 A new chapter of our household has come. This week, my niece, her husband, and their newborn twins moved in with us. We had been preparing for this transition for months, and with the help of some foreseen incliment weather, we were able to make the move. Everyone is still settling in, but they made it safe and sound.
Having never lived with newborn babies, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect with this tiny bundles of joy. I am learning quickly though, that I don't know if these babies fit the mold of "normal newborns". They aren't excessively fussy, raring wailing their little lungs out, and are relatively easy to appease when they do get a little uncomfortable. As we navigate the new normal, I have discovered there is one among us that is beyond excited to have new babies in the house. That individual is our male Catahoula Leopard Dog... Loki. He is SMITTEN!! When the babies first arrived, he was a vibrating mass of muscle and fur. We decided it was best to hold off on introducing him until he could calm himself down. However, as his pent up energy seemed not to decrease in the least, we hoped letting him see what the new tiny creatures were would get the anxiety out of him. So we let him see and sniff the babies, as we held them, one at a time. I don't know if I've ever witnessed a body loosen more visibly. He immediately calmed down. He sniffed them, and looked at us like, "What is it?!", and seemed to fall head-over-heels in love with them. Since then he has taken it upon himself to guard the babies. Whenever anyone goes near the babies, he meanders over to the babies seconds later, sniffs them and walks away. Simply checking that we haven't left the babies worse for wear. He will also come to us and whine LOUDLY if one of the babies is crying and we aren't actively comforting them. As he monitors and notifies us of any "anomalies" with the babies, I rarely see him lick the babies. Instead he will periodically give them a little poke/nuzzle with his snout when he seems to think they should be moving more. Other than that he just sniffs them or whines at us. He is absolutely in love and it is riveting seeing this new side to our dog.
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I made a drastic change to my life. For the past 7 years, I have lovingly taught high school computer science classes. It evolved from a basic Computers and Technology class where I didn't have a curriculum and was free to make it what I wanted, to Robotics with a very basic guide, to TEALS and Robotics. I've spent countless hours attending trainings, virtual and in person. I dug into some wonderful curriculums and worked with some amazing experts. We competed in multi-school competitions, as well as some complex classroom challenges. I've been up at the crack of dawn to drive to competitions, worked through lunch and stayed after school helping students debug code, and read multiple resource to better my understanding.
All that aside, I decided to step back from both TEALS and Robotics. It is weird feeling... it almost feels like I'm mourning. However, when I look past the feeling of mourning, I am excited. I feel like so much of my attention, especially since Covid, has been focused on training, planning, prepping, teaching, grading and communicating... as opposed to MY LIBRARIES!! I've lost that excitement I've had for library time. The first step to regaining this love has been working at the Ritzville library. The team is great and have helped me remember what it is about Library that I love. I felt that ember towards my school libraries for a second. And a second was all it took for me to realize that I am tired of sacrificing my passion for something I enjoyed. Don't get me wrong. I LOVE TEALS and Robotics! I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to teach those classes, and maybe down the road if it was ever offered I'd 100% do it again under different circumstance. But library and even technology were the first things I fell in love with as an adult. I feel like I've lost sight of that, and I am beyond excited to rediscover that passion.  Yesterday, during his presidential rally in Pennsylvania, an assassination attempt was made on Former President Donald Trump. It is surreal typing that given the day and age we live in. The last attempted assassination was made in 1981 against Ronald Reagan. The last "successful" assassination was made in 1963 against John F. Kennedy.
It is no secret to anyone in this world that America is divided. With the approaching presidential elections, hostilities are high between political parties. These aggressions came to a point after the most recent presidential debates. President Biden didn't "perform" as well as many had hoped. His own political party had little to nothing positive to say about how he did during the debate. Many speculated and predicted that he would withdraw from the race, allowing stronger candidates to battle Trump for the roll of President. However, that didn't happen. Instead, Biden proclaimed that he had no intention of stepping aside for a different democratic candidate. Around this time, multiple radical democrats began hap-hazardly calling for the assassination of Trump as a solution to Biden's lack-luster poll demographics. These "call to arms" were spread all across social media outlets like Tik-Tok, Instagram and X. Some of these radicals were even given airtime on mainstream media. Angry celebrities made flippant remarks about needing Biden to win "at all cost". It is the combination of these very vague but aggressive sentiments, or as some people might call it "hateful rhetoric", that I believe led to this assassination attempt. It was bone chilling to watch the event unfold. Trump was standing at his podium talking, animatedly as usual. Suddenly you hear a shot ring out. Trump reaches for his ear just as another shot is heard. Immediately Trump and audience members fall to the ground. The Secret Service rushed to cover Trump. When the threat was neutralized, and Trump was brought to his feet, as the Secret Service tried to usher Trump off stage the former president raised his fist in the air and yelled "fight, fight, fight" as the crowd joined in. As many said on social media, I don't care what political affilitation you are, that was a powerful image, especially as an American flag waved behind him. However, not only has our culture created the perfect environment for this attempt to happen in the first place, but it has embolded radicals to feel it is "appropriate" to have public temper tantrums at the fact the shooter missed Former President Donald Trump. Think about that for a moment. People are posting videos left and right crying and screaming their frustrations at the shooter for having not succeeded in killing Trump on live tv in front of full crowd. That doesn't even take into account the complete disregard for the life lost and the victims that were rushed to the hospital in critical condition. As more information and footage and eye-witness testimony comes out, I worry about the state of our country. I am thankful that the events of the day didn't end worse. Regardless of how people feel, at the end of the day Trump is a person. He is a husband, a father, and a friend. While this makes me question the humanity of our country, it also makes me question our democracy. Since the creation of our country, we have had candidates of warring viewpoints compete for the support of the majority of the country. However, regardless of those warring opinions, we have never felt it was appropriate to remove an opponent. I hear doubters now, "But Stefani, then why have Presidents been assassinated and/or threatened in the past if that was actually the case?" That is true, however in the aftermath of those assassinations/attempts, the majority felt appalled by those actions. That doesn't appear to be the case. THAT is what concerns me. I've said it once and I'll say it again. We have lost our ability to agree to disagree. My last thought on this whole nightmare is on President Biden's statement. There are those on the Republican side that have taken to dissecting and critiquing Biden's official statement. They are stating that it wasn't adequit, for one reason or another. Having watched his statement directly after watching the shooting, I have to say I did find comfort in our President's words. First off, he seemed more coherent and articulate than in most recent present events. Second, it didn't feel like he was reading directly from a teleprompter, as he continued to scan the room. Third, he condemned the shooters actions and called for unity in our country. While I wish he hadn't simplified the events to "political violence" instead of calling it what it was, an assassination attempt, I also understand how his words are nitpicked so in the immediate aftermath of the attempt it was probably safer for him to be vague. At the end of the day I thank God that Trump was safe, I pray for the families of those wounded and killed, and I pray for the state of our country and the direction we choose to go in now. I have completed the first week at my new job. So far I really enjoy it! I am beyond thankful that I do have a background in library or else some of it might be a bit overwhelming, but so far it has been a refreshing change of pace.
As the Library Assistant II I have a number of "mundane" tasks... which luck for me ARE MY FAVORITE!! My usual job is so chaotic and all over the place that being able to sit down and simply complete a repetitive task is very satisifying for my brain. Here's an overview of what my days kind of looked like this week. I get to work 10-15 minutes before opening. I open up our catalog system. I bring in the book drop and check in any returned items and put them of the shelving cart. I setup up, and document the cashbox total for the start of the day. I check the answering machine for any missed calls. I usually have a few minutes before opening so I either check my email or put away books. Then the day starts! With the holiday this week, we weren't super busy, so I was able to get a feel for some of my tasks and organize files in a way that works for my brain. Some of the things that fall into my charge are magazine subscriptions, overdue notices and interlibrary loans. Each week I run overdue reports and either make phone calls home or send out overdue notices to patrons. In the past, the director has put these reports into a spreadsheet for data purposes, so I worked probably more than I should have setting up a data spreadsheet system that works for both me and the director. Our library has a number of magazine subscriptions, however because there hasn't been a Library Assistant II for a while, two things have happened. First, we have fallen behind on putting new magazines into circulation. Second, renewals haven't been tracked. Pretty much I spent a couple of days purely sorting through the preexisting renewals and subscriptions and creating a spreadsheet to track what I could find. The final task that falls under my jurisdiction is interlibrary loans. I haven't gotten to touch on this a great deal this week, regardless of the fact that we did have a ILL item to return. We are experiencing issues with me being able to access the system for ILLs. Basically when I can access that system, patrons will be able to come in and have us request a book from any library across the country, have it mailed to us, then mail it back when they are done with it. It's a wonderful alternative for smaller, rural libraries that may not have the funding to get EVERY book patrons may like. We begin our Summer Reading Program, which will last for 6 weeks, this week so I will be very interested to see how that alters my week. I am really enjoying this change of pace and I can't wait to see how it continues.  The library I applied at contacted me yesterday. The offered me a job... a higher one than I applied for! I start Monday morning and I am so excited! I am the second assistant and from the sounds of it it'll be a lot of the stuff I already do for my school libraries. I really hope this is a good fit!
It is a part-time job, only about 15-20 hours a week. My hours are flexible and from the sounds of it will fluxuate temporarily while they shuffle staff for the best fit. Luckily, my current job is 25 hours a week, even though it feels like a soooo much more. So even though this is currently just a summer job, the director has asked if I'd be willing to continue working at the library when the school year begins if they were able to work with me on the shedule. I said definitely. I'm really hoping this works out because with the dissatisfaction I currently feel in my current place of employment, I would love having something else to fall back on. The library called while we were making a quick trip to the grocery story. We ended up deciding to take a celebratory lap through Turnbull. We didn't see any animals but it was a nice break from the hustle of farmwork. Send prayers my way Monday morning and I'll keep you posted! I did something today... I went on a job interview. I haven't been on a job interview since 2012, which means my interview skills are rusty at best. At worst, they are non existent considering I was "interviewed" by someone who had watched me grow up. Anywho, after having a pretty large door shut in my face, I've been struggling with my current career path. So when I heard about a library position that opened up in an adjacent town, I decided to rip the bandaid off and apply. I was ecsatic when they called me last week to set up an interview appointment.
While I felt fairly prepared going into the interview, you can never fully know how prospective employeers are going to feel about your fit. There were a few very promising statements that make me hopeful, but I will just have to wait. They are completing other interviews today and tomorrow. Their plan is to reach out to applicants on Friday, so I should know by then. Then they are wanting whomever gets the position to start on Monday. While I know this isn't something "huge" for many people, I haven't worked further than a block away from my home is over 10 years. I am nervous, but I am very excited for this potentially new adventure in my small, mundane life. Prayers are appreciated and I'll keep you posted Friday! Back in February, I very excitedly inherited a 21' 1992 Terry Resort RV from a family friend. Due to a significant leak in the raised bunk area, they had not used it for a couple of years and wanted to be rid of it. Now that it is sunny and summer time, I've excitedly been poking around my new home away from home to see what projects it will provide for me. Here's a few bigger projects that I need to tackle before I can take it for a road trip, but God willing I'm hoping to cross a few of them off my to-do list this summer.
Like a huge percentage of the female, American audience, I was on pins and needles waiting for Bridgerton Season 3. As a lover of the book series, I have always held a fondness for Colin and Penelope. I loved the emotional depth that Julia Quinn gave to Colin in the book and I’ve always found Penelope relatable, in the book and the show.
Leading into the Season 3 Part 1 release, I binged fan videos and interviews with Luke Newton and Nicola Coughlan. Any promotional piece I could find, I watched or read. When part 1 hit Netflix, I binge watched it in one sitting. I loved it! Then within a day or two I rewatched it and was struck with a couple of subtle issues that I hadn’t picked up the first time watching. The first thing I disliked was the carriage scene. Gasp! I know… how could I not love the most beloved scene of part 1? Well that’s very simple. The carriage scene in the book meant so much more because at that point Colin had just discovered that Penelope is Lady Whistledown. It sets a precedent for their relationship that while Colin is upset by this revelation and what it meant, he still loves Penelope. (Colin discovering this secret in part 2 of the show was done so horribly…) However, overall I feel like by not including this key piece of information from the book, it almost cheapened this scene by not allowing the characters to use it as a opportunity to grow as individuals or as a couple. The second thing I didn’t like in part 1 was honestly something that was a carry over from Season 2, and that is Eloise. In the book, Eloise doesn’t discover Penelope’s secret before everyone else. Actually Colin is the first to discover it. (Side note… the reader finds out at the same time as Colin which is just writing perfection!) Because of this though, Eloise doesn’t go through a phase where she ignores Penelope and where she befriends Cressida, who is just as awful in the books. I think my biggest issue with this change from the show is that it creates that toxic rivalry/behavior that is so stereotypical of female characters. For a show about “female empowerment”, especially in this season, I was super disappointed that they decided to make this choice. Especially when in relation, the female dynamics in the book are really rather healthy, something I would have thought was on brand with “female empowerment”. While both of these things are annoying, I do understand that the show is just a different perspective of the book’s events so there are bound to be differences. So regardless of these issues, I was still hopeful for part 2. While I was excited, I didn’t watch as many promotional clips this time around. And what I did watch had a recurring theme that had me a little on edge. I noticed a lot of the teasers involved Penelope talking about how Lady Whistledown was power. That simple detail in the teaser, started to make me worry that part 2 was just going to be about “female empowerment”. Regardless of my growing discomfort over this potential irritation, I still wanted to give it a chance because I genuinely enjoyed this book. By the time part 2 was released, I really needed it because I was stressing out. Unfortunately, part 2 did nothing to help with my mood. Immediately into the season, we get back to the unnecessary drama between Eloise and Penelope followed by a SUPER drawn out sex scene. Slowly though, episode by episode, the issues started to pile up. The “female empowerment” I mentioned earlier? Yeah that was just the tip of the iceberg. They did in fact ruin what Lady Whistledown meant to Penelope. In the show, it’s all about the power that a woman wields through Lady Whistledown’s column. However, in the book, Penelope does it because she loves it. She wants to be seen in a world where no one notices her. That’s the brunt of her motivation. It doesn’t sit well with me that the writers of the show decided to take something that I found quite beautiful, a woman’s outlet for being overlooked by everyone around her, and turning it into a generalization that all this column means to Penelope is power, the kind of power only a man could have in that day and age. A similar issue they had in this second part involves Colin. While I’m glad they encapsulated his ire towards Penelope when he learned her secret, they did it all wrong. He spends so much of the show angry at her because she lied to him. Lady Whistledown hurt his feelings, almost ruined Eloise, said awful things about the vast majority of the Ton, and Penelope had lied to him… even after they were married. While I don’t think that makes for a terrible storyline, book Colin has more depth. He isn’t just mad at Penelope for lying to him but also for endangering herself and because he’s jealous. Here she is and she has not only found her purpose… she excels at it. All the while he has traveled and has the support of his family, but he feels purposeless… he feels useless and without direction. I love that, in the books, part of the bonding between Colin and Penelope after he learns her secret is her encouragement and her devotion to helping him write. Without entirely knowing that he is struggling with finding his purpose, Penelope selflessly tries to support him. I also love that as he is discovering that his purpose is writing, he learns that Penelope is also part of his new purpose in life… her safety and happiness, which is a very romantic notion. Honestly, his emotional development in his book is my favorite element of the book. By taking that away from Colin, the show made him a little one dimensional. Speaking of woman-power and Colin… I couldn’t shake the feeling the entire season, and even rewatching some of the interviews, that Colin/Luke was there for nothing more than an accessory for Penelope/Nicola. Hear me out… Colin takes a backseat throughout most of the show. Far more of the Polin plot is centered around Penelope and how she is going to solve her problems as they continue to arise. While looking back at interviews, I felt a very similar vibe. A lot of interactions between the two involved Luke standing back and letting Nicola talk. While that is very gentlemanly of him, with this new lens of suspicion arising for me from the show, I couldn’t help but see his lack of involvement in some interactions as a calculated decision made by their team. As a woman, I hate having “female empowerment” shoved down my throat. It feels patronizing. I don’t need to have it force fed to me by people not living in reality when I know exactly what I can and can’t do. There were a few issues I had that didn't involve Penelope or Colin, because let’s face it, there were about a billion characters this season. We had a separate storyline for Anthony and Kate, Eloise, Benedict, Francesca, Violet, Lady Danbury and her brother, Cressida, and the Queen, who may I add doesn’t even exist in the books!! It was RIDICULOUS!!! To add insult to injury, we also didn’t get satisfying conclusions for a few of the completely unnecessary storylines! I hated it on multiple levels! It made watching the show very chaotic at times, and it detracted from the season’s actual leads on many occassions. One of the highest levels of hatred I experienced for the multi-storyline chaos came from Benedict’s story. First off, I hated Benedict’s book. I thought the way he treats Sophie in it is awful, but that aside I struggled with Benedict this season. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to period pieces. All the sex in Bridgerton bothers me and I often find myself fast forwarding those scenes. However, the show's decision to put Benedict in a threesome? REALLY? Did you think the audience was going to hate Colin and Penelope so much that you needed a shock factor to keep theme engaged? No one can convince me that Benedict was meant for anything more than a shock factor this season. Not when you’d be in the middle of a scene and all of a sudden the scene would cut to Benedict and his threesome, with no dialogue, for thirty seconds then cut back to another storyline for a few minutes, then back to Benedicts for thirty seconds again. Again, it felt cheap and as a character that has shown depth at some point, whether in his book or in previous seasons, it took away from the authenticity of Benedict. Throw in the fact that he also doesn’t have any real closure by the end of the season, and it felt disingenuous to the character, the book, and even the show. Talking about taking away… I AM LIVID that Michael Stirling was replaced with a woman for a “woke” spin to Francesca’s story! Francesca’s book is one of my favorites, it is definitely my favorite female Bridgerton book. Why? Because unlike all the rest of the Bridgertons, Francesca’s love story happens AFTER her husband (whom she does love) dies suddenly! It is a book full of emotional growth, as both her and her love interest, Michael Stirling, struggle with their growing feelings towards each other. It is beautiful and I thought it dealt well with grieving someone you love and navigating the emotions of falling in love after someone you love has died and the guilt that comes along with that. Michael was wonderfully written and again, one of my favorite characters! Buuuuuut no… let’s make Francesca a part of the LGBT community for ratings and take away a wonderfully written character. I’d love to get into the disappointment I felt for all of the many many character’s we endured in this season, but this post would become the length of a full novel. So instead I will leave you with one last irritation I had and then I’ll be done. As someone who has a disability, I understand the “importance” of showing representation in pop culture. However, similarly with “female empowerment”, I don’t appreciate having it put in for ratings or because people think I, the viewer, am too dumb to know what a woman/handicap-person can do. This season had multiple, out of the blue, handicap characters. One was in a wheelchair, one was using mobility-aids, and another was deaf. Now had ONE handicap character been included that might have been one thing, but to go from zero handicap characters in previous seasons to three tells me that they were nothing more than a diversity quota that needed to be met. Throw in the fact that there was a lot of speculation about Francesca and John being on the spectrum and again, I have a problem. Throwing in “diverse” characters for the sake of hitting all the equitable marks makes those characters feel cheap, and as someone who is handicap, it makes me feel like an item on a grocery list that had to be checked off. Overall, all the changes that the show chose to make, made the show feel cheap. Like instead of sticking with the “Tom Cruise” that Julia Quinn gave us with the books, and that fans loved, the showrunners decided to trade them in for the Wal-Mart alternative. While I enjoyed the books, and I was excited for the course some of the characters were going to make in future seasons, I think this is my jumping-off point. I think I may be well and truly done with Bridgerton. When meeting a diversity quota comes at the expense of good writing and good acting, I don’t think the show deserves my attention anymore. While I doubt that will make a difference in the grand scheme of things, I’d rather find other works that don’t feel so dimmed down at the expense of an agenda or a statment. Do you ever wonder about what makes up your food? Have you ever looked at the price of your store bought chicken and gasped? That was my family for most of my life. A few years ago though we got tired of wondering what was going into our foods and decided to do something about it. We went out and bought 10 or so chickens for our small 1 acre piece of land. We built a small chicken coop and chicken run and were in love.
As the years went out we purchased the lot next to us, doubling our property. This secondary piece of land had a pre-existing barn that was perfect for livestock. The rest of the lot had a secondary well with an out building and about 1/2 an acre of land that once had a small house on it. After much work to till and clean the land, we placed our garden on that piece of property, as well as a small orchard. Since our introduction to chickens and the addition of land, we've added turkeys, geese, ducks, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs and bees to our managery of animals. We also have taken up butchering, canning, dehydrating, freeze drying, and various food preparations. Within the last year, we've even started dabbling with medicinal plants as well. We create our own teas, tinctures and even ointments. What is the purpose of doing all of this? My family hasn't purchased chicken, eggs, pork or beef from a store in years. We are able to make many fresh dishes with produce from our garden and orchards, and can, dehydrate, or freeze-dry them for use month and even years later. We make our own bread regularly and have even tried our hand at cheese making. As the list of things we have and can make for ourselves grows, we are able to spend less on chemically "enhanced" foods that are over priced and nutritionally lacking. While not all aspects of our lifestyle is pretty, we have a peace of mind with what we are putting into our bodies. And that's worth more to us than the convenience of store bought goods.  I am a college graduate!!! As of April 17th I have my Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education!!!! Today I completed the final step by applying for my Washington Teaching Certification! I am so excited!! I busted my butt for the past 4 years and I am over the moon for it all to be behind me now! I think I'll give myself a year, then maybe I'll go back for a degree in Computer Science. We shall see what time tells me. For right now I am simply floating on cloud nine!!
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AuthorHiy'all! My name is Stefani. I'm a princess, a dragon rider, a warrior, a magician, a time jumper, a crime solver, and so much more. But for "technical" purposes you can call me a Librarian. I teach Elementary Library, manage a High School Library and work with a lot of Technology. In my spare time I love books, shooting, fishing, crafts, and a lot of little things that make life wonderful. Categories
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"WORRYING DOES NOT TAKE AWAY TOMORROW'S TROUBLES,
IT TAKES AWAY TODAY'S PEACE"
IT TAKES AWAY TODAY'S PEACE"
ABOUT MEMy name is Stefani. I am a princess, a dragon rider, a warrior, a magician, a time traveler, a crime solver and so much more. But for "technical" purposes you can call me a Librarian. I teach Elementary Library and Technology as well as High School Coding and Robotics. In my spare time I love books, archery, fishing, crafts and a lot of little things that make life wonderful.
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