Speed Post

I just let my morning class out fifteen minutes early. They'd worked hard, and I figured they deserved a little treat. What I should be doing is grading papers. I've gotten myself into the familiar place of procrastinating grading a large portion of papers until they've absolutely got to be handed back. So I do some crazy three-day grade-a-thon bonanza and get them off my back. As soon as I do it, I think, "Man, that feels good. Why don't I just do that first thing next time? Just get it over with and then have ten days to two weeks of nothing major hanging over my head?" And then I don't do it and suffer instead. I'm kind of an idiot sometimes.

Anyway, I'm going to use this little window to blog because I feel like I need to do something other than grade for a couple of minutes in order to maintain my humanity.

We spent the weekend in Detroit with family and loads of bees. We had an excellent dinner of soup and rolls at Ben and Erin's - and how can that not be awesome? Soup AND the Griswolds and Paul and Linda? It was fun. The soup was great but not as tasty as Addy, the world's most delicious baby. I could dine on her chubby awesomeness every day and be pretty happy. Saturday, we went to Parmenter's Cider Mill and fought the bee swarms in order to claim our birthright of spiced doughnuts and cider so fresh I wanted to slap it.

In the afternoon, Suzy and I went to the Detroit temple for a session. It was the first time we'd seen the new session film, and we both really enjoyed it and had a lot to talk about afterward. I think it's a huge improvement over the other two films they've been showing for the last couple of decades. The old ones were fine, but professional actors and 21st century production values go a long way to making it more of a compelling experience for me.

Now we're back in the Dow country ("Come to the where the dioxins are. Come to Dow country!") and back at the old grind. Class this morning, class this evening. School and meetings for the girls. Suzy is combating what we hope isn't the cold both her parents had last week. She is also battling for Parker's soul - little Parker who has decided recently that it's a good idea to be contrary in almost every way. When she sings songs, she even sings opposite lyrics - as in, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star. I DON'T wonder what you are." She seems to like the rise she gets out of me when I say, "Parker, you're such a good girl" and she says, "No, I'm not. I'm a bad girl!" So Suzy is trying to teach her to be obedient and sweet without Parker taking that as even more opportunities to be a contrary pain in the butt, you know?

Anyway, it is now 12:02 and I do have papers to grade. Eeesh. Wish me luck. Maybe next time, I won't put so many of them off. (Fingers crossed.)