Wow! It's been awhile!

INTRODUCING: The newest member of the family! Abigail Jane. Rachel and Larry had their third child on December 15th. She weighed almost 9 lbs! Isn't she a cutie? We were able to travel to their home and church for her baptism on the very next weekend.

If you've been to visit my Square Grammy Etsy shop lately, you may have noticed that it's empty. My life has interfered with my Etsy world for awhile, and I have decided to close it down indefinitely. My family and my job are my first priority, and Etsy is just more than I need right now. So the shop is in hibernation for the time being. Hopefully it'll be OK to just leave it empty for awhile, and maybe I can "wake" it up when I have more time again.

One of my big projects right now is making the crochet baptismal gown for our next grandbaby! John and Erika are expecting their first baby in March, and I am crocheting an exquisite gown for her baptism with teeny tiny stitches. Many hours of love are going into this project.

Along with that project, my best friend at school, Becky, is having a baby in April, and I have a blanket started for her. I want this to be a special blanket, not just "any" blanket. As you can see, I am busy with crochet projects - but not any for sale in Etsy right now.

All that, along with my church duties and school, are keeping me really occupied these days. I have a knitting group from the church that meets at my home every Thursday evening. I also have started a knitting/crocheting club after school on Wednesdays at school, and we have a nice group coming to that. It's been fun getting to know the girls in that club and teaching them how to make things. I also just got a new student from Mexico who speaks absolutely no English, so that has given me a new challenge. Those are the students who make me really feel needed! When they start to read and speak English, I see such great progress! That's when being a teacher is the most rewarding. Then when one of those students contacts you several years later and tells you how much you helped them, you realize how all that work that you did for them will affect them for all of their lives.

It's All About Sales!!!!

When you're in a business of any kind, it's a cut-throat world out there, right? You'll do anything for a buck! Well, if you've spent any time at all in the "Etsy World", you would know that the same holds true there. They have a lingo all their own, a completely foreign language to the uninitiated. There are "convos" and "teams" and "circles" and "favorites" and "treasuries" and "bogo" sales, and "tradeaholics" and much, much more. It really gets in your blood after a while, and you can spend hours online in this little realm. You make friends with people who have the same hobbies as you do from all over the world, and then again you might find out that someone in the very same city you live in has an Etsy shop, too! The Etsy community can become pretty self sufficient in and of itself, and protective of its members.

All this being said, I'd like to mention a little about something we women shoppers are all very familiar with in the world of buying and selling - SALES! I don't know about you, but when I go shopping, one of the first things I look for is the big SALE. As I started out with in this blog, we'll do anything for a buck - whether we're the buyer or the seller. As a shopper, I'll do almost anything to SAVE money. I go after the big SALE every time. And, as a shop owner, on ETSY that is, I will do anything for a buck by occasionally putting on a SALE. Right now, I've got a SUMMER SALE going on. I've reduced the price of some of my summer items in an effort to sell them. Take a look at my shop, see if there's something you like. Go to www.etsy.com/shop/thesquaregrammy.

I want to let you know about another BIG SALE that's going on right now, that is even bigger. My daughter's shop, www.etsy.com/shop/huggermugger is having a bogo sale on all of her hats. If you are like I was before, you might wonder what bogo is, so I'll tell you. BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE!!!! This one is really worth looking at. Rachel has crocheted some beautiful hats in all sizes, of some beautiful yarn. And she's selling them off, because she's adding to their family soon and for some strange reason she thinks she's going to be too busy for awhile to keep up her crocheted hats part of her shop. She will just keep her patterns. So she wants to sell down some of her wonderful inventory. This is a really great sale, folks. Do you see the picture of the lovely woman at the top of this blog entry? That's my beautiful daughter in one of her hats that is on sale RIGHT NOW! Don't miss your chance to get ready for the cold weather that will be here before you know it. You can buy one of these hats, and get any other hat in her shop of equal or lesser value FREE! She has baby hats, children's hats, adult hats, winter hats, summer beach hats, all sizes and shapes.

How can you miss a sale like this? You'll do anything for a buck, right?

Time to Dust Off the Old Blog

Okay, folks. The time has come to do some real writing. I have become inspired by a fellow Etsian, who is also a fellow teacher at my school; and also by my daughter who is also a fellow Etsian, to begin blogging again. Did you follow all those convoluted relationships? That's some real inspiration right there!

If my daughter, who has two little children and another on the way, has time to make things and blog and read and keep up an apartment, and get ready to move into a new house - well, then surely an old almost-60-year old Grammy of said daughter's children, who is on summer break from teaching, has time to dust off the computer keyboard and do some blogging.

Heretofore I have been blogging about anything and everything that comes to my mind. And with a mind like mine, that could be a very wide variety of anything, everything, and sometimes nothing. But I have decided to make this blog now mostly about my creative thoughts, especially what I have been doing for my Etsy Shop: TheSquareGrammy. Also, I will do as other Etsians do in their blogs - feature some of my favorite shops and people, etc., etc. For today, though, I think I'll just introduce a few of my newest items in my shop.

This week I've added 4 little whimsical embellishments or appliques to TheSquareGrammy. They measure an average of 3-4 inches wide, and can be used to spark up your clothing, beach bags, shoes, hats, or even just to set around in plants or on a bookshelf. The cute, summery smiley sunshine, purple octopus, golfish and ladybug are only $4 each or $7 if you buy 2 of them.

They're crocheted from regular yarn, and can be washed by hand.

Well, that's all for today, friends. I'm hoping to gain a few readers as time goes along. If you enjoy wandering along through my brain as I put my thoughts into words, please join me. I hope to be able to write informational, yet enjoyable blogs, that readers of different ages and interests will like to come back again and again to read. If you enjoy reading something or have a question, please leave me a comment!

From Beginning to End

Can you believe that my last post was at the beginning of this school year, and now I'm facing the last week of school? The year has literally flown, galloped, sped, and whatever other form of quickly moving triteness I can't think of at the minute, by! It has gone by so quickly that I totally forgot to blog! I guess that shows that blogging has not yet become a habit for me - obviously. Maybe I'll do better this summer. Maybe / maybe not! That remains to be seen.

In this year I have seen so many wonderful events - a new, beautiful granddaughter was born, and last week I got to know her so much better when sweet Mercedes and her mommy and brother came to visit us. She completely lit up my life with her winsome smiles, while little Daniel entertained us constantly with his shenanigans and fun-loving personality. We played Thomas trains until the last chug-chug-chug echoed down the hall into bed. And we read Pooh Bear every night so he could have "Sweet Dreams" about honey and other lovely Grammy thoughts.

Of course another recent highlight for this proud Mom is John's graduation from Harvard Law with his JD and in the top 10% of his class, yet. Not so long ago he was a tiny baby like Mercedes, and I also remember reading the Pooh books to him ad infinitum. Those Pooh books have turned now into Law books, of which he has shelves and shelves, that are now being packed into boxes to be moved to St. Louis for his first job as a clerk for a Federal Court Judge.

Homeschooling both John and Rachel has been so rewarding! They were both such quick learners, and usually did their very best. The students I now teach are often a different type of learners. I face bigger challenges now, and sometimes bigger disappointments. The rewards are also different, but as the end of the year approaches, and I choose the recipients of my awards, I realize that there are many rewards to this job, as well. When I see understanding dawn on the face of a Hispanic student as I explain the concept of apostrophe's, I feel rewarded. When a student returns from the High School and thanks me for helping them learn to read, because it made it possible for them to make it through the difficult subjects in High School, I get tears in my eyes. I could enumerate many more rewards, but space limits me. Parents shaking my hand with broad smiles but unable to speak my language except to say "Gracias"; 9th graders emailing me just to say "Hi" and that they miss me; students dropping by my room at all times of the day just to say, "Hola!" Little things like that speak volumes to me of the love my students and I share with each other, and that is the best reward any teacher can hope for.

Back in School ...

Summer has come and gone. I was home by myself only 2 1/2 weeks. No wonder it flew by so fast! I had a nice week in Iowa with my brothers and much of the rest of my family at a reunion. Then much of July spent with Dano and his mom at our house, some of that in the mountains. The last of my vacation I enjoyed with our kids in Connecticut and Boston. What a wonderful time we had together!

Now it's already been 3 weeks back in school! 33 left ! Just like a teacher, already counting the weeks till we get out!! Actually I have a great bunch of kids this year (so far), and I'm enjoying it a lot. BUT, this time of the year, ESL teachers get inundated with paperwork, and I mean COVERED UP! I didn't leave school before 6:00 all last week, except for Friday, when a friend finally forced me to go out for a snack at 4:00. There's light at the end of the tunnel, though, and once I get all the parent letters out, and the files in order for my 85 kids, maybe I'll get to go home earlier. My little Mexicans and Hmong are really sweethearts for the most part :-)

I've now had 3 sales in my Etsy shop - WAAAAY behind Huggermugger and almost everybody else I know in Etsyland. But, it's a nice hobby, anyway. I just don't seem to have time to promote it. I'm having a great time on Facebook - Hey to all of you "Facebookers" who are reading this! I just discovered a new typing game on Facebook, which I may soon become hooked on, along with Farmville (heehaw!)

Hooray! I've made my first sale!

Of course I'm referring to my Etsy shop. I've had it open since Feb. 1st, and this is my first sale. Wouldn't you know, I haven't actually sold anything that I have already made, it's a special order. But it's a real sale, and that's a beginning!

In addition, something that came as a surprise to both of my children, and to some of my fellow teachers and some of my students, I joined Facebook last weekend! I'm not really sure what came over me, but I just decided to "take the plunge"!!! I think it was because there are several people I would like to keep in contact with this summer and they asked me if I was on Facebook. One of them is a college student who has been working with me as a student teacher all year. She went home to the NC coast for the summer, and we've gotten pretty close. I knew she probably wouldn't email me much, but that she is very active on Facebook. An added benefit has been rediscovering some cousins that I haven't heard from for years, and keeping in contact with some nephews and nieces that I don't hear from regularly.

So, those are the giant steps that I have taken in the past few weeks. This week I will be busy giving End-of-Grade tests to my ESL students, then 1 and 1/2 weeks left of school, and this school year will be history! North Carolina is making huge budget cuts, and no teachers have contracts yet. However, my principal has promised me that my job is secure so I am clinging tightly to that. Many teachers and teachers aides will not be that lucky. We shall see what happens with this declining economy. At the very least, our classrooms will be much more crowded and our supplies will be decidedly limited. For now, that's all we know for sure.

Ahhh! Spring Break...

One day gone already of my Spring Break. The time will be over before I know it, and I will have squandered it all away. Actually, I have no BIG plans for this glorious week, except to just relax and enjoy it. And that being said, I guess today was well spent. I did a bit of housework, a bit of reading, a bit of crocheting, a bit of learning on the computer, walked 2 miles on the treadmill, Skyped with my adorable grandson and his mom, and let my hubby take me out to eat to celebrate an accomplishment. So, all in all, I'd say today was just GRAND!!!

An accomplishment, you say. What accomplishment? Not to "toot my own horn" as my mother would call it, but last week it was announced at school that my fellow teachers elected me to be our school's Wachovia Outstanding Educator. (Otherwise known as Teacher of the Year) Of course, it's a real honor to be awarded this by my own peers. But it also means some writing and interviews, because now I will go up against other schools' picks to be chosen in our school district. The teacher chosen in our school district will in turn have to then go through a selection process against the three school districts in our county. Hmmmm. I think I should just be satisfied that I was chosen by my school. Anyway, I have some writing to do this week for that - a Project Proposal, because with all of that comes a $1000 check to the winner if their project is chosen.

This spring has been rainy and cool, but the grass is green and the trees are mostly leafed out, so I'm not complaining. The tulips are blooming in a profusion of bright colors; and the dogwood trees are beginning to blossom, as only they can do at Easter time in the South, reminding us of Christ's death and resurrection with their symbolic crosses on their flowers. The aroma of the lilies from church that we brought home yesterday permeates our living room with the perfume of the hope and joy of Easter. To all who read this I want to wish a Blessed and Happy Easter Season!

I'm Back!

Kinda like a bad penny, I turn up every month or so to compose some more in my Blog. It's been such a busy month, I didn't even realize the month had gone by.

My work has been so busy at school. I've been doing the annual ESL testing, and it's a new test mandated by the state. Since we can only test 22 students at a time this year, and (also new this year) they have to be tested by their ability levels, I had to do 15 different testing sessions of 75 minutes each, singlehandedly. So it has taken me 3 whole weeks to do it. This to the detriment of my regular classes, which were on-again, off-again. I also have had to test each of my 85 ESL students individually on their speech, which takes 15-20 minutes apiece. I still have 2 full days of that. Whew! The students have been tested in reading, listening, writing and speech. I think they'll be happy to get back to their "regularly scheduled programming". I know I sure will.

As you may or may not know, I have started my own ETSY shop. Go to www.thesquaregrammy.etsy.com to see it. I call it TheSquareGrammy in honor of the Grammy Square, oops, I mean the Granny Square. But also, mostly in honor of my own sweet grandson who now, I can proudly say DOES call me "Grammy"!!! Here he is playing at the beach in the Bahamas, on a cruise that he and his family and my dearest husband and mother-in-law were able to take. Of course I had to miss it because of my lovely job :-(

The weather has made a complete turnaround in NC this week. We had a snow day on Monday, with temperatures in the single digits. And today, Saturday, it's close to 80 degrees!!! People are out in shorts and tank tops mowing their lawns! Daffodills and crocuses are blooming. And the middle school kids at Northview Middle School are getting antsy to be outside instead of cooped up in school all day. I can't say that I blame them, how about you?

By the time I think about writing here again, it'll probably be full-blown springtime! Talk to y'all next time!

I've been Remiss ...

Okay, so I guess I've been so busy I kinda stopped blogging for awhile. So that makes me remiss, or amiss or in "remission"? ... Anyway, I missed it and all of a sudden I come back and find I have 3, count them, 3 followers now instead of my 1 (okay, so she's my daughter :-)

Welcome to my two new followers, and welcome to anybody else who wants to read these blatherings. I know what I write is probably only interesting to me, but, oh whell!

Do you realize how much we all affect each other? I was just thinking about that. You know how much we as parents affect our children, and of course spouses affect each other. It goes without saying that we teachers hope that we have positive effects on our students. I have been affected a lot by my own children, and of course my sweet grandson. I have been changed by my colleagues at school and my students, as well. Even in subtle ways, we can be affected by those we are with for even short times. If the grocery clerk smiles or snaps at you, you're affected for the rest of the day. But for the long term, it's just important to know that what you do or say can be making a difference in the lives of many others around you, not just yourself. You are affecting your spouse, your children, your parents, your co-workers, your students, your pets???, the clerks you buy things from, the other drivers on the road, in short, everyone around you. Wow! What an awesome responsibility when you think about it!

Back Home = Back to School

Home again, Home again, Jiggety-Jig!
I've been back home for awhile now. The nursery rhymes I sang to Dano are just a distant memory - a very, very good memory. I had a wonderful Christmas with my sweetest of all grandsons, and my most wonderful daughter and son-in-law. I really miss them. But now it's time to gear up for my job.

How nice it has been to just relax, kick back, crochet, read some good fiction - the Jodi Picoult book was NOT a disappointment (I finished it just as my plane landed back in good old NC). It was good to be able to ease back into ordinary life - put away Christmas, clean the house, catch up on old friends through Christmas letters, etc. But now the inevitable has arrived.

Yesterday I started doing some research on new theories in teaching ESL students. Since it's a relatively new field, methods for ESL teaching are evolving. Now there is yet another method arriving on the scene that I'm learning about. The trick will be trying to share it with my principal and the other teachers in my school. But, you know what? At 56 it seems to be taking longer and longer for me to grasp what I read. Wonder why that is?

Regardless of my age, today is lesson-planning day. I can no longer avoid it. I plan to "hole up" in my room with my computer and my planbook; my Celine Dion cds and my flavored coffee; and plan next week's lessons. Who knows? Maybe I'll get really inspired, and "knock the socks off" those kids with some really great lessons! Hey! It could happen!

Sooooo - Let the day begin....

Christmas Break at Last!!!!

It's here! I'm off of school for two blessed weeks; no lesson planning, no kids to chase down, no late afternoons staying after school to sell basketball game tickets or attend Christmas concerts or tutor. No stress.

Wait! Did I say no stress? Tomorrow I leave to visit my sweet, sweet grandson, and of course his wonderful parents who gave him to me. BUT - A snowstorm is heading northeast as I write this. I have images of flight delays, sleepovers in airports, and lost luggage dancing through my head. My 3-hour layover in Cleveland looks like a likely night stopover instead, since it also has a storm forecast tomorrow. Instead of a dream trip, this could turn into a nightmare! I just packed a whole package of my migraine meds, because I just might need them all!

But, why not put a positive spin on this all? Waiting on the other side of it all, will be my family. I know I'll eventually get there, even if it might be a bit later than I planned. And I know it will all be very much worth it. The trip could be a horrible disaster, or it could be a grand adven-

ture. It all depends on what I make of it. I plan to make the best of it, and enjoy whatever comes my way. For now, I guess I'd better just finish my packing and go ahead with my plans. When tomorrow comes we'll find out what comes with the day.

A Blessed Christmas Season to all who read this message.

All Decorated!

Well, now that the tree is up and decorated, I feel much better about things. Thanks to John and Erika for that! Thanksgiving, wedding anniversary, and the colonoscopy are behind me (in order of importance, of course) And sadly, John and Erika have gone home and I have that feeling of hollowness down deep inside like I always do after one of my kids leaves me.

The old, fake tree doesn't look too bad after all - a little skimpy compared to the fat mountain-grown Fraser Firs we've been having for 16+ years, but it's very symmetrical, I must say that for it. It's a good foot shorter than I'm used to, and we used a whole string of lights less and almost a box fewer ornaments. But there's more room in the living room this way. And we don't really need much room for gifts anyway this year. It still gives us the beautiful aura of Christmas, and John and Erika and I had a wonderful afternoon Saturday with the Carols and the hot chocolate laced with candy canes and chili powder. Mmmmmmmm! Missed you, Rachel.

Now it's back to the work world for a few weeks. But in less than a month I'll be visiting my very sweet grandbaby. What can I say about that except I CAN HARDLY WAIT! See you soon, DANO!

Bah! Humbug???

I cannot believe this! The two people I live with actually made the preposterous suggestion that, merely because I will not be home for a week at Christmas time we should not decorate the house for Christmas! What a HORRIBLE thought! Simply one person missing for the week of Christmas is no excuse for NOT DECORATING! That is almost like canceling Christmas completely!!!

Okay, I will agree to not going to the mountains to cut down a real Christmas tree, because after all, neither of our two kids are coming home for Christmas. It would be more enjoyable, but I will get out the old, probably very dusty and considerably flat 20-something year-old fake tree, and decorate it. But, NO CHRISTMAS TREE? NOT DECORATE AT ALL? What kind of Scroogey people are these people? In fact, Grandma even asked if we put up a tree before we had kids - of course we put up a tree before we had kids - we WERE kids before we had kids (hee hee). And as far as I'm concerned, I'm STILL a kid deep down. I guess that's why I'm a bit disturbed by the whole idea of not decorating. If I didn't put my decorations up, it would be like going to someone's home and not visiting with them. I need to "visit with" my Christmas decorations every December. I would miss them if I didn't. So many memories are asleep in those boxes, wrapped in the paper and excelsior, waiting for the week after Thanksgiving when I will awaken them and put them in their accustomed places, while the favorite carols are playing, and the rich aroma of spiced cider is wafting through the house. How could I simply skip all of that? IMPOSSIBLE!

I know they meant well - they probably wanted to spare me all the "hard work", knowing that I would be coming back just a few days before going back to school. But that's okay. I'll make time. I just couldn't bear to skip all the wonder of Christmas decorating. I'd rather cut off all my hair! And we all know how I feel about my hair. Right? Right!

People Really Read This Stuff!!

Yessss!!!

I actually attracted some readers! Well, thank you very much, I know you are my children, and my friends, but it is very gratifying to know that someone cared enough to read my blog. You are right, Knitsational, it IS addicting.

I spent most of my Saturday looking online for materials for teaching my ESL classes what Veterans Day is all about. One doesn't think about it, how kids who didn't grow up in our culture know very little about our holidays. So Friday, when I was reminding them that we don't have school on Tuesday because of Veterans Day, most of them had no clue as to what Veterans Day celebrates. Believe me, after Monday in my class, that won't be the case anymore. I now have a plethora of activities and word puzzles to help them along. Plus, we will have vocabulary words all week associated with Veterans Day - beginning of course with the word "veteran"!!

I've been doing a lot of reading these past six months on what ESL students need the most, and vocabulary is one of their biggest needs. So that's what my classes are getting a LOT of this year. The trick is to teach it in an exciting and interesting manner, to keep them enjoying it, and to help them remember those words. Last week we did Hollywood Squares - remember that TV show? They LOVED it! Of course to them, it was merely Tic-Tac-Toe. hee hee!

Enough about work. Enough about everything. As usual, I got carried away again. I need to remember to keep these posts short and sweet. Or I'll lose the only 2 readers I have before I even get started. Sorry...

Second, But by No Means Less Important

Did I mention that I also have a very wonderful son? Today's blog I dedicate to my second-born, but in no way any less beloved child, my son. He is also very wonderful, like the daughter I adore. He is also very talented, and can write with a flair all his own. These two progeny of ours can put words together in such a way that defies all of my husband's and my belief. And yet their writing styles are very different. This son of ours is studying to be a lawyer at no less than Harvard Law!!! It still sends chills down my spine to say that - because I myself taught him and his sister in our very own home school from kindergarten through high school. What a thrill to think that he is now studying in the halls of one of the most highly-esteemed institutions in our nation. Yet this man who only days ago, it seems, was struggling to learn his multiplication tables, is a very down-to-earth young man with an old Ford Taurus and a young, lovely bride who cooks scrumptious meals in their tiny, over-priced apartment on Harvard Square.

If you read this, my son, the future lawyer, or law professor, or perhaps even someday Supreme Court Justice: I salute you with my can of Dr. Pepper, - to a brilliant future!

At first Blog

I can hardly believe I am finally writing a blog. Dano's mom, who has made me a proud Grammy for over a year now, has been blogging for a long time now, and she's been gently waiting for it to catch on with me. But she's a professional writer, and I'm just the person who started her off on it all. I gave her the first portable manual (yes, I DID say manual) typewriter that she began writing her very first little stories on when she could barely put words together. But she just never stopped putting words, then sentences, then journals, and finally stories and even novels together. She passed me up long ago. Those were the days when we didn't even know what a computer keyboard looked like, or how to pronounce b-l-o-g!

This post is dedicated to Dano's mother, my lovely daughter, who inspires me every day by her insatiable quest for the written word, either reading or writing it - even with a very inquisitive 1-year-old to care for.