Ridiculous Fun Fact

Aksel's Writing Workshop teacher is a wonderful spunky lady. She loves Aksel's stories, and she makes the kids all feel like super stars. She was also Marcia Cross's acting coach. (She's the red-headed Bree of Desperate Housewives. She was born in Marlborough, the next town over from Southborough.) Now, that is a ridiculous bit of trivia that you can all use at Aksel's wedding.
Have a marvelous day!

Spring Seedlings

Some daffodils are pushing up in what will eventually be my tomato patch.

Nearby, chives and parsley are coming up. Aksel ate a handful of garlic chives this morning, and he's been odiferous ever since!

























These marigolds are from seeds from last year's marigolds. The inspirational pictures on the right are Iowa Highway Department Roadside Flowers.


Okay, I know. I planted the tomatoes and corn WAY too early.


Here's a zinnia and marigold will grow up to be great friends.

Tomorrow morning, we'll plant peas outside! How do I know it's time? Well...here's some of the phenology advice I've come across:
When crocuses bloom, it's time to plant peas.
When red winged blackbird females return it is time to plant peas.
When the chickadees build their nests, plant peas and spinach.
When dandelions are blooming plant potatoes, beets, lettuce, spinach and carrots.
When the iris bloom, plant the peppers and eggplants outside.
Plant beets, lettuce, spinach when lilac is in first leaf.
When lilac blooms, plant beans, cukes and squash.
Plant corn when oak leaves are the size of squirrels ears.
Plant your corn when apple blossoms start to fall.

Grandma Grandpa and Constanza Visit

Grandma and Grandpa have an exchange student from Argentina staying with them this spring. Her name is Constanza, and her English is superb. We also learned that she likes Dad's sense of humor, she's a fan of meat and potatoes, and she likes dogs. She seems to be the perfect fit for the Hemberger house!

During their visit, Constanza went to St. Mark's for two days to get a taste of a different sort of high school. She's going to FCHS where I went to high school, so I knew a couple days at St. Mark's would give her a well-rounded experience of American secondary school.

We also went to Louisa May Alcott's home, Orchard House, where she wrote Little Women. That was Grandma's choice. Grandpa's choice was going to the U.S.S. Constitution maritime museum. His other pick was to eat in the St. Mark's dining hall, but that adventure will have to wait until another trip. Lachen and Aksel wanted to go fishing, so Grandpa's birthday present was a short-term Massachusetts fishing license. Lachen declared that "the fishing in Wisconsin is a lot better," but at least they now have fishing poles and tackle in Wisconsin, Minnesota (at G&G Reid's), and Massachusetts. They are nothing if not well equipped.

In the fishing theme, we went to a fishing village north of Boston called Newburyport where we had the best mussels of all time. The boys devoured them, and we all had seafood aplenty: clam chowder, seafood stew, shrimp, scallops, mmmm...

Other memories:
Lachen: "The best part of learning to read is that bedtime stories never have to end."
Three foods we must have when the G&G Hemberger are in town: pineapple, cornnuts, and Cherry Garcia ice cream.
All 7 of us riding illegally in a car built for 5.
Constanza and I learned that Harvard is so famous that they don't have a sign ANYWHERE!

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!