Teri Parris Ford's Blog

Half way there!

I start a new semester tomorrow. This time of year is always so busy because I have to finish up semester 1 and get ready for semester 2. Luckily there's finals week with shortened day schedules and time for grading and prep. I made myself an appointment for a massage on Thursday afternoon, to help ease the tension. I have a forearm issue that pretty painful and is progressively inhibiting me with small things like opening jars or lifting stacks of stuff. I fear it will end up being something permanent, like arthritis, not just an injury that can get better. We'll see. I have a doctors appoint in a couple of weeks.

I created a crazy schedule for myself-- and now I'm wondering why I would do something so nuts. I'm teaching 6 different classes in 5 hours, with 2 somewhat new classes-- Ceramics and Drawing. I taught Drawing 10 years ago, so it's been awhile. Ceramics is the only class we offer at Memorial that I have never taught, so it's a bit of big deal for me to check that box, but it's also a lot of extra work! I'm looking forward to getting my hands dirty.

It's cold out there...

It's been very cold this whole week, but luckily the only time I have to go out is to get to the car and back inside. I'm only spending time at home or at school. My hopes to get out to do some cross country skiing won't happen until we are comfortably closer to the 30's which should be next week. The last regular day of the first semester is Monday. We are having a finals week of sort-- they are calling DOL or the demonstration of learning week. On Tuesday, I stayed late after school for an open house for middle school families. It was very exciting to see how happy folks were to see our new classrooms. The art spaces are quite impressive and they are amazing places to work in. I've enjoyed an awesome semester and as excited as I am to see the semester end, I'm going to miss it as next semester is absolutely crazy. My painting students have created great work (see below). 

2 Snow Days!

They called a snow day for Tuesday and again for Friday. On Tuesday, I worked on my Plex set up, shoveled 3x and went downtown to see Beetlejuice with Monika. Luckily they called Friday's snow day early Thursday afternoon so I was able to pack up the car quickly after school and high tail it up to Minnesota before the storm came. The brunt of the snowfall storm was south of Jim, but the cold winds were harsher up north. I still got my fair share of shoveling. Jim loves to walk in the cold, so not only did I get in an extra day (I was planning to visit for the long weekend already) but I got in way more exercise. Jim is on a keto diet, so when I go visit him I trade my vegan diet for a very non-vegan one. I try to eat clean which is a little easier to do living with Monika but Jim tries not to eat anything processed either, no dairy or bread. So it's just a very different kind of "clean" -- either way, I like to drink diet coke and crystal lite which is probably my biggest source of chemicals in my diet. Anyway, for a predicted mild winter, so far we've gotten a ton of snow!

A Winter Storm is coming...

We've had a very mild winter thus far-- light snow in Madison but hardly any in Rochester. BUT a possible big storm is coming on Tuesday. Nothing is for sure when it comes to weather, but we are supposed to get 1/2 a foot. I'm excited for the possibility of being able to pull out the cross country skiis, but in the mean time, I'm trying to utilize exercise in my basement. I am struggling with weight gain and I know I need to eat less food, eat more protein, and mostly exercise more. I'm utilizing my apple fitness app for exercis mostly, as I've given up a few other diets and apps I've tried this past year. Everything is so much harder the older I get, but at the root of the issue is just eating less and exercising more. 

Happy New Years!

I spent the week with Jim to ring in the new year. I had a long list of things to do but didn't do much. I finished my 2023 scrapbook on Shutterfly, took lots of long walks with Jim and almost finished a book. I watched tv, cleaned and just tried to spend time with Jim since our time together for the rest of the winter will not be as plentiful. The school year is busy for both of us as we both tend to get lost in our work. I feel like I have so much to do.

The next 6 months will be kind of crazy as the yearbook starts to heat up with a deadline at the end of every month from December to April. I finally got my Plex up and running but have to do a lot of reorganizing of files. The thing for January is the change from 1st to 2nd semester classes. Finishing 1st and starting 2nd will be a huge transition. Next semester I have my craziest schedule of my whole career and I'm excited to see how it all pans out. I tend to shut down when I'm overwhelmed, so I have to keep myself up and running. I said no to summer school, knowing I will need that time for recorving and shit ton of stuff I have planned. I'm already counting down! (about 22 weeks)