1. Work: No work! Ah ha! Seriously. I'm not teaching anything this summer, but I did take on a few projects, including writing some lessons for the NROC group (Google it if you want to learn more). That task was actually taking up a lot of my time as I had to write about 6-8 lessons almost every two weeks. I think I got way ahead of their expectations though because in a phone call a week or so ago, they asked to slow down because they need time to reassess where we're going with all of this. That was music to my ears! Since then, I've been able to relax more around the house and just be lazy.
However, I am working on some tutor training sessions though to present when school gets back in session next month. I also really should be working on syllabi and class materials for fall...which I have, only just a little though. Agh, that can wait; I'm on vacation!
2. House Projects: This year Ken and I tackled two major projects: build a path to the pond and paint/re-cover the free wicker furniture I got from Dr. G last summer. Ken is just about done with the path. We need to buy a few more bricks to round it all out, and I finished painting and making new covers for the patio furniture. Note that the path isn't quite finished. We have a few more bricks to place at the end to curve around the pond, and we need to get the rest of the new wood chips sprinkled about. On the lower right, you can see half of my raised flower gardens I also created. We used to have one big vegetable garden here, but I got tired of maintaining it and we never really ate anything from it anyway. I wanted something lovely to walk through and something to help the bees do their work. Enter my two egg-shaped raised gardens. The one you cannot see is growing nicely with a "pollinator's blend" of flowers, etc. and the one you can see is going to be all zinnias.
3. Travel: Minimal travel this year. It must be our off year given we took some big ones last year: Seattle, Niagara Falls, etc. This year, we stayed a bit closer to home and made a trip to Sioux City, IA so I could meet some relatives (see next section below about genealogy below), and we're also planning a short trip to the Oregon, IL area to see Matt & Lisa. In short, I've enjoyed the time at home.
4. Genealogy Project: Ah! Here is where life gets interesting! Finally, after all my time spent on ancestry.com (which during the semesters isn't much given the time I have), I've made contact with some Seible relatives! Oh, I don't know if you can grasp the magnitude of this for me. Seriously, I feel great about it. All my life I've known next to nothing about my father's side -- the Seibles. Here I am with this last name and no knowledge about who carried it before me (other than my dad). During my trip to Sioux City, I met my dad's cousin Diana and her husband Jim, who shared pictures with me and drove me to a cemetery where many Seibles are buried. (I also got to meet their dog Snowball, a real hoot!) I also met her brother Mark and his family, which included two second-cousins of mine. Everyone was so nice and welcoming!
In addition, I've also made contact online with my dad's half-brother and we've been exchanging emails and pictures. He also shared an email from one of my first-cousins on my dad's side that I haven't seen or heard from since I was 2, and she wants to correspond! This is truly amazing to me! I am learning so much about my father's father (my grandfather whom I never knew or heard much about) and his life after his divorce from my paternal grandmother (whom I also never knew or heard much about). I am also seeing pictures for the first time of people I've never seen before. It never ceases to amaze me at how people look like each other. This man, who is technically my father's half brother, making him my half-uncle (though I don't know if he is quite ready for me to start calling him "Uncle D"), has been a gift to me -- I am learning so much and filling in some of the blanks about my ancestors. Also, I hope, I am making familial connections that will last longer than the scope of this project. What a great feeling!
So that's where I am. I'm enjoying this summer like no other summer before...which is a good thing because I've really shot myself in the foot for fall in terms of the workload I've taken on. But I'm not going to think about that now...I'll think about that...well...not tomorrow...no, or the next day....agh, forget it; I'm on vacation!
1 comment:
Leave it to you to be so far ahead on your lessons from NROC and a month behind welcoming summer! The yard looks INCREDIBLE! Wow. Amazing. I wish we could do cool things like that with ours. And the furniture looks great too. So happy you've connected with your extended family. Rachel's grandfather is big on genealogy and keeps everyone in touch. So nice to see a post from you. Can't wait until your next one!
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