Things done over homeleave

My dad came to visit over homeleave. His first visit to our home. So we showed him around Philadelphia, saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We went to the old Wannemaker's, which is now a Macy's. There they have the world's largest working organ, which they play every day at noon and 5:30. So we listened to the noon concert, which was lovely. We saw a few old churches where our Founding Fathers were common visitors or members. Then we went down to the Italian Market, which was mostly closed at 6:00, but we found a great little bakery and bought a piece of chocolate raspberry ganache cake and a piece of chocolate covered cheesecake. They were delicious. Then we ate at a great little restaurant where the portions and quality were fantastic and the presentation was beautiful. I think it was called Sabrina's.

Friday we mostly hung around the house, but we did venture out into Hamburg, and we showed my dad the school. Saturday we made a lovely brunch with crepes, fruit salad and hashbrowns. Then we went to Lancaster and looked at Amish stuff. Quilts, baked goods, etc. We stopped at the big 10,000 Villages in Ephrata that has a little cafe inside and sells fair trade Persian Rugs. On Sunday we left Michael home and Dad and I explored Longwood Gardens.

Now I'm back to work. I'm pretty tired, but glad for a good visit with my dad, even though it rained and was cloudy every day he was here. Too bad you can't order up the weather for such occasions.

We may shortly have some exciting news to share. Pending the final decision... coming any day now.

Exciting news

Freerice.com now has many subjects to quiz yourself on! You can try famous paintings, your multiplication tables, world geography, chemistry, other languages... I'm having a ball this afternoon. Go get excited all over again!

Neglectful me

I have been mostly absent from the blogosphere lately. Sorry about that. I just spent most of my afternoon at work catching up on everything that's going on in everyone else's lives. I think part of the neglectfulness is the new school year and added responsibilities. I'm busy with Business Math and trying to think of new ways to explain problems that seem all too simple to me. Mostly I say, "Here's how you do it. Here's your assignment. Now do it." Then go around the classroom and answer questions. How there are questions, I don't really know. But some of the kids really love the class. I think it's because they've finally found a math class that they're good at. It builds their self-esteem. That's fun to watch. In English class today one of my students told me I looked pretty. That pretty much made my day. If a student even recognizes me as a human being it's pretty much a good thing. A human being who looks nice: even better.

We didn't have a long Labor Day weekend. Actually we had almost no weekend at all. We were on supervision Friday night and Sabbath, then had class meetings and elections Saturday night (that was as fun as jumping into a barrel of barracuda), then Sunday School, and right on into the regular school week. So I've been tired this week. Tomorrow we're going to a church two hours away to make an offering appeal for the school. So Saturday evening we're hoping to watch a movie. (What a novelty!) And Sunday I'm going to try to make it to the Farmer's Market to buy some produce. Those are my only plans.

This afternoon we're going into Reading. Michael's going to give plasma while I shop. On my list: Season 4 of The Office and bobby pins. Then we're going to Olive Garden for the never-ending pasta bowl. Can't have too much pasta, right?

Also, it's been freakishly hot and the school doesn't have central air, so I've been roasting in my office. Bleh.

Here I am today, after three weeks of school. That's the hardest part, and I survived!