What's New in My Sewing Room

Here are some shots from my studio. I'm making the flower quilt for our living room. The stack of fabric is the next palette waiting to happen. The still life fruit is one of Lachen's paintings from art class. They were studying Matisse.

Boredom...

I am now on day 12 of sickness. Two Sundays ago Lachen, Aksel and I went over to my friend's Scott's house to watch E.T. When we got home I told Anna that I was feeling like I might get the flu. The next day was the day the Admission Office sent out acceptance letters. So I mustered through the day with chills and sweats. Then it went downhill very fast that night. So I was absolutely miserable for three days and then went to the doctor. I got a chest x-ray which was inconclusive but showed that I have an enlarged heart unrelated to being sick. After not getting better for a couple of days a CT scan was ordered. That showed that I have pneumonia and two nodules. The nodules are benign so no big deal there. I now have new medication for pneumonia and I am experiencing some of the side effects like not wanting to shower or shave for three days (maybe that's just because we are on spring break though). On Monday I have an EKG for my heart. Again, it's probably nothing but good to get it checked. My blood pressure is fine so I'm not worried about heart disease. The enlargement is probably just due to something minor.

So that is the latest with me feeling the crummies. I'm bored as hell just sitting in bed or on the couch. I'm not sure whether I get exhausted walking up the stairs because of being sick or because I have not exercised in about three weeks. Probably a combination.

And now back to more exciting blog entries; just thought I should give a brief health update.

St. Marks' Lions and a Tiger, too!

Spring Break is here. Well, for me, at least. Lachen and Aksel are still in school, and Shawn is buried in Admission work. But, I have 2 1/2 weeks to be a full-time mama, or my latest favorite way of saying that: "primary caregiver."

On Day 1 of this break, we went to the cheer for the St. Mark's basketball team at the New England Championships, filled 84 peat pots with seeds, playing badminton with the boys, vacuumed out the car, did "big shopping" at Whole Foods, and knit a flower. Wa-hoo! Also, I just realized that Shawn and my first date was 11 years ago today. We didn't really celebrate that. But, we did go a party last night, so that was a celebratory nod to good times with my Shawn Reid. We're also going to Boston to see a play on Saturday night: Two Men from Verona. It's about Galileo and Michelangelo. I love that going to at least one play every winter and a concert in the summer is a tradition for us. Any suggestions for this summer's concert? We saw Brandi Carlisle at an ampitheater last summer in Lowell, MA. There we were with two kids and a puppy. Fabulous!

Last week, Aksel became a saber-tooth tiger during the St. Mark's Winter Carnival. Raaaar!

My Techno-Steeped Classroom

Once in a while, the centerpiece of this blog shifts from the mighty Lachen and Aksel. Here are a couple of sites that tell you about what I've been doing at St. Mark's. The student body recently hosted social networking guru, Matt Chamberlin, for an assembly about using social networking sites. Matt also visited my classroom, and we had an invigorating discussion about podcasts, wikis, social networking, and all sorts of web-based communication. His blog post about the St. Mark's visit can be found at http://blog.clearcastdigitalmedia.com/. And, my students' wiki can be found at http://reidenglish.wikispaces.com. It's all about Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1. There are articles, podcasts, video podcasts, and even a rap written and recorded by 9th graders in my class. Who knew Shakespeare could be so 21st century!

On an entirely different note, the whole school recently broke from regularly-scheduled classes and took buses out into the community for a day of service. The 37 boys in our dorm went to a public housing complex in the nearby city of Worcester to clean hallways, common spaces, and playgrounds. I found myself talking about LVC a lot that day, and it reminded me how much the service trips to Colorado with Habitat for Humanity, a trip to Caring and Sharing Hands in Minneapolis, delivering Meals-on-Wheels in Forest City, and all the other service has formed me into who I am today. Good stuff!