1st Day Operationalizing Our New Reading/Writing/Thinking Space on Mt. Pleasant. We Will Get Used to This. Promise.

The steps to the front porch are now set, and only need to be polished and edged (moderately). The porch is structured, windows in, and the interior good to go. All that is needed is a ceiling fan, which I've been searching for online for several weeks. I had the contractor order one, as it is slight in height, matches, and (he should be happy) way under budget.

The skinny for those that don't know. I had windows on the 2nd floor replaced, and asked the contractor to check on the front porch that was slanting and detaching from the house. I wanted him to pump it back up. It was unusable, and sort of a pain in the ass. When they got into the porch structure, though, they saw it was being held together by shreds of ply-wood and would collapse any day  - what you get for a house built in the 1930s. So, I said, do what you got to do and when I saw the $$$ tag, I said, "Okay, we are all moving into the front porch because that is a lot of money. I want to make it a literacy work space."

It used to be a shoe room, but because it sees full sun all year round, I decided to make it a reading/writing/thinking room (especially in the winter, because it gets the heavy sun). We shall see. Thanks to Pamela Kelly and Cynderballz for nodding up and now and saying, "fuck no" or "that works" when I sent Amazon possibilities with my interior orders. We still have to install the ceiling fan, and I'm also thinking I may want to get a giant bean bag chair as the 2nd seating possibility - that, and a computer table for the Crandall chair (it really is called the Crandall Chair...bought at Pier One several years ago for like $40).

Shout out to Tiffany Jackson, too - I'm getting there! I will get Grown read this week. I promise. I hiked with you two days in a row, and am likely to finish the rest seated on this new porch. I actually brought it outside to test-read in the space while receiving several orders from Amazon for this fall's Reading Landscapes: Writing Nature in the 21st Century This grant allows us to do great work with teachers again this Fall, and I'm preparing kits from home. I think the Amazon trucks stopped six times yesterday with supplies that I need to mail selected participants - because of Covid-19, applications came from all across the nation, and not just Connecticut. Lucky for us, we get to celebrate Weir Farm National Historic Site with the rest of the nation in 2020.

I'm also thrilled to be reading Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed's When Stars are Scattered, which we will definitely use with Ubuntu Academy in 2021. I'm also finished with Angela Stockman's Creating Inclusive Writing Environments in the K-12 Classroom. The second I read the title was being released, I pre-ordered...wonderful to read her work, especially with CNY ties, connections tot he National Writing Project, and her years of expertise.

And I need to say, "Thank you, Big Y, for putting fresh salmon on sale, because it's been spectacular to eat with couscous and green beans." 

It's the small things in life.

It's also the BIG things in life - Tiffany Jackson mesmerizes me with her writing.

Today, I am going full-force in 'transition land,' heading to writing projects yet to begin, and eagerly waiting THE WRITE TIME recording with a tremendous, award-winning author (shhhhh) this afternoon (debuting a student interviewer, too...breaking away from just teachers at the Mic). 

It's Tuesday. 

Yesterday was Monday, but I'm feeling semi-accomplished with it. It simply feels good that some of the household projects are finally coming together.