"Home For the Duration"... journal of this ADHD/ADD/OCD/LMNOP...etc... Science Teacher! 🤔

Day 1, March 16th.....Well, I'm home for the duration of this terrible Pandemic. All of my teacher friends are messaging each other and keeping each other's spirits up. 

It's pretty funny reading how parents are dealing with "remote learning". 

I've got to stop reading Coronavirus updates for a while....anxiety and depression will engulf my soul if I don't. 

I think I'll make a schedule.

Nah....I think I'll  rest today....aka watch TV show reruns, the Hallmark  Channel, and Science Channel shows.

Stay safe everyone!

DAY 2 March 17th.....AGH!!!! I am soooooo bored. And it's  raining! Why does it rain so much in Alabama?

I tried to make a schedule today.

9:30...I checked my Google Classroom account.

9:33... no questions or responses from kids.

9:35....posted a question to see what "my kids" are doing?

*will check back later.

10:00-12:00 nap with the cat.

12:00 - lunch

1:00-? Garage/creative time.....let's see what I can get myself into in the garage.  Maybe I will paint some rocks for the garden

5:00 - Take a walk outside for an hour with Ryan, my son, and Ainsley, my daughter-in- law.

PS.....happy St  Patrick's Day

Day 3 March 19th

8:30...woke up

9:30....breakfast and check messages and emails.

9:45....Google Classroom time. Got 3 responses from yesterday. The kids are bored, too. Glad it's not just me!

10:00 -12:00 nap with cat...Rio is sooo demanding!

12:00...check the rocks....will have to repaint the ones that dripped everywhere. Ewww

12:00 - watching reruns of Ghost Hunters......mmhmm. I am THAT nerd.

Mashin' buttons and such....

I REALLY should have titled this...."decluttering ain't happening y'all", but I didn't want to relive my summertime fail all over again. So, I shut the door to the living room closet for now. I'll tackle it again soon and get it completed. 

           My problem is....... I get easily distracted and start looking at EVERYTHING and then lose track of time and the next thing you know it is 4 hours later.......or bedtime. I tried turning on the TV for background noise,but an infomercial for the Panasonic Smart Home Wireless Home Monitoring and Security System came on, and it absolutely had me mesmerized (remember, easily distracted). The man who was introducing the television audience to this amazing system was soooo animated and proud of  item 264-365 with the OPU hub and not 2 but 4 IP cameras and a very large control center with lots and lots of buttons which he kept mashin' and mashin' over and over. I'm not real sure what all they did, but he said they were working and obviously well because one button he mashed set off a siren. I was thinking of the many ways that Rick Nelson could put this around the house for us. I bet that siren would stop any and every opossum from even attempting to get inside my house, again! 

Even though the "Critter Gitter" guy said we would never have one get in again, I don't think you can ever be too careful. Plus, there were over 2 dozen buttons that he could mash and keep himself busy, not to mention that hub thingy and 4 cameras. Hmmmmmm, our anniversary IS coming up soon. ;) 

In Order to De-Clutter My Closet.........I'm Going to Need a GPS!!

I have come to the realization that Rick and I have too many clothes. (In reality we have too much of everything, but for now we will start with the clothes.) This conclusion came to me after I had read several magazine articles, whilst standing in line at Kroger, about de-cluttering your closet. I had also been thinking about the countless number of “pins” I have compiled on my Pinterest board, “Organize My Life, Please!” I needed to do something with those “pins”. I needed to do something about our master bedroom walk-in closet. So, I decided right there in the Kroger store, that I was going to get that closet de-cluttered and organized in a "pinteresting" way.

Okay, after standing in the Kroger checkout line for 30 minutes and quickly reading “13 Ways to De-clutter Your Closet “, “How to De-clutter Your Closet in 8 Simple Steps”, and “Minimalism: 3 Ways to De-clutter Your Closet”, I decided I had THE master of all plans. I would combine all of these articles into one big “how-to” plan. I would have 24 ways to de-clutter our closet, and if I divided that by the 3 closets that we use, that would round out to 8 ways per closet. It sounded doable, and I was desperate. I have tried everything to get that closet under control. I separated everything by season; I put good but "not needed now" clothes in tubs; I put my shoes in plastic tubs and took pictures of them and taped the pictures to the ends of the boxes so I know what pair is inside the box (I will admit…. that was cool), but 112 pairs of shoes? Holy Cow! AND they are all mine. Rick has maybe 8 – 10 pair of shoes, and he’s happy with that. How?  Oh dear lord I am the one out of control. I have even tried the trick of turning my clothes hangers backward for 6 months. According to an article I once read, you hang all of your clothes on hangers and hook the hangers backwards on the hanging bar. The clothes on the hangers that are still turned backward after 6 months will be donated to the No-Kill Animal Shelter Thrift Store. The clothes on the hangers that are hooked forwards are the ones that you wear and you get to keep. The only problem with that little trick was …..my OCD wouldn’t let me leave them flipped in different directions! That didn’t even last a NIGHT!!  

So, I kept reading and making lists of what to do. According to ALL of the articles I read, the first step to De-cluttering was to remove EVERYTHING from the closet. So, I thought….”where do I put it when I remove it?” Oh, I know….the living room. We don’t use the living room anyway. I mean, we only use it at Christmas time and that is still 6 months away. Surely I can get this back together in 6 months. Besides, we spend the majority of our evening time in the computer/TV room. So, I started hauling EVERYTHING downstairs from the large walk-in closet in our bedroom. I also removed all of the extra-long, extra-large tubs of clothes from the closet and the tubs of clothes stacked up along one long wall in our bedroom. Did I mention that our master bedroom is 15 feet wide and 25 feet long? Now that’s a LOT of wall! And a LOT of tubs. By the time I dragged the 11^th tub of clothes down the stairs and into the living room, I realized that I had run out of space in the living room. Both of the couches and the 2 Queen Anne chairs were completely covered in clothes from the closet shelves. The tubs were placed and stacked wherever I could put them…. Or as my mama would say, “they were put just willy-nilly in the room”. Not only did I cover the furniture, I covered the coffee table, end tables, sewing machine, antique buffet, and hutch.

Oh Lord, what have I done? I went right back to those articles that I had bookmarked because I MUST have skimmed through the part in them that told me when the closet fairies would come put it all back together. I think I figured out from re-reading the articles, that the real goal in de-cluttering was to make a person sooooo exhausted from moving everything out, that they just give it all away and start over. This was NOT an option for me. Hey, I have decades of clothing in those tubs (hmmm, maybe I should sort according to decade). Well, I know that only I can make this change…. I am strong, I am smart, and I am fully capable of organizing this stupid closet (or so I told myself this mantra over and over trying to get me to believe it).  Did I mention that I am also having foot surgery on Tuesday, June 30^th, so it really is crunch time. I won’t be able to go up and down 11 steps multiple times, and there won't be any hauling of extra-large tubs back up the stairs. I am determined to get it done in the next 2 - 8 days - give or take a few when I am "drugged-up" and not caring about my new Living Room closet - which means Rick Nelson will be hauling stuff back upstairs to the closet - which means I have to do it all over again when I am all well. Oh no, that is just NOT going to happen. This is going to be a one time deal. 

     I’m going in folks….. I have a snack and my cell phone with me (in case I have to GPS my way back out). Wish me luck.

*** By the way, I did NOT move the shoes. They are perfectly happy where they are. ***

You Can't Make This Science Stuff Up....Y'all.

I posted this picture and 9 other space-related pictures up on the cabinet doors in the back of my classroom. As a neat little intro activity, I asked my kids to take a sticky-note pad and quickly move to the back of the room; read each question beside each picture; write a response to each question on separate sticky notes; and stick their responses on the cabinet door.

The question that corresponded with the above picture was, "What object do you see in the picture?  What created it? Do you have a question about the object that you would like to research further? If so, what is your new question?"

One of my students posted the following response:
"I see a hole with light coming through. I'm pretty sure you created it but it could have been your hubs because he's a handyman. I want to know how you got the light inside the door."

I thought I was going to wet my pants from laughing so hard!!! I know this sounds strange, but if you stand back and squint a little, it DOES kinda look like a hole with light coming through.  :)

Hmmmmm

Yep, I'm still alive........I think.

Good Lord a lot of stuff has happened since May, when I last blogged. Where to begin? Well,
1. We moved my classroom and science lab from Meridianville Middle to the new Moores Mill Intermediate School. The entire 6th grade unit was moved!
2, We had so many boxes of science equipment and just general "stuff" that we filled two storage units, the spare bedroom, and over 3/4 of our living room. I think we counted 267 various boxes and tubs of "sciencey" things.
3. Rick and I took sailing lessons and passed with flying colors.
4. I had to have yet another surgery in June because my jaw bone started breaking down again. So, cadaver bone was inserted on both sides. Something happened during the surgery and the sutures opened up exposing the bone. I spent the entire summer going to the oral surgeon twice a week to check for bone that may be dying. Each visit, they had to remove dead bone....not fun. I was so afraid that I wasn't going to have any left, but it finally quit dying and started healing.
5. We bought a 21 foot San Juan sailboat, and started redoing it. (Didn't have anything else to do between Dr. visits.)
6. We have also been working on rebuilding a new engine and transmission for the El Camino, It has to have a larger one in order to pull the boat.
7. Finally got to go in and start unpacking boxes at the new school......3 days before school started!
Thank GOD for all the help of former students, family, and close friends.
8. I played "musical rooms" three times......the first room was not laid out correctly to suit my needs; the second one was in the Tornado Safe Area and I felt claustrophobic and sick every time I went in there; I finally settled in to room 319 - complete with a window.... and lockers INSIDE the classroom...(How insane is that?)
8. I feel like I have been playing "catch-up" ever since school began. Starting a new school is exciting, but at the same time...it Really, Really, SUCKS!!! We have to establish EVERYTHING. We have to set up our school committees, establish school rules, classroom procedures, etc.....
Our principal, Ms. Davis, is amazing. We all work together to build our school community. I've never been a part of anything like this before.
9. Did I mention that the entire 6th grade has gone to the BLOCK schedule? That means 90 minutes of science for 3 blocks. The 4th block is split with 45 minutes of PE and 45 minutes of "pullouts" like computer class, art, library, and counseling. A couple of days we have an "Encore" class when there is no "pullout" that day. Each teacher prepares  an interesting class that they want to teach their class. I'm doing Talent Tuesdays where the kids get to showcase their talents, Workout Wednesdays (Yoga for kids), and Thinking Thursdays where I do critical thinking skills via Odyssey of the Mind and Mensa :)
10. Technology........bites! Enough said.
11. Things are falling off the walls!! That's another blog post in and of itself :)
12. Halloween came and went pretty uneventful.....I did put up a few of our old Haunt items in my classroom, however. The kids really liked the "flying ghost" and zombies.
13. Thanksgiving is now upon us,,,,,,next Thursday!  Rick and I are taking Thanksgiving to Ryan and Ainsley in Birmingham this year because both of them have to work.  Let's see how well a turkey and all the trimmings travels :)

Maybe, just maybe, things are settling down now. I should have more time to write.  so, say prayers.

"Farm Day" is coming!

Soooo my twin brother, Dennis, has a farm....E,I,E,I,O.  AND my niece, Ashley signed us up to help with gardening duties on the 5th of June. I am totally excited to help, but I don't really know what to do. I've never really helped with gardening ...EVER. unless you count picking strawberries from my mama's strawberry bed. It's going to be interesting....no doubt.
The biggest question that comes to mind is.... "What does one wear for gardening duty?"  Sparkles might draw unwanted attention from wildlife, jeans are too hot. I'm going to have to really think about this one.