The Lineage

 I'm back from a trip down south to visit my dad.  We sat in big chairs watching television and gabbing.  Dad held Karl with a K on his lap.  I held multiple plates of fritos. We watched The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.  We talked about movie stars and reviewed Dad's genealogy research. 

Here's a sad story I haven't shared before.  My nana was born Emma Josselin. The Josselin line stretches back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  I'm sad to report that some of my ancestors were killed by Native Americans with hatchets in the 1690's. 

I wonder what my family members could have done to tick off their Native American neighbors?  

Let's face it.  It's not hard to put the pieces of this puzzle together. I wish I didn't come from LAND STEALERS, but I have to face the hard truth of my heritage. It is what it is. 

The Festivals

Catching up after a busy couple of weeks in B-town.  Last weekend Good Friend CB came for a visit.  Hoorah!!! 

I took a day off work and we bopped around stellar exhibits on campus.  Ceramics, Photography, Victorian Book Publishing. We saw it all.

On our second day, we drove over to Stinesville Quarry Festival. I'm sad to tell you that I've never spent time in this charming neighboring town, population 203.

Highlight of the festival was the pie auction.  The auctioneers skillfully drove up the bidding and the apple caramel pie went for 200$.  Two water pies ("poor man's sugar pies") went for about 25$ each. Generous when you get the backstory on water pie.   Originating in the Great Depression, water pie is made with water and a few other ingredients.  I'm wondering why someone would enter a pie contest with a water pie, but Stinesville is a land of mystery.

Both nights we zipped around town for Lotus Festival.  Another great festival, full of unexpected pleasures.  Check out San Salvador from France some time if you feel like listening to topnotch Occitan polyphony.  

Our time together was delightful.  Fall's off to a great start. 

The Festival

 Autumnal Greetings, One and All.  Today, we bring news of the Monroe County Fall Festival in Ellettsville. 

We were there at noon to watch the parade, featuring Ellettsville Elite.  The grand marshall was a man who owns a small business that sells signs, vehicle graphics and window tinting.  Other paraders included school communities, church folk, tractor drivers, young cloggers, equestrians, parade princesses, and firepeople in sky blue trucks. 

 Missing from the parade:  floats. 

Don't want to be overly critical, but floats are parade essentials.  I recommend a careful reading of How to Organize a Parade when organizing for next year.  This website clearly states:

One exciting element to consider for your parade is the inclusion of floats.

We're not mad at you, Ellettsville, but next year we sure would love to see some floats. Think it over.

On the good side, the paraders threw out gobs of candy.  We stood near a mom whose kids had a whole bag full.  I joked that the mom could use the parade candy for Halloween handouts next month. Mom told me that she was planning exactly that.  Doy. Way to state the obvious, leeway. 

 I nabbed a couple of Double Bubbles. Husbandman scored a mini-3Musketeers. 

After the parade we moseyed over to the festival booths.  We watched some young cloggers and HM ate a pulled pork sandwich.  

It's official.  Fall is here. 

 

The Apple Butter Festival

 We're back from the Apple Butter Festival in Spencer.  Surprisingly little mention of apple butter (ab) there.  We did find one booth selling ab so we bought a jar.  I'm hoping Husbandman can make some biscuits tomorrow so we can partake of this historic delicacy. Come to find out, ab has been around since the Middle Ages.  

The Summer Sorrows

Praying Mantis on the Playground

Nature Art created by 3rdLander

Nature Art created by another 3rdLander

 These are our last days of summer.  3 more weeks of hell.  Hate to pule like a cry baby complainer, but summer is not my favorite season.  6 reasons why summer is bad:

1. ever present sensation that my skin is burning off my bones whenever I risk a trip outside.

 2. disgusting slathering of sticky, smelly sunscreen on my exposed skin that sometimes gets in my eyes causing intense stinging when mixed with sweat.

3. unflattering summer attire, such as shorts and tee shirts. Not a good look for anyone, especially me.

4. irritating sound of bugs buzzing next to my ears as I take the occasional rare walk through shaded forests. 

5.  desperate panicky anxiety about being trapped inside air conditioned spaces (due to bugs, burning bones, sunscreen, etc.). 

6.  overwhelming fear and sadness about my contribution to climate change with excessive use of air conditioning.

Not a comprehensive list.  I haven't included comments about the various summer dangers we all face, such as fires and skin cancer, but I will point out one critical issue with ye olde barbecue grille. We aren't grillers, so we don't have to worry about swallowing wire grill brush bristles, but lots of people are, and do.  Stray wire bristles lodge in the digestive tract and make life uncomfortable for thousands every year.  Stop grilling immediately if you don't want to spend your last days of summer in the ER.  Look for alternatives to the wire bristle grill brushes.  Maybe try grill floss.

To be fair and balanced, I'll now focus on the few things I like about summer:  

A.  I love the summer blockbusters on the big screen. I saw Equalizer 3 last weekend.  Best movie ever. I might see it again before it leaves the theaters and you should too it if you feel like it.  Mission Impossible was also fun.

B. I love to swim.  I'm also quite good at it.  I swam competitively in high school and set records in the state of California on consecutive years. Look it up if you don't believe me. Unfortunately, I only swam a few times this summer because of the heat and the sunscreen issues mentioned above.  

To wrap this up, here's a summer haiku:

Oh summer sorceress!

 My garden cries for water

Why do you burn us alive? 

And ending on a good note:  The temperature dropped yesterday.  Husbandman and I traveled to the zoo.  I wore leggings.  We brought a picnic lunch and ate on a bench near the Kangaroo Crossing.  My mood was calm and cheerful.

Also, just FYI:  There's an International Chimpanzee Complex coming our way in 2024.  Stay tuned. 

Also, just FYI:  #1 Son's new album has been getting some great attention.  His release of Walking On Eggshells is by far the best thing that happened this summer. 

Unbound

Have I told you that #1 Son lives in Asheville NC now?

We read a book about Judith Scott called Unbound in 3rdLand this week.  I had never heard of her before, but now I'm a wee bit obsessed.  She could neither hear nor speak.  She had Down Syndrome.  She was institutionalized for 35 years, separated from her twin. When she moved to California  to live near her twin at last, she spent her days at the Creative Growth Art Center.  Drawn to fiber arts, she created non stop for the next 20 years. Her work became famous and is in museums all over the world. And now for the good part.... There's a Judith Scott exhibit.  In Baltimore. Right NOW.  If you feel like it, you should go to Baltimore to see this exhibit. 

 I am still mad at Oakland because of this summer's smashing and grabbing, but I have to give that city a big fat 5 on the Fist to 5 for being home to 50 years of Creative Growth at the CGArt Center.  

The SEL

We have a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum in our district. Every week, I pull out a big card with a photo on it and then I read a text on the back.  At first I rejected this whole deal. Scripted Curriculum?  I think not. 

At first, I only used the cards sporadically, but come to find out, the 3rdLanders are interested in the scenarios and like talking about stuff like empathy, friendship, and the complexities of emotions. Now I read a card a week during afternoon meetings.  The end of the day is never pleasant because we all want to get the heck out of there, but we end up having some good chats with the SEL cards.

Last week's card focused on Positive Self Talk (PST), a favorite strategy of mine. Whenever life gets overwhelming, and I feel like a parasitic gremlin is pinching my stomach lining, I take a breath.  Then I deliver a rational, caring inner monologue to get my head back in the game.  I highly endorsed PST to the 3rdLanders.  I even wrote on the board: "Use positive self talk" as something we should talk more about. 

Later that week, we got our chance.  As you know, moving kids quietly through hallways is one of my least favorite parts of the teaching gig.  On Thursday morning, the 3rdLanders got ready for Gym by forming a boisterous non-line at the classroom door. I rang our pleasantly sonorous chimes with little effect.

At last I got their attention after it dawned on them that they weren't going anywhere. I suggested that we all take a couple of deep breaths and use PST to figure out what we needed in this moment.  "Maybe you'll tell yourself something like, 'This is my Gym time and I love Gym. I'm going to stop shouting and jumping and grabbing people's bodies so I can get to Gym and have fun." I could see from their faces and their bodies that they were engaged in some serious PST.  Off we went.  

In short, our SEL curriculum helped us all out this week.  The right wingers hate SEL, but as usual, they are wrong. 

 

The Caterpillars

 We have finished 3 weeks in 3rdLand.  I'm still feeling more tired than I think is appropriate, but maybe my energy will return in time.

On the good side, I have rescued 2 monarch caterpillars and Nancer and I are raising them. As citizen scientists, we are committed to teaching our students how to be good stewards of the earth.  The 3rdLanders voted to name our caterpillar BOB.  I was against this, but ... democracy.  There's one 3rdLander who has bug phobia so when he first saw Bob's habitat, he curled up in a fetal position on the floor and expressed his fears with plaintive cries.  We talked it out and he seems fine now.  Keeps his distance.

We also continue living with a haiku spirit, noticing and caring about nature.  This week we cut construction paper frames and went out to the garden to zoom in on whatever captured our visions. We did this with our first grade buddies.  First graders are adorable and I am fascinated by them.  But I also love teaching 3rdLanders because you can tell them to go do a thing with their buddy and they go off and do it.

Foto Credit: Nancer

I can't take credit for the paper frame idea.  We read about it in a picture book about Sister Corita Kent, who was called the "Pop Art Nun."  Cool gal. Believed creativity is our life path. 

On an unrelated note, I learned today about mammals that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. There were some small ratty types doing just fine during the Jurassic Period.  

The Re-entry

Friends,

We're back in 3rdLand.  24 Kiddos, the standard amount, and yet, 24 feels like a teeming mass at this point in time.   I'm feeling like Fred Flintstone in his pre-historic car.  Legs moving frenetically.  Car standing stock still.  

I have been trying to write here and there, to no avail.  

2 weeks ago I started this snippet of a blog entry...

 There's a new exhibit at our History Center called Breaking the News.  It's about the history of our local papers.  It's a fine exhibit.  I was surprised to see a copy of our first newspaper, The Gazette from 1824.  We had about 500 people in Bloomington back then and we had a newspaper?  My sense of newspaper history is faulty, I have to just admit that right here and now.  Learn more at the MCHC if you feel like it.

Then, one week ago I started research to accompany this photo of tussock moth caterpillars. The research was fascinating but never resulted in a post.

As you can see, my writer identity has suffered because of my teacher job.  I don't know the 3rdLanders well yet, but they seem like a pretty good group.  Maybe I'll climb out of this handbasket of hell sooner rather than later. Please hang in there, both of you dear Readers.  I'll be back.  

The Haiga

Last few fab days of vacay.  In a week we'll be back in action, learning about, and with, a new group of 3rdLanders. Can't wait to meet 'em. I hope they have pleasant personalities. 

We usually start the year learning about Kobayashi Issa, the great haiku poet.  We follow up with a haiku hike around our playground.  After the hike, we write haiku and add watercolor imagery.  Voila.  Morning #1.

I just learned today that the combination of haiku with imagery is called haiga.  Haiga has been around for centuries.  During the EDO period (1603 - 1867), people who felt like it would create haiga for fun, sometimes at gatherings.  Haiga writers of today may use photography or collage with their haiku, rather than watercolor.  See above.

The Dans

The DANS ARE HERE! Brother Dan drove Father Dan to our fine town and we’re having a grand old time. A big outing for Dad is a drive to a medical appointment, so I’m trying to balance some fun field trips with restful down time.  Dad’s 94. He does not move easily nor well. He basically can’t move at all without a lot of assistance.

Yesterday we walked and wheeled at Switchyard Park.  I read all the plaques aloud to the Dans as they listened attentively.  My dad loves history.  We discovered that the first ever color television was made right here in B-town.

Today we drove to our largest state park, Brown County.  We walked and rolled along the Friends Trail, short and shady. Our stop at the Nature Center was a bust.  Even though it was 10:40 and they should have been opened, they were not. I took a photo of the Dans in front of the nature center in order to get fb credit. No one will know the difference.  We stopped for lunch and then headed home for naps.

Tomorrow’s the last day of the visit and I’m thinking of a campus walk followed by lunch on Kirkwood.  Dan2 commented they are fine with a “do nothing day.”  He might be trying to tell me something but I’m not sure.  As usual, I will err on the side of fun.