The allure of beautiful ink bottles and box art is powerful. But the freedom to try ink with only a minimal commitment? That’s fun. It’s also why I now own a bottle of Diamine’s Celadon Cat.

I’ve started keeping two running lists to keep myself afloat as school day schedules change rapidly, rip currents of unplanned assemblies and lessons that need to dialogue with ongoing world events. A “just before” meeting agenda and a lesson sequence list.

I’ve learned that my weeklies need a brainstorming maker-space. A corner to house hastily scrawled ideas for medium term and future projects.

I’ve taken warmly to thin softbound notebooks of late — especially for my personal journaling. I just started my third in a row. Softbound notebooks are low stakes platforms for experimentation.