Got the kids off to school — since I don’t teach until noon this semester, I told Kavi that I’d drive her in on any morning that it was below freezing at school time. I was honestly fretting quite a bit about her walking in (30 minute walk to high school) last week while I was out of town, but she says she was fine — cold, but not too cold. Still, it’s nice to be able to make her mornings a little easier, now that I’m back. (Kevin doesn’t drive anymore; his eyesight isn’t great.)
Now, if I could just get her to eat breakfast before she goes — suggestions welcome for picky teens with no appetite in the morning, but who really could use something to kickstart their brains. What do you feed them that’s easy, grab-and-go? Bonus points if it’s easy to heat up a bit. I am thinking I might have to try Hot Pockets…
Spent the last hour tweaking my syllabus some more; I’m teaching lit. theory again this semester, along with the intro creative writing class, should be fun. Arya is jammed up against me; I guess he missed me, or at least he missed the warmth of my thigh and the occasional scritching.
The cleaners are coming at 1, so I should get up and hustle around, trying to straighten up as much as I can before they get here, so they have a chance of actually being able to clean. Kevin and the kids kept the house in semi-decent shape for the 8 days I was gone, but I wouldn’t call it clean…
What I really want to do is garden. I have two sad hibiscus that got an infestation of bugs, were treated, and then I left them outside to get some fresh air, and forgot to bring them in before we left for Christmas, and so they’re frost-killed. Very sad. I have a new hibiscus coming to replace one of those.
We also need a coffee table in the front room, and I’ve finally settled on trying a terrarium table there. It’s actually big enough that we could have a lizard or snake or turtle in it, if we don’t want just plants, but Kavi has been asking for a snake — I’m not sure I’m up for that, but I could see a turtle, I think. Turtles are cool. Are they low-effort, do you know? I am not up for a major additional pet commitment, and I don’t really trust the kids to be diligent about taking one on. (They do feed and water the dog and cat we currently have, but they need reminders.)
Edit to note: This table is not big enough for a turtle, it turns out. Alas.
This is the table I ordered: https://smile.amazon.com/…/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title…
Once the house is clean, I think I can go down and work on some garden stuff in the basement. I have a host of amaryllises chiling down there, and I can bring them up and try to get them going, which would be very nice for February / March. And maybe it’s time to start some seeds? I’m not sure — anyone growing seeds already in January? I’m still such a novice with seeds, I don’t have a good sense of timetable yet. It’d be lovely to have some windowsill herbs in the kitchen right now, if I can get some started? Thoughts welcome.
I think I’m going to slowly start taking down Christmas, but I’d like to replace it with plants as I go. 
We’ll leave outdoor lights up until March, I think — when the snowdrops show up, then I’ll take them down. Must have something cheery in the garden at all times!
