An Acceptable Onslaught

We're adjusting over here. I tell you, it's a good thing I don't work at the writing consultant job until next week because it's all I can do to keep my classes straight and remember to check my email. Oh, the email. So many. It's an onslaught, I tell you.

But the students are precious and none of us want to kill each other yet. I need to hold on to this feeling because, oh dear Lord Jesus, it will change.

Seriously, though! My Mon/Wed class is a bunch of dolls and I can already tell that my Tues/Thurs class is adorbs as well. Tomorrow will seal the deal for me. It's so rare that both classes are good. Usually there's a binary: one is too chatty, the other is totally silent. One works hard, the other is lazy. One asks questions and interacts, the other resists and challenges (not in an educational way, more in a rat bastard kind of way). So, while I don't want to get my hopes up over here, they may or may not already be floating around the ceiling humming a heavenly chorus.

And look how my day started! If you look closely, you'll see The Precious - those shortbread cookies that Nat King Cole makes at Christmas.

We were hanging out at her place and the convo went like this:

NKC: Oh! By the way, I have some leftover precious cookies in the freezer.

Me: Give them to me immediately.

NKC (grimacing a bit): Hmm, you know. They've been in there a long time. I dunno. They may taste...???

Me: Give them to me immediately.

NKC: Do cookies get freezer burn?

Me: Give them to me immediately.

I'm here to report that they do well after being in the freezer for...let's not even think about how many months. They are crispy and flavorful, with only the slightest hint of...former frozen-ness. Hot coffee washes that slight taste right away, leaving only precious yumminess in its wake.

On another note entirely, this one has been the very picture of despondency:

Now that school is in session and I actually leave the house on a regular, you know, daily, basis, she doesn't have full run of the living room. She has to stay in her cage until one of us gets home. The lady bun bun doth protest, let me tell you. She misses being cage free. The other day I caught her reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings...

I have managed to make some serious progress in the backyard swamp land, though. While I have a long way to go, here's a mini update.

Before

Currently

Basically, it is being transformed from jungle swamp land to barren dirt. I'm keeping the three trees and that's basically it because everything else is just weeds. I have decided where we'll plant grass and where we'll have a mulch bed with painted wood borders. A deck make-over will have to wait, but it's already looking so much better. You can't see it now (I'll show you in future photos) but the ground is covered in a random array of large walking stones. None of them match and there's no discernible pattern. After all the brush is cleared out, I'm going to take up all the stones as well and plant (1) grass seeds, and (2) sunflowers along the fence line we share with our neighbor. We are prepared for the grass to take a couple of years to grow in. Remember last year when I renovated the front yard? You can hardly tell that there were ever landscaping stones at all: a year later, the grass has filled in almost all the space.

So, progress all the way around over at dawrighthouse. Despite what this one says.