Autumn in the Air
It's gotten considerably cooler over the past week or so. It's time to throw the doors and windows open wide and enjoy the beautiful days. This means it's also time to decide on which corn maize we'll be visiting this year. We're so fortunate to have so many in the area to choose from. We really liked the one we went to last year at Chick-Fil-A's ranch.
There are other activities associated with this time of year, not all so much fun, but enjoyable all the same. Pulling out the holiday china and the silver for a good polishing. Seasonal clothes change out and heavy duty closet cleaning. Raking leaves and trimming hedges and trees. Before too much longer, we'll start the month-long project of decorating the house for Christmas. (This is the year we begin decorating the outside of the house, as well). All this means parties, lots of parties!
Where did the year go?
It's already mid-term time. Study marathons commence soon, but that's a little misleading as one class was designed without a single test (oh, wow!) and the other class tests are week-long open book, essay format exams. This will be one of the easiest semesters on record. Except for all the 6-8 page weekly papers for both classes. Speaking of which, my professor took a paper written a couple of weeks ago with him to a history symposium in England. Hopefully, I'll get a decent review.
Johnna is so funny. We have a teacher's school supply store in the area and I drop in every month or so to pick up a few workbooks on different subjects: maps, math, science, spelling, etc. She's made a huge leap in math over the past several months (her strongest subject) and the current school/home learning effort has centered on fractions. Today while looking through the books found one on fractions ("Grandma, look what I found!!!") and parked herself on the sofa until working almost half the 50 page workbook. Tomorrow's "cook day" will give her an opportunity for a real fractions workout. She still hasn't completely caught on that she's learning at every turn of the corner. She's having fun. True enough, but she's now gobbling information at an exponential rate. She's still coming to us asking if she's smart. We always assure her she is, and I find it troubling she never had this confirmation before,. At this age she should know she's smart. What I hope to see is her "telling" us she's smart. Of course, when that starts happening we'll probably have to explain hubris, but that's a way down the road yet.
We're half-way through the weekend and we've managed not to pay attention to politics. From the glaze in Martin's eyes, I know he's suffering from withdrawals and will cave before Monday. I'll plug my fingers in my ears and chant "nanananananIcan'thearyou." I'm finished with the election dramas, or would be if I wasn't taking a political science class. I know who I'm voting for, as does the rest of the nation, and there's little more that can be said to change anyone's positions.
There are other activities associated with this time of year, not all so much fun, but enjoyable all the same. Pulling out the holiday china and the silver for a good polishing. Seasonal clothes change out and heavy duty closet cleaning. Raking leaves and trimming hedges and trees. Before too much longer, we'll start the month-long project of decorating the house for Christmas. (This is the year we begin decorating the outside of the house, as well). All this means parties, lots of parties!
Where did the year go?
It's already mid-term time. Study marathons commence soon, but that's a little misleading as one class was designed without a single test (oh, wow!) and the other class tests are week-long open book, essay format exams. This will be one of the easiest semesters on record. Except for all the 6-8 page weekly papers for both classes. Speaking of which, my professor took a paper written a couple of weeks ago with him to a history symposium in England. Hopefully, I'll get a decent review.
Johnna is so funny. We have a teacher's school supply store in the area and I drop in every month or so to pick up a few workbooks on different subjects: maps, math, science, spelling, etc. She's made a huge leap in math over the past several months (her strongest subject) and the current school/home learning effort has centered on fractions. Today while looking through the books found one on fractions ("Grandma, look what I found!!!") and parked herself on the sofa until working almost half the 50 page workbook. Tomorrow's "cook day" will give her an opportunity for a real fractions workout. She still hasn't completely caught on that she's learning at every turn of the corner. She's having fun. True enough, but she's now gobbling information at an exponential rate. She's still coming to us asking if she's smart. We always assure her she is, and I find it troubling she never had this confirmation before,. At this age she should know she's smart. What I hope to see is her "telling" us she's smart. Of course, when that starts happening we'll probably have to explain hubris, but that's a way down the road yet.
We're half-way through the weekend and we've managed not to pay attention to politics. From the glaze in Martin's eyes, I know he's suffering from withdrawals and will cave before Monday. I'll plug my fingers in my ears and chant "nanananananIcan'thearyou." I'm finished with the election dramas, or would be if I wasn't taking a political science class. I know who I'm voting for, as does the rest of the nation, and there's little more that can be said to change anyone's positions.