pedicure yesterday.  This was after I had lunch with an old friend I hadn’t seen in 6 months or more.  She is such a supportive person; she also works in education but she has other dreams and she is working on them.  She can be quite an inspiration.  I gave her my short paperback, From Lost to Loved, the imagined tale of my dog’s early life.  She is an animal lover and adores her cat like I do my dog; she was ecstatic about the book, so I am so glad I did it.  She gave me some social media ideas!  This leads in to the new Instagram for my dog:  Bixby Fluffikins Canepa!  Follow him at   bixby_fluffikins

The boyfriend and I went to an art show last night to see a work of art by a friend of mine from church.  She is new to the art scene.  It was great to see her enthusiasm and her post-modern piece.  We did not stay out late, but it was something different to do.  I cannot believe how much I packed into this weekend already.  Yesterday morning I was finishing up work things I know I won’t get to on Monday.  Then, I happened to check e-mail and see I got my DNA report back from Ancestry DNA.  I just have to say, it’s fascinating!  Since I had a hard time inserting the whole picture, the breakdown is:

Ethnicity Estimate

Scandinavia

45%

Great Britain

43%

Europe West

5%

Ireland/Scotland/Wales

2%

Middle East

2%

Iberian Peninsula

2%

Europe South

1%

I’ve been on genealogy websites and found myself linked to someone from Italy, Spain, and Ireland in addition to the English, Welsh, German and French I already knew of along with all of Mom’s Scandinavian from Norway and Denmark.  Iberian Peninsula is near Spain.  The Middle East connection totally blows my mind.  I absolutely found all of this amazing, and I wish I could know the family stories, though some of them may be 1,000 years old, in which case I’ll have to imagine the story of a wayfarer from afar traveling to Europe or England, marrying into a whole new bloodline.  Perhaps there was migration due to war.  It just sparks my imagination, and I feel so connected to the world!

To bring this to a close, I am so thankful for everything that is giving me such a full life right now!  Yes, I feel positive about the challenges at work.  Yes, I feel like I can still make time and fit in the things I enjoy like Art, Family history, writing, and taking care of myself!  Next week will be a great one.  I’ll fit in an hour on three or more nights for editing;  I’ll even be sure to get to yoga class. 🙂

*Join the Weekend Coffee Share by viewing others or submitting your own at   https://eclecticali.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/weekendcoffeeshare-lots-of-lotsness/

How was your week?