Just about the holiday weekend!  I will be working a bit on the 4th. Not quite sure how much, but I should have the rest of the weekend off, which  will feel pretty darn good.

Got in some biking this morning:

We did a quick 9 miles. Now I only have 378 to go 😀  

I also did a lifting workout today, which is the reason I only did 9 miles on the bike.

So, you all know I have been feeling pretty stressed for quite a while now with the endless house closing, work, etc.  I also have been feeling a lot of stress with my literacy learner. I have been working with the same learner for a year and a half now and we have made only a small amount of progress – even though he works very, very hard.  We have met every Monday for the last 1.5 years with only a few holidays in there. Without getting into a huge amount of detail, my learner has a learning disability and some emotional problems as well and it has just gotten hard to do the tutoring for me.  I was beginning to dread each weekly meeting and that isn’t fair to me or the learner. So today I had a long talk with the coordinator and she is going to find another tutor to work with him and I will be taking a break. Maybe permanently, I don’t know.  I will be working with him for a few more weeks to transition, but I have to say that I feel a *huge* sense of relief about this now. On the other hand, I also feel like a bit of a failure. None of my learners went on to get their GEDs, although this current one could possibly do that with a couple more years of hard work. Literacy tutoring was not what I thought it would be, but it is okay to admit that it doesn’t fit for me. I certainly gave it enough time to figure that out.

That really is going to relieve a good chunk of stress for me.

I also fixed the espresso machine…again! This thing drives me nuts. First was the electrical cord and we got that straightend out. Then the water sensor stopped working. There is a little magnet inside that detects water levels and it kept saying the tank was empty when it was full, which meant no espresso. I was about ready to throw in the towel, but then found a replacement magnet online for $15 and we figured it was worth a shot. I guess magnets can lose their magnetivity (??) over time. We got that part in and now the machine works again.  For now LOL.  Iced latte on a hot and humid day:

Poor Pixie with her long hair doesn’t like this heat.  She curls up and sleeps all day (more than usual), usually in a corner somewhere:

Poor girl.  I have brushed an extra cat’s worth of hair out of her the last couple days.

However, there is a front coming through with storms tonight and what looks to be a great 3 days of weather!

Street lights are on as it was getting really dark.

Good thing nice biking weather is rolling in.  I have a lot of miles to do 😀

Happy 4th everyone! I will still be doing a blooming post tomorrow because I love them, but you all have a super weekend!

Let’s start the day with a fun shot I took yesterday.  This is life in a small town –

Good thing they didn’t poop in my sidewalk or I would have been out there yelling.  Sometimes there is a covered wagon that goes by – on the street and slowing down traffic.  It’s legal here, though.

I realize I haven’t done just a regular food day in a while.  Seems like it has been all lobster rolls, sundaes and Indian food. 😳

I have been doing good using up my breakfast foods in the cupboard, which was a May goal.  I am down near the end of the quinoa flakes.

Today wasn’t such a nice day.  I did squeak in a 6.5 mile ride this morning before rain came in.

I keep staring at the front walk way.

Ugh?

After an uber busy morning at work, I had a quick lunch.  Yogurt and apple topping mess.

I think I have this 2 or 3 times a week now.

No latte shot today because I had tutoring.  I had very good news with my literacy learner.  This learner is the 4th one I have been working with in about a year and a half.  One learner just didn’t do any work and 2 others quit, so I was feeling a bit depressed about whether I was doing any good.  Anyway, I have been working with this learner since mid February and he just had his first post test done and he improved an entire grade level since we have been working together!  Yay!  I was so happy for him for his hard work, and for me that I actually am doing okay as a tutor. That made me feel a lot better.

We still have a ways to go, but I am hoping to get him up to speed at some point to take the GED prep classes.  Most likely next year some time if he keeps going.

Dinner tonight was a good standard dinner of a turkey burger.  I nibbled on these while cooking:

I stopped to take a picture of the nibbles and I ended up not going to the bag and getting more since it made me very aware that I was munching.  Guess that’s a good thing!

Seeing this countertop makes me want to do *my* next home improvement project now, which will be the kitchen counters.  That is supposed to be next year since I already did the bathroom this year.   One thing at a time.

Working some tonight since I had tutoring earlier. Mondays are hectic for both of us pretty much every week.

I think a latte at home is a good idea, don’t you?

Last night we had a holiday open house for Literacy NY.   It’s hard to believe it has been a year since I started tutoring!

The tutors got together for a nice meeting.  Haven’t seen some of these people since we did our training a year ago.  Family represented here. John tutors math and my mom also tutors reading.

The director said she forgot her camera and you know I am always prepared, so I lent her mine.  This is what happens when someone else tries to take a picture with your camera.  

This has been an interesting year.  It was not what I was expecting, although truthfully I am not really sure what I was expecting.

I am on my third learner in a year.  I guess I thought I would be tutoring and things would be all rosy and we would meet each week and make progress and the learner would meet all their goals.  Reality is much different than that.

Sometimes literacy is a small part of why someone may be struggling and bigger problems really need to be addressed that get in the way of the learning.

Then there is the reality check of how much work has to be done.  When you have someone reading at a 6th grade level and they think they are going to take the GED test in 3 months – it is a huge reality check when they realize that it will take much, much longer than that.  Literacy tutoring isn’t school. It’s only a couple hours a week and requires a lot of independent study time.

Keeping a learner’s attitude up and positive is a huge part of tutoring.  Bolstering self esteem is just as important as vocabulary.  That is something that I had to learn as well.  Walking the fine line between correcting stuff and being positive about it is a tough one.

It was a little disappointing, particularly with my first learner, when he just didn’t put forth any effort at all and would often not show up for meeting or when he did show, he hadn’t done anything during the week, so progress was glacial.  I kind of wasn’t expecting that as I figured that when people actually came for help that they were ready, but that isn’t always the case.

Tutoring is also mentally exhausting.  I have taught before (music), so giving a lesson isn’t really a new thing, but this is just so tiring!

Prepping is hard as well because material for adult learners is  hard to come by.  When going over grammar concepts, too many books and worksheets have little kid stuff on them, which can be insulting to an adult, don’t you think?

It feels like something that is so important to do, though.  I know how extremely lucky I am that I loved reading from the get-go and immersed myself in books all throughout school and that made some things much easier for me (including giving me a place to hide from the bullies).  Reading truly is fundamental and I wish that everyone had the love of reading as it is a gift.

So, we shall see what happens in the next year.

Our weather hasn’t felt very Christmasy – rain mostly instead of snow.  Our tree feels all holiday, though.  I was just admiring it with the presents underneath that arrived from John’s family today.

Today’s ornament:

A cupcake!  From my mom.  There is a series of these cupcake ornaments and I now have 2 of them.

Humid and rainy spring day today.  A good day to be at the gym and not out riding.

Today I was doing deadlifts.  A guy came up to me after a set and said “I love deadlifts. They make me feel like I am going to explode!”  Think I will step aside when I see him doing that move  😉  We will file that in the bizarre comment pile I am collecting from the gym.

I found doing the single leg SHELC move in this month’s series is something I can’t do.  It caused an alarming feeling in my back when I did the left side alone (which is the side of my herniated disk).  I figure just doing the regular double-leg SHELC  is good enough.  It has to be, I guess.  I am so not taking any chances.

I came back home and went old school for breakfast.

Oat bran!  I found this box in the back of the cupboard and I really hate to think of how old this box is.  I would say about a year old.  Did I really just admit that on the internet? No bugs or anything, so it seemed safe 

I forgot how hot oatbran stays, so this breakfast had to sit for a while for me to eat it.

I worked busily until lunch and then made up my egg salad.

Perfectly simple lunch.

I thought I would give you a literacy tutoring update since it has changed a bit.  I am now going to be working with a new learner.  The one that I had just wasn’t working out.  He would skip meetings and not call me and in all the months I have worked with him, he was on time once.  Most times he was 15 minutes late (this, with me being a very punctual person, drove me completely insane). Then he was not doing all of his assigned work, so lessons were just me trying to pull him along since November of last year.  It’s just not fair to me or to a person that really wants to work who is waiting for a tutor.  After talking with the coordinator and having him do a no-show on Monday, we are getting a new learner for me.  My old one will have to call and get in the back of the line for another tutor if he wants one.  I feel kind of bad, but very relieved at the same time.  I am not sure when I will meet my new learner, but she is already assigned to me as of today.

Even though it was hot and humid, I still had a hot latte.

And a snack of some tortilla chips (gym hunger).

I had the most productive day at work today and got in extra lines by the time dinner rolled around I and could knock off for the day.  I was in the mood for stir fry – so I came up with a combo of broccoli sauteed in coconut oil, then I threw in some raw shrimp with orange ginger sauce (LaChoy).  Fresh pineapple tossed in at the very end and voila:

Pretty fresh and tasty, I have to say.  5 ingredient dinner.

Pixie has been sleeping so much since it got warmer.  I didn’t think it was really possible for her to sleep even more, but she seems to be doing it.  Here she is laying on my flower catalog (I am just looking, not buying, I swear).

Cute, cute.

This heat has also brought out one of my irises.  I couldn’t wait until Friday for the What’s Blooming to show it off!

Eeeeeee!!!! This is Boysenberry Buttercup.  It’s a huge bloom, too! We really need to move so I can have more yard to garden in.

Do you ever have one certain day a week that always ends up crazy or out of order?  Wednesdays always seem that way for me.  I woke up and did some work while waiting for John to get up so we could bike to breakfast.  I was getting hungry and a little cranky and was ready to go on my own when John got up.  He told me from now on to wake him up, so you heard it people!  I will get him up at 7 (or earlier), no matter what time he went to bed.  I had a protein drink before setting out.

We headed out to North Country Cafe. It was a nice biking morning.  Maybe 60 degrees or a bit warmer.  We zipped along, too!

The cafe was out of wheat bagels.  Booo….  However, the baker there had just made up an apricot orange coffee cake.  I had to be the first one to have a slice of that.

A very different breakfast for me, don’t you think?  It was still a bit warm, too.  Yum, yum.  Their baker is quite talented.  We see her always mixing away when we are there. I was a little concerned about how long this would last me, but I was fine until noon.  Not to mention getting in a good 12 mile ride today.

One of my goals for the month of September is to join a group or volunteer.  Well – the local literacy group had an open house this morning, so I went to check it out.

This is something I have been thinking about doing for a while and the training starts at the end of the month.  I am officially signed up!  They were very excited that there would be a tutor in my little town as they need them there. They just opened an outreach office in my town, so that will work out well.

The orientation meeting is on the 29th of this month. I will decide what track I want to teach after orientation. Each week during October is a training class for what you are interesting in tutoring. You can choose ESL, basic literacy, writing or GED training.

I am kind of nervous. This is a big commitment.  It is for a year and 2-4 hours per week.  I have taught before for music, but it has been a long time.  It’s good to step out of our comfort zones.

Question: Do you volunteer for anything?