The life of a Catholic school teacher

There are two kinds of people in this world, those who take naps, and those who don’t. I am a person who does. I don’t know if my desire to sleep in the middle of the day comes from an unhealthy lifestyle that consists of junk food and a lack of exercise or the stress and anxiety that I sometimes feel due to making a mistake at work and fearing the consequences. Maybe it’s genetic, my mom is an avid nap-taker. I have programmed myself to not call her during certain hours of the afternoon because I can be assured of waking her up in the middle of sleep. Perhaps my tendency to snooze during daylight is connected to my teenage mentality. I will be turning 30 in a little less than a month, yet I still feel as though my teenage years are still within reaching distance. Teenagers love to sleep, and perhaps my connection to my youth is still making me sleepy. Whatever the reason, this afternoon, I found myself lying in bed covered in my favorite childhood blanket, with my cat, Faye, laying on my stomach and my eyes quickly shutting as I soaked in the relaxation of the afternoon.

Whenever I choose my bed over the couch as my napping location, I can be sure that I oversleep the typical hour to an hour and a half napping duration. Today I set my alarm for two hours before drifting off. When I choose my bed, I can also be assured of a deeper sleep...the room is darker and cooler, and the bed is more comfortable. Sometime in the two hours of my deep, relaxing sleep, either Joey or Faye made their move and attacked one of my many knitting bags. Upon waking up and stumbling back into the living room, I found that my recently finished sock was laying in the middle of the living room next to the bag that it is stored in. The yarn destined for the second sock and my sock needles were still in the bag. This was not a quick job. Not like the times the cat(s) pull something off my craft table for attention, this sock had stitches pulled loose, cat hair woven in, and a large wet spot right in the middle. This sock had not just been pulled out of the bag to get my attention, whoever the culprit was, took my nap as an opportunity to roll around and play with the sock, which was knit from 100% merino, a natural fiber that the cat(s) are quite fond of. They ignore every other synthetic yarn I knit with, but anything made from natural fiber, it's a challenge keeping them away.

I'm not 100% sure which cat it was, it could have been Joey, but more likely it was Faye, given her history of running off with my knitting even when I'm not napping. No matter the culprit, the evidence has been restored to it's original state as best as I can get it, and put up out of reach. If I have to stand on my tip-toes to get the bag down now, I am hoping that the felines won't be able to get to it either.

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"Make time for yarn everyday" is the sign off on each episode of Knitting Daily. So far this summer, I have taken it to heart. Who am I trying to impress? I have taken this slogan to the extreme for quite a while now. This week, I still have not started that second sock, but not because I'm unmotivated to do it. I'd rather put my full effort into two other projects. One, a shawl knit in three pieces and then grafted together, is near completion. The other, a floppy beach hat that I would like to wear this weekend on a day trip to the beach. I am too lazy and broke to go to the eye doctor and get a new set of contacts, therefore, I cannot wear sunglasses at the beach and need something to shade my eyes. This was a spontaneous project that sprung up, but because it's a hat, I don't expect it to take long. It is mostly garter stitch in the round, which I knit at top speed. The shawl that I have been working on is epic. The pattern instructions for joining all three pieces was challenging to figure out, thank goodness for Ravelry! Now that they have been joined, I am on the edging, which consists of 80 plus repeats of a 10 row sequence that not only adds a lacy edge, but binds off the stitches on the body of the shawl. The end is near for this project and to prepare for the final phase, blocking, I had to order more pins from Knitpicks. Granted, I could have gone to Joann's and bought T-pins from the quilting section, but then I wouldn't have been able to scoop up some clearance Knitpicks yarn at the same time. Hopefully by the time my order of 100 flower-tipped pins arrive, this epic shawl will be complete. For my fellow knitters, and perhaps, shawl lovers, I am knitting "In the Pink" by Izzieknits.

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I've come down with 2nd mitten syndrome. I have not yet ventured into the world of knitting socks, though I'm on the brink and equipped with all of the necessary supplies (sock blockers...check). In the meantime, I am building my confidence with dpn's with a pair of fingerless mittens for my swap partner on http://www.ravelry.com. Though the first mitten is completed, albeit with a few mistakes in figuring out the proper way to 'm1', I am struggling to make some headway with the second mitten. This must be what that whole 2nd sock 'thing' is all about. I gave myself the deadline of finishing by Friday, as this swap has gone on all year and Halloween is the theme of this round. Unfortunately, due to lesson plans and paper grading being a top priority, and in general, not having my heart in the second mitten, it remains unfinished. I've communicated with my partner and to my great relief, she hasn't finished my hand-made gift either. We have agreed to finish our projects over the weekend and ship our packages on Monday. Lesson plans are done, paper grading typically waits until Sunday, so I now have nothing standing in my way. I think I will spend much of my Saturday on the couch, catching up on my dvr'd knitting shows, and finishing this doggone mitten! I will cure this syndrome!

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It's a typical Friday night for me. I have sworn off paper grading and lesson planning until tomorrow. I have chosen, instead, to knit. Since learning how to wind a center-pull ball of yarn using my thumb and an online video, I decided to wind one of my orange hanks of Malabrigo. After getting snagged by two major tangles and using scissiors, I finally got it wound into two separate balls. Wanting to work on my Bel Cloche hat, I dug out the pattern and my project bag. I wrongly assumed that I knew where in the pattern I had left off. I thought I was ready to do the eyelet row where a ribbon would be later inserted, but I failed to see the part about 5 rows of stockinette stitch with the contrasting color (the orange Malabrigo) before the eyelet row. I nonchalantly breezed through the eyelet row and the following 3 stockinette stitch rows. Then I noticed my mistake and I realized that there was no way around it, I was going to have to frog back 4 rows of knitting, which is the thing I hate the most. It's tedious and I just don't have the energy tonight.

So, with the fudged hat put neatly back in the project bag and stuck back on the shelf, I know that I have learned two lessons tonight: 1- I need to get a ball winder and 2- I need to mark where I left off on my patterns before I decide to leave them unattended for weeks at a time.

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It's so great to be on Spring Break. I have the next 8 days to relax and take part in my hobbies. I've started knitting a dressy hat that I may not be able to wear until winter again because it's made of wool. I've also taken up an interest in finishing my hexagon skirt that I started last summer. It's too hot to wear it now, so I'm going to continue to take my time finishing it so it will be ready to wear next winter. The one thing that I'm about to start working on is a sleeveless-sweater that zips and has a hood. It will be made of cotton so I can wear it to the beach. What does it say about me if I go to bed at night thinking about knitting? The things that make you go hmmm....

Future hubby and I will be going camping next week for three days and two nights. He took his vacation the same week as mine. Camping is always fun and relaxing and I'm seriously debating leaving my knitting at home. In all previous camping trips, I've always just taken a book, my journal, and a deck of cards for the epic Rummy 500 battles that ensue between myself and future hubby. At home, knitting keeps me from reading, so perhaps, I'll do the unthinkable and leave the yarn at home.

I also want to do some scrapbooking over this break. I have a couple of paper projects in the works and I need to get moving on them. Then there's the crochet lessons that I auctioned off at my school's PTO auction in the fall. I told the winner of my lessons that I would come do them over spring break.

This sounds to me like an awful lot to do over the next 8 days. I haven't even done school work for the week after my break. That has to go on the list too.

My to-do list may just have to be finished over summer vacation. I love that time when I get paid to sleep in and do nothing if I so desire. Feel free to be jealous all you non-teachers:)

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Here it is, another Saturday, and I'm at home preparing to do the same three things I do every weekend: clean the apartment, do school work, knit.

The apartment always needs cleaning, despite the fact that there are only two people living here. Our landlord did not feel the need for us to have dishwashers in our apartments, so dishes pile up quickly and have to be washed by hand. What joy!

School work isn't so bad, considering teaching is what I have waited my whole life to do. I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a teacher. So I don't really dislike doing school work, I just wish it didn't take up so much of my time. I'm in my fifth year of teaching and have lesson plans, and paper grading down to a science, but with a large class this year, the paper grading goes on forever.

I love knitting but since school started back this fall, I haven't had time to do it as much. I am currently working on a short-sleeve cardigan sweater, and a skirt. I am SO super excited about the skirt. It's an ankle-length skirt made up of 6 rows of hexagons. Each row has 7 multi-colored hexagons. They get larger as the rows go from the waist down. It's very labor-intensive and full of tiny stitches on size 3 needles, but I'm on my third row and because there's a lot of repetition in making the hexagons, I don't have to worry over figuring out the pattern. Hopefully it will be ready for a debut by the time the weather gets cooler, which won't be for a while since I'm in North Carolina and the weather doesn't ever get as cold as I would prefer.

Future hubby wants to take a day trip to the beach tomorrow, but I have serious issues with going on a Sunday. I hate not having a day to recoup before going back to work after a trip like that, even if it is just for a day. It's late in the beach season, which, hasn't stopped us before, but I really like being at home. I know he doesn't like it. He's the type to want to get away as much as possible. I like being at home. I hope that doesn't progress to me being a shut-in one day when I'm old and grey. Maybe I'm just lazy and enjoy being at home and the possibility of taking naps. Oh well.

I'm off to wash dishes while watching a great movie/musical, Hairspray. I couldn't get enough of this moive when it came out a couple of summers ago. I've decided that I have to clean first because I don't like the idea of sitting down and doing school work in a dirty place. Is that weird?

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