Back to School Sale!

The first day of school went smoothly around here, thank goodness...and I am finally getting back to my work life.  All the work (writing, etc.) has to happen when kids are asleep, guests have left, and this makes for one very tired freelancer.

I recently had an article come out here--but I need to avoid commenting on details to protect the privacy of some vulnerable minors.  It's a bad situation, but that's all I can say for now.  It fits under the category of 'something has gone really wrong with protecting kids.' I used to teach in inner-city environments like DC and Buffalo, NY, I know when something should be reported, but I'm worried that no one will look into this, despite my best efforts to report the info safely.

In happier news:

I'm having an article come out in the next issue of PLY Magazine!  It's called "The Mad Felter" and I'm excited to see how it looks in print.

In other happy news...

I am running a sale over on Ravelry!

Use the coupon code:
backtoschool2019

and get 20% off all my Rav patterns until September 12th.  (ends midnight, CT, US & Canada)

This is your chance to get my new pattern, Strippy McStrippit, on sale, too!

I'm giving blog readers a special opportunity to get the sale a little bit ahead of everyone else, too...if you read this, feel free to share the promotion! Thanks for checking out my work!  Happy September!

Closing curriculum centre short-sighted

Here's the link to my analysis piece, which came out today in the Winnipeg Free Press.
What's the short version? Manitoba's Education Minister has conflated the salary of the Winnipeg School Division school superintendent (one school district among many in the province) with the closing of the provincial Curriculum Support Centre.  In the end, who is negatively affected by this closure?  Students, teachers, and Manitobans' future ability to think critically, as educated people should.

Read more here--
Closing curriculum centre short-sighted:
Winnipeggers like to joke about finding a good bargain, but when it comes to educational expertise, the right thing is to pay professionals what they’re worth. In a recent question period at the Manitoba legislature, NDP education critic Matt Wiebe quoted a teacher who was concerned about the April 1 closure of the Curriculum Support Centre...

Repair

Today was "International Repair Day" and while this link is about fixing electronics, it's relevant to my Vancouver Jewish Independent article which came out on Friday.  I called it "Thanks for the earth...buried under plastic."  (So, fixing electronics would be a good start there!)

The CBC Manitoba online also just ran an opinion piece I wrote, and it's called:
When it comes to inclusion for kids with special needs, Manitoba schools need improvement
It sure would be super if we had a quick fix that restored enough funding to the public schools to help them provide the legally mandated 'appropriate education' that kids with challenges need.

--It does seem like everything I'm working on has a "please fix-it" theme, doesn't it?

Finally, if you've been reading the blog a long time, you may remember the Infinity Sweater.

I wrote that blog post in November of 2016, which means my kid has been wearing and loving this sweater for a while now.  He's worn it for two full Manitoba winters (about once a week) and he doesn't want to give it up.  The good news is that the chest still fits him, although it's more fitted now than when he was pictured here, in 2016.  Also good news?  He's grown quite a bit.

So, we're just adding on a couple of inches of "extension" to the sleeves, and we think it probably will last one more winter.  We hope so, anyhow.  "We"= this kid and me.  Today we shopped for matching yarn in my stash, and we found that I'd used up all the dark blue, but we had both other contrasting colors left.  Here's what he chose.

Our temperatures today were right around freezing. (0C, 32F) so we did a lot of playing indoors this afternoon rather than go outside to play.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer and we hope to explore a new playground.

Here's a bigger idea of the living room photo shoot for sleeve extensions...complete with the 'fits Victorian houses but is energy efficient' gas fireplace, pouring out warmth into the room.

And here's Sally the dog, staying warm by the fire.  She will be 14 years old (or so) in November!

Here's to another year of the Infinity Sweater!  I am probably never doing that mind-blowing math to make these symbols in stranded knitting on another kid yoke sweater, so let's enjoy it while we've got it....for a third year of wear.  (From age 5-7, so far)  Here's to Slow Fashion October--which in my house, includes lots of repair, and handmade stuff.

Back to school

The last few days before school starts, well, it was all a big blur.  Although someone may have taken some, it's easiest to admit...there are no photos that I took.  It was crazy.

We've been picking an older neighbour's apple tree (and tidying up underneath it) and well, it's a lot of apples.  I have an enormous shopping bag of apples left in the fridge, and that is after countless dehydrator apple chip sessions, applesauce, peach-apple jam, a couple of crumbles, and at least an apple a day for everybody.   (We have also donated a lot of apples so others might eat them.)

Then, last weekend, we went out to a U-pick vegetable farm, because I needed to make some pickles.  I thought I needed maybe 12-15 lbs of cucumbers.  I spoke with the farmer, who is also a professor at our Professor's university.  I held Sadie the dog's leash.  And before I knew it, twins and their professor dad had picked:
Over 40 lbs of cucumbers
a dozen ears of corn
a zucchini the size of a cricket bat
one bright orange winter storage squash

I stopped them right then and there.  It's been a lot of putting up since then.  I've canned 23 lbs+ of pickles.  The rest of those cucumbers also got donated.  A family can only eat so many...

While this happened, we prepared for the start of Grade 2!

And, this article ran...(and I missed it entirely, so forgive the delay in mentioning it.)
The benefits from repetition

Soon-- it will be a new year!  If you celebrate it, wishing you a very happy and healthy Jewish new year! It's 5779!  Now it's back to catching up.  Thank goodness for school. :)