This has been my “spring break” from one of my jobs, which has been nice. I’ve gotten to sleep in a bit, and a few students have missed so I’ve caught up on some admin tasks and other things I needed to do.

Over the weekend, we planned to do a nice long hike because there was excellent weather, but I ended up hurting my lower back and had to scratch that idea. I’ve been getting better, doing yoga videos and taking ibuprofen and such, and I think I’ll just keep doing some of the yoga going forward because it has been a lot of fun and feels good.

We did go over to some friends for dinner Sunday night and enjoyed outdoor time with people not from our household, which…was missed. I miss seeing people, and really can’t wait. I’ll get my second shot in less than one week though, so it is only a little bit longer until I’m fully vaccinated.

I’ve been working on some things for my studio, some policies changes for fall that I am working on and will announce to them probably at the beginning of May, and figuring out a “return to in-person lessons” plan. After Louie and I are both fully vaccinated, in late April, it seems like it might be time to start trying to get back to it, if we wear masks and take reasonable precautions. If the kids can be in school, I think they can come to their lessons, if they and their parents want…after my household is fully vaccinated. I hope also that the kids’ parents will be vaccinated, but it shouldn’t matter too much if we are wearing masks, if I run a good air filter, and maybe even leave the windows open (at least a bit), and limit the number of students at one time.

So that’s all exciting, but strange. I assume I’ll have a mix of in-person and online students for a bit, so I’ll have to work on the logistics, but I think it’ll be wonderful to start returning to normalcy. That might mean that within a month I’ll have to start wearing real pants to teach with!

I thought the sky yesterday looked really cool in my neighborhood.

I got a few more plants and things yesterday at Home Depot. I am trying to grow a few things in pots as well and spruce up the front of our house. It’s a little tricky, I realized, because we don’t get much sun in the front of the house, but lots in the back. There’s a lot to growing things and gardening, but I have been enjoying just trying my hand at it. I have some brainstorming ideas as well, such as making a wildflower area in our yard to attract bees and tearing down the horrible back porch we have (it is just awful, needs to be redone, but we don’t know if we want to redo it in the same way, so my latest idea is to demo it FIRST and then see what we miss about it, which I suspect will be, a way to get out the back door upstairs and nothing else.)

The front of our house is in need of some TLC, some paint mostly, but a bit of concrete work, but I thought flowers would cover it up and make people think we care a little bit. That white splotching is where the red paint has worn off, and there’s some white paint peeling in the front, maybe these are things to look at this summer? Home ownership can be a constant time suck, I’ve realized, if you let yourself get bogged down by all the small things that are wrong. I really don’t want to spend all of my free time doing things around the house and would prefer to read, but I suppose a few things are okay.

Books!

Recently read:

Super Host by Kate Russo: I enjoyed this book quite a lot, though there was a gratuitous (in my opinion) sexual assault scene that happened to one of the characters (spoiler alert, simply for that, it isn’t graphic, but it just seemed unnecessary). Otherwise I thought it was well done, a unique novel set up, and felt modern.

Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins: nonfiction, a Black woman tracks down her family history and roots, a great read, very interesting and thought provoking, highly recommend.

(forgive me if I already told you the following, but I couldn’t find where I did)

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad: I cried a lot during this book, so just a warning, but it’s good. It’s a book about the author, the story of her getting sick, dealing with it and the aftermath. I felt a personal connection to the story of difficulties Suleika was going through because I met Louie shortly after his wife died of cancer, and it made me see a bit more how that might have felt, from a different point of view. I think that’s partly why I cried so much, but it was a good cry.

Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah: good! This was a bit longer ago so I forget exactly, but I liked it quite a lot.

Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende: good in a different way. I need to read more Isabel Allende.

How about you? Any books to recommend? Thoughts on protocols for returning to in-person lessons?