Break

Tomorrow I go back to school after a week of "break" -- this word is in quotations because my "break" was consumed by a to-do list longer than an egret's beak:

* shopping for a mother-of-the-bride dress for daughter Liz's April wedding
* grading 46 writer's notebooks that my students turned in
*diving into report cards
*putting my kitchen back together after painting cabinet frames (will almost certainly be repainting -- don't like how dark the green trim makes the kitchen look).
*pruned orchard, cleaned up berry beds, planted replacement plants for ones the gophers got.
* went to an all-day technology conference on Saturday that turned out to be pretty much of a waste.
* Read several novels that my students will read.
*Went to a concert -- a traditional Irish group called The Chieftains
*planned lessons (sort of)
*Cleaned my classroom (sort of)
*Walked 2-3 miles almost every day (Yay)
*Went shopping for a new stove.  I only like the expensive ones...

Things I didn't do:
*Clean out the chicken coop
* Weave
*Get the car washed
*Practice my German
*Get all students' papers corrected (not even close)
*Replant the 4 roses that have been languishing in wine barrels for the past 5 years

Max loves riding in the new truck with his dad

Oh, another thing I did was spend time with Bruce -- we worked in the garden together, played cribbage, watched a bit of TV and went shopping.  So nice just having some time for "normal" stuff.  I have a boatload of work to do in preparation for tomorrow, but will leave it all and go to bed now.  Tomorrow will be fine, planned or not.

One last wonderful piece of news is that it's supposed to begin raining on Wednesday and carry on through the weekend.  Happy Day!