Teri Parris Ford's Blog

Yoga Fest Photos

Summer Project 7 (week 7) in Northern Michigan

I drove back up to Song of the Morning Yoga Retreat Center in Northern Michigan with Erika this time to help out Monika with their big Yoga Festival at the end of the week. We are officially volunteering. Erika is teaching her first in person "live" yoga class as well as working in the gift shop while I am the official photographer for the festival. Monika is the festival coordinator and doing an amazing job with the organization of things-- the photo below is of her organizing all the volunteers this morning. The community here really loves Monika and she is remarkably gifted at putting a large event together. I have tried to be as helpful as possible but boy, my feet and back can only do so much. Erika is a light weight as well which at times has frustrated Monika who is just such a hard worker! I am very excited to be here for the week and will hopefully get a lot of participation in the yoga events as well. 

 

Summer Project 6 (week 6) in Virginia

 

As my second week in Norfolk comes to end, I am gearing up for a few busy weeks coming up. I finished up the HVAC cover project (see below) this week and did a bit of patching and painting around her fireplace. While every visit I have in Virginia is very much like a vacation since I make sure to spend time on the beach, Jessi also makes sure to give me a list of things to do around the house, which is very much a labor of love. The HVAC project kept me problem solving as I wanted to avoid using lumber since it was expensive and in short supply at Home Depot. The white vinyl was a bit too floppy so I ended up using PVC piping to prop up the back end of the box. I'm hoping it's good enough. Jessi likes it and that's what matters most. 

I drive home on Friday (7/23), spend a weekend at home catching up on swimming and doing hot yoga and then it is back to Michigan for week 7 and up to Minnesota for week 8. 

 

Summer Project 5 (week 5) in Virginia

The end of week 5 means it's half way thru my summer! I spent the week in Norfolk with Jessi. She's working everyday but I've been helping with her yard most of the week. I purchased some white plastic lattice to make a cover for HVac but it has been so hot and muggy (90's with a heat index into the 100's), I haven't wanted to start the project, opting for other minor projects on her list. I'll be here next week as well, so I have plenty of time! So far, I have walked on the beach most days, added 8 bags of mulch, weeded, added 4 black eyed susan flower bunches, replaced her ferns, trimmed around cement and blocks, added a brick decorative trim to her side area and painted a water proof masonry coating on her brick on the side of her garage as well as make her a big chicken dinner one night (she was craving potatoes). It is gratifying to work on her yard, but I have to admit to always stopping work around noon and showering for the afternoon and spending time with my feet up reading. After all, I'm still on vacation!

Summer Project 4 (week 4)

I had travel on both ends of the week, so only Wednesday was available to work on anything. I picked up clay last week from Patty and knew I wanted to work on creating a couple more clay suns to paint. The ones I made a decade ago  are heavy and have broken. I made sure to make this one thinner so it would be lighter. I'll have to wait to get it fired in September once school starts.

I plan to have them for the new house we just put a bid on last night in Rochester, MN! The housing market is kooky, so we knew going in we would need to make quick decisions. A house we were really excited to see sold before we could even look at it. We looked at 1 on Thursday and 4 on Friday and really liked 1 in particular, so we gave it everything we got so we would not be sorry if we lost out and we did not. We close in August... big changes are a foot.

4th Of July Weekend in Michigan

Jim and I went up to visit Monika in Northern Michigan for the 4th of July weekend and had a grand time! We left on Saturday and the drive was quite pleasant -- about 7 hours. The yoga retreat center she works at is in the woods and has the Pigeon River passing right through. We went for fireworks on Sunday night and had fun kayaking on Monday with a big BBQ with her friends. It was a very restful time with of a bit too much eating but I think we kept a vegan diet since we were with Monika the whole time. I'd been there 4 or 5 years ago for the same holiday weekend and some folks remembered me. I will return with Erika at the end of the month to help Monika with YogaFest and I'm looking forward to it!

Summer Project 3 (Week 3) Working at Home

I worked this week from home mostly on my animation curriculum and I got paid for it through a Pathways PD. I had to attend lots of zoom meetings but also got a lot of free time to do research and work which I really appreciated. I have only taught animation once a couple of years ago and I would not say it was particularly successful. I had a student this past year tell me he really liked the class which was a relief. It's such a new media for me, so I'm insecure. I hope to really change it up next year by pulling back on some of the technical aspects and bring in more thoughtful creativity, history and collaboration. Everything I have learned about the IT world tells me how much collaboration is integral. I hear over and over again that "soft skills" are more important than hard ones... so why not change up my curriculum to reflect that? I'm certainly way more secure with teaching soft skills!

I did get to yoga and to the pool a few times but not as much I wanted. I also watched 5 seasons of Downton Abby. Jim was gone so it was pretty quiet, especially in the evening.