Skip to main content

Thanksgiving Break 2016

November 18, I volunteered for to help Hannah's class do a Stone Soup activity where all the little kids brought vegetables, chopped them up, and shared them in the evening along with the folktale of Stone Soup where strangers come together with little, but sharing they all have enough to eat. My job was to help all the kids take a turn cutting and I was particularly charged with making sure that there were no tears about sharing tools and no severed fingers. I executed both jobs with aplomb.

 Here is Hannah cutting her vegetables.


I started the vegetables and then gave the kids safety knives so they could keep working.


Hannah wasn't sure what it would be like to have her mom in her class, but all the kids liked me and so she decided she might as well too. At the end, she thanked me for coming.

The day after the Stone Soup activity, I went to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the National Council of Teachers of English conference. It was 18 degrees in Minneapolis. I did lots of walking, which is typical for conferences. Here I am trying to keep warm.


I also made some Thanksgiving food ahead this year. Hannah helped. We made pecan pie and cornbread stuffing.

 Both turned out well.

I worked the day before Thanksgiving. Here is my car in the graduate student parking lot with the other two suckers that also hung out in the education building on Wednesday. The stadium parking lot below is a little more full because of football practice. 


On Thanksgiving Day, I got invited to a friend's house. The food there was great with so many kinds of potatoes and pies, along with rolls and turkey. Hannah played with the little boy in the family and Hannah was very well behaved. She isn't one to try a lot of food, but she sit and eat when it was time. Later she had pie at home in the evening. 


I also slept in until 7:30 am (usually I am up just after 6). I also got a little bit of an afternoon nap at 4 p.m. I went running in the morning and successfully avoided the rain that dominated the rest of the days weather. I still worked on various projects, but it was the most resemblant of a "day off" I have had in a while. 

Comments

I love that book! That was a great idea the teachers had. Isn't it fun to volunteer in your child's class. I loved it. Good thanksgiving too!
I love that book! That was a great idea the teachers had. Isn't it fun to volunteer in your child's class. I loved it. Good thanksgiving too!

Popular posts from this blog

The Year-Long January

The joke is that January is the longest month of the year. I thought it went quickly. Classes started and winter cold set in. We went to the eye doctor and Hannah waited for the doctor so long, she grew a beard.  Ultimately she decided on glasses that would make her look like Supergirl. I think she really pulled it off. All month I was on pins and needles about the government shutdown trying to decide if it was safe to fly to a conference. Luckily for me, the poor TSA workers and federal folks were able to get back to work. However, the planes I took (4 in all) were mostly empty and I got a row to myself. There was also a polar vortex that didn't help air travel looks appealing. I got there late at night and the room they had left was a large hotel suite. I took it. My colleague Michael Dunn and I divided our presentation up. We both did well. I also found a few good folks from Kansas. Then, I left Indy. When I wasn't worki...

Wrapping up the Year (and Decade)

Christmas was nice. The weather was good and I was able to run like I usually do. I served a Thanksgiving Dinner because I spent Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania with my sister. It has been a busy decade. I only have two years where something major didn't happen. On to 2020. My list of Big stuff for the last decade. 2010—Finished Master’s degree 2011—Published Master’s degree as book 2011—Daughter born 2012—Book won award 2013—Moved to KS for PhD program (January) 2014— 2015—Published second book 2016—Finished PhD program (August) 2017—Moved to Albuquerque for faculty position 2018— 2019—Submitted mid-probationary dossier

Bygone April

 We decorated for Easter in April. Low key, but cute. Hannah helped make some of them. She even did this painting of the eggs.   And the ceramic ornament in the little house. After Easter I went to Toronto for AERA.   After AERA Easter came. We went to the annual Easter egg hunt.  And colored our own eggs.  And went to church. At the end of the month, we visited my parents in Utah, traveling by plane. It was sunny one of the days and cloudy and rainy the rest, but the visit was nice.  And that was April.