December 25, 2021

Something I thought about:

• It’s the end of term and end of year, so I’ve been doing the usual reflections regarding what went well, what needs to be improved, etc. Given the spike in covid cases and the number of students who are either sick or in quarantine, the last day was online, which was a strange and anti-climatic way to end the semester, and I had to do a couple of last minute adjustments, so it wasn’t as smooth as I’d hoped. Still, we made it through another difficult semester that was full of uncertainty. I am looking forward to more writing time, although I’m also a bit nervous about the covid situation and how that’s all going to play out. Of course we do what we have to, but I’m feeling quite run down by this month and could use some focused, quiet time.

Something I did:

• Finished grading exercises for the semester
• Finished teaching for the semester
• Dealt with a covid exposure situation at child’s school (cluster in his classroom = stress!)
• Christmas — present wrapping, baking, etc.

Something I read:

• It’s been a stressful week, so I decided to revisit the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix. I read the first three books about twenty years ago but didn’t keep up with the later releases (from 2014 on). Since I was running around so much, I listened to Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen on audio, and they’re narrated by Tim Curry, who’s simply brilliant. Exactly the break I needed.