Our Week With Jack's Last Shoot

Well, hopefully not like last ever, but last for this season.  

Jack Jack's shoot pins from the last 4 years (no shooting in 2020).  

Generally, if Paul's home, he takes Jack to his trap meets.  But this time I got to go.  

It was fun to cheer on my man cub.  Unfortunately, he lost his glasses, so his score that day wasn't great, but he had fun.  

Like my slippers?  When they come up and sniff me, I'm reminded of the little pedicure fish that will nibble off your dead skin.  

The foster kittens went in for a weight check.  

Chubby Quito burrito is 1.8#.  She has doubled her weight since I first picked her up.  Oslo & Cairo are 1.4#.  They go back for another check in a couple weeks.  

Katie's project from the Africa book.

Hannah's project from the Africa book.  

Oslo, peeking out of the bookcase.  

This ball rattles, and we're seeing some epic soccer matches around here.  Quito has some impressive dribbling skills.  

Every educational situation has it's plusses and minuses.  Overall, the kids' private school is a really good fit for them.  But it's always bothered me that they don't have a library.  So I put together a proposal to start and run one.  The school liked it.  I've given myself a crash course in book processing, created a logo, scanned more than 400 books that our family is donating, and I've been processing amok lately.  The school room is a disaster.  

All that to say, look at my cute little pile of color coded readers!  I'll post this laminated sign in the reader section to guide students/teachers to the appropriate levels.  

When life hands you lemons... draw them!  

Book processing... what does that entail?  Well, the system I've come up with is:  scan, stamp, sticker, tape, barcode.  

Most modern books have a barcode on the back that I can scan with my iPad in the catalog app I'm using.  Sometimes with used books, that's not the case.  Either the book is too old, or the barcode has been compromised by a sticker or otherwise rendered unscanable.  These books get entered manually, but I wait until I have a pile of about a dozen or so before I enter a batch.  

Once the book is in the system, I stamp the inside.  

Then they go on my desk for me to create and print spine labels.  The label sheets print 49 stickers on a page, so it can be kind of a leaning tower at times.  I'm manually typing the spine labels with either call # and author, FIC and author, or BIO and person.  Once I have enough for a full sheet of stickers, I print and apply a sticker to the spine of each book.  

I'm reinforcing the paperback books with tape.  This means covering the spine and the long edge of the front and back covers.  The pile above is mid-way through the tape step.  I cut the excess tape while I'm watching mindless tv.  The hardcover books get a clear label protector at this step.  

The final step is adding our school barcode, both to the physical book and to the book's record in the catalog.  

I took the girls to the school carnival during Jack's last week of school.  They were so happy to see their friends again!  That's about the only picture I got, though, because... 

I spent the next couple of hours operating this thing.  I was the Cotton Candy Lady, and was quite popular and busy.  

As I'm clearing out books, I thought I should make sure I don't give away anything somebody wants to keep, so I sent a message to the adult kids group chat.  

*I* think I'm hilarious.  My family mostly rolls their eyes at me.  

This being the last week of school, there's the obligatory program.  That's Jack in the Hawaiian shirt, being recognized as part of the trap team.  

"I need to get a picture of that puzzle that the girls finished...  Oh Grumman."  

There it is.  Coral reef.  At the time I selected it, we were about to study Australia, so I thought it would be a fun tie in.  As it is, the girls have been watching a set of ocean DVDs, which kind of goes with it.  

Library books, with a photobomb from the Grum, who blends with the couch.  

"Hey Katie, can you go get me the cashews?" followed by an exact location where they are.  
"They're not there."  
Raised eyebrow, "I assure you, they are.  There's a baggie of box tops, the big bag of cashews, and a pile of masks."  
"Oh.  I thought you said cat shoes."  
... "Because that's a thing?  Have you seen Grumman wearing shoes?" 

"Um, no."  
Sigh.  

Grumman, who is not wearing shoes, came out front with me while I watered the flowers.  He loves to roll on the concrete.  

School is officially out, but my body is still waking up at 6 something.  Looking forward to the lazier days of summer.  I'm enjoying learning everything I can about running a library.  I've even started a wishlist so I can keep track of the books and "stuff" as I see things and think, "Oooh, I'd like to have that in the library!"