The Oye Range Report

Vol. 1, No. 1, Winter 2025

Hello readers - family and friends,

I have shown up here, in your inbox or your Substack account or app, in order to share an actual newsletter with you - not sonnets, or thoughts on nature, but just a life-update, a newsletter. Last school semester, in an effort to prioritize the kind of writing that I really want to focus on, I decided that I want to try to publish a heftier newsletter just three times a year - in February, June, and October.

And so, here I am.

Writing News

I still want to write and share poetry here, in between those newsletter months, but they will not be so explanatory, I think. As of now, I want to continue with my divine nature poems, and I was thinking of making them more focused on how human nature reflects God’s divine nature, but I’m not so sure. Getting out in nature and then reflecting, through poetry, on how different aspects of it reflect the glory of the Trinity, has been quite therapeutic for me. So, I do think I’ll probably continue with it. I am pretty sure that, whatever I do, I want to change the form of my poems to something other than sonnets. I was thinking of something more whimsical.

In other writing related news, I’ve started putting my sonnets in order, in order to publish them into a physical book format. My plan is to self-publish them alongside photographs I’ve taken and modified, plus notes on each poem. Currently, I’m doing a lot of slow writing on the notes. Like, really slow, because most nights when I come home from work, I cook while I’m transformed into a giant, standing and walking, ear, absorbing all the things the kids and husband have to talk about. When everyone is done eating and talking and I can finally morph back into myself - which is a painful process, and plus, I have to put my clothes back on after that, because giant ears generally don’t wear clothes (I’ve never seen a giant ear wearing clothes, anyway), and they certainly don’t wear shirts because they have no arms, they just have those white, cartoonish hands that float in the air, so that they can still hold the cooking spoon or spatula - anyhow, after all that, and the pain, and the energy it takes to change into clothes, when I finally sit down to write, I type a sentence or two and begin to nod off. After a few nods, I snooze a bit. When I’ve snoozed enough, I have new energy and I’m able to write a bit more. I might get three or four good sentences a night, and if I’m especially energetic after my catnap, I might get a paragraph or two. But, this isn’t every night. So - so far - since I’ve begun this process, which was toward the beginning of January, I’ve only written notes for four out of thirty-five of my sonnets.

You can’t see it, but exhaustion is setting in after work, after cooking, after being a giant listening ear, as I settle into my armchair.

Anyhow, ideally, I would like to have my poetry notes done sometime in March or April, and then get the book completely put together by June. The oldest daughter is helping me format the book, and I’m planning to reach out to chat with other self-published authors to get some tips. But, we’ll see how it all plays out, because life in this education family is a whirlwind, and it takes up much of my time and attention.

An Education Family

We’re always busy with school in this house. As you know, I teach high school, the husband teaches university, and our kids are deep in their schooling years. When I graduated from high school, I thought I was done with the hectic, tortuous system that is the American public school system, and that I’d never go back. Even now, I can’t believe I am at the job that I’m at and that my kids are being dragged/pushed along through the system. But, we are here, and I am trying to make the best of it. I’m working hard to make it less tortuous for the students in my care and for my own kids.

My oldest - thank you, Lord (and yes, I am praying) - is done with the system and is in her freshman year of college. Well, at least, anyway, it’s her first year of college and being away from the nest, but she may actually be further along, credit-wise, and may be counted as a sophomore. From my perspective, it seems that she is enjoying being the queen of her own life now. (It is good to be queen/king, you know? It’s less tortuous. I mean, anyway, to the extent of having the King of kings as king over you.)

The oldest daughter, queening us around her campus when we stopped by for a visit in October.

As for the rest of the kiddos, the 11th grader is at the same tough STEM school that his big sister went to, and is currently in the thick of so much, including and especially American Literature. (His tastes in literature are maturing and growing, though. It’s great!) The 9th grader is balancing a few advanced classes, school activities, and her artistic hobbies (she’s always been into drawing, but has recently started trying out hand embroidery, too). And the 7th grader, alongside of school, is all about music and he’s balancing a couple instruments and trying to add on the harmonica.

Basically, besides the few side activities we have, like the hobbies we attempt to do and church/Bible study, we’re all buried in education over here. And I’m contemplating burying myself in even more education. But I’m not ready to share in detail those thoughts yet. Although, I can share in detail that I feel like I’m constantly trying to educate myself, if not in a formal way, then in an informal way, like, for example, in trying to educate myself in the knowledge and skills of cooking, via YouTube.

The Art of Stir-Fry

Since hiring a cook is not in our budget or priorities (though, Lord - and yes, I’m praying - why isn’t it?!?) I’ve been working on improving my beef and broccoli stir-fry. I learned about a technique called “velveting” the beef, and my first attempt, when the YouTube video instructions were fresh on my mind, was prettydurn good. But then, as I made subsequent attempts and didn’t go back to the video instructions, the beef kept turning out more bitter every time. Last week when I made it, that was the “last straw” for my kids, especially, and I agreed with them, it was for me, too. So, I got back online and found a website that had more steps in the velveting process, and I went back to the frypan this past Thursday and followed the directions pretty closely, and the result was much better again. The meat was maybe not as “velvety” as I’d like, but probably I’ll just follow the instructions even more closely next time to see if that makes a further improvement. Inch-by-inch, I am getting there, and once I’m satisfied, then maybe I’ll move on to improving my burrito filling skills, and then chowder and stew skills (these last two are especially important in the winter days, I think).

Snow Days in Georgia

Speaking of winter, as you know, we had actual snow this year here in metro-ATL Georgia-land - twice! That was so exciting, and it seemed a positive answer to my prayers I’ve prayed for the past few years. “Lord, let there be snow. Just a little, so that I can feel happy like I was when I was a child when it snowed, and so my kids can really experience snow.” The first storm brought four or five inches, and it stuck around for a few days. School went virtual on that Friday.

Oh, I was gyrating in the lawn as the snow came down, with my face upward, catching flakes on my cheeks. And the kids built a snowman, had a snowball fight, and sipped hot chocolate on the porch with neighbors. The only thing we didn’t do was sled down hills. We have no sled. We couldn’t just hop in the car to go get a sled, because around here in Georgia, we don’t keep much equipment to clear the roads of snow. I doubt the stores were open, anyway, and if they were, do they even sell sleds around here?

The second snow wasn’t as deep or fun, but the roads froze over, and school went virtual for three days. That was actually annoying, because while I enjoyed sleeping in, and while my kids at home were on top of their studies (they have teachers as parents, and we’re mean to them when it comes to academics and won’t let them get away with crap) it is not like that for everyone. It is certainly not like that for the majority of my students. And so, when we went back to the school building, I needed to remind my students that virtual school days are not days off of school and that they are expected to do the work. And then I had to give them time in class to do their work, and our schedule has since been thrown off. Ugh. Oh well. Sometimes (many times in the past), I really do just want to run away from my job. But, alas, I can’t. But, at least I can still run.

Running

While I haven’t been running consistently much in the past two years, (I’ve been kind of depressed since Dad died, but somewhat inspired, too, by his life, and I’ve been flailing around to try to get focused so that I can have as much of a meaningful and impactful life as he did, right in his own realm) I have still been running here and there. I have still signed up for the 5ks. In fact, I just finished my school’s cross country team’s annual 5k this morning. But, I’ve not had a competitive edge or any goals for awhile. Perhaps that will change after today. Or sometime in the near future, because I would really like to get back into running. It makes me feel good.

It was great to see my colleague at the race this morning. She was my mentor in my first year of teaching. She's no longer at the same school I teach at, but she's always a great supporter of the kids and the schools she's worked in.

So, that’s life for now - writing, schooling, cooking (or trying to), running (or thinking about it), and just keeping on. I don’t always have a solid grip on everything, but I’m holding on, by God’s grace, and I’m grateful for it.

Thanks for reading, for being here, for caring about my words and my world. I hope you’re doing well in yours. Feel free to reply, share your own life updates, or just say hi - I’d love to hear from you… reach me at author@saraoyela.com

Until next time (June, for a heftier update, if all goes as planned),
Take care and God bless,

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