What a week...
Where do I start? Nothing terrible has happened in the last week, but man has it been tiring! Shall we have a recap?
Saturday: Left the house at 8am to drive to Augusta to help lead a teaching conference on the Berlin Wall. I'd prepared for it for hours, drove two hours to get there, and then...there were only five of us there. Sigh. It was great talking to the people who were there, and I did get some good teaching ideas, and they DID really enjoy my presentation...but it was a bit of a let down. Not to mention that it was two hours there and two hours back, so I didn't arrive back home until nearly 7pm, Jeff was already at work, I paid the babysitter, and then had to put the boys to bed. Yawn.
Sunday: Church in the morning, Jeff left for work in the middle of church and didn't get back until 9pm that night. I had a great time with the kids, but it was tiring. I took them on a picnic at the playground, played with them in the basement, etc. Oh, and tried to plan classes for the next week. Aaaaand...dealt with a crisis with Max, who lamented to me that he was different from the other boys and girls because he couldn't talk like them and he wanted to be the same as them. (And also, he wanted to dress differently and wear a rainbow shirt. THAT, we could fix, thanks to a very neat tie-dye merchant at eBay...The rest is harder).
Monday: I played for musical rehearsal until 4pm, then had until 5.30 to prep for "Open House" -- the night when parents come in to visit their kids' classes. Not parent conferences, thankfully, but still a bit of a dog and pony show. Also, rather anticlimactic, since very few parents came for me. Most of my kids are upperclassmen, and most of their parents met me last year. So, a long long night with very little real substance. On the bright side, my classroom looks pretty awesome now (except for that one area behind my desk...).
Tuesday: Max had speech therapy (at which his therapist was totally awesome and did some specific retraining based on the incident from Sunday, helping him realize that being different is ok, and working on some of his speech issues that will help him get along with his classmates better). So, I took him to therapy, picked up Robbie and brought both home, by which time J was at work, so I did all the evening meals and bedtime myself. Again. (Love love that my husband is working this awful job. Hate hate that it keeps us apart and lands me with most of the evening duties).
Wednesday: Faculty meeting after school, then I went down to Portsmouth shopping (ok, this was fun, but still draining). Picked up new clothes for everyone at the 50% off sale at the awesome thrift store (part of the same chain as "Value Village," for my Canadian readers). Hit the new "Trader Joe's" for supper fixings, then came home, ate supper, and went back out to choir practice. The yawns continue to pile up.
Thursday: Anyone out there remember the professional development course I took at my school's "Summer Institute"? It's called "Skillful Teacher" and it's pretty great...except for the fact that in addition to the four days of summer work, it also involves two afternoons and a Saturday of additional meeting time (and homework). So, Thursday from 3.30-6.45 I was in class...and had to do a project to hand in for that day too. How I found time for that I'm still not sure.
Friday: Which brings us to today. Blessed Friday. Jeff worked from 4-9 but he's home now. We're watching an old episode of Doctor Who (catching Jeff up on 6th season). Jeff brought a pizza home that someone had evidently decided they didn't want, so I've got a bit of pizza, and I've opened a bottle of riesling. Thank God it's Friday.
Tomorrow I'm sleeping in. Jeff's working at 11am, but I plan to spend the day inside with the boys out of the rain and making a giant pot of my killer minestrone soup recipe and some bread. Oh, and reading "The Graveyard Book," which I finally managed to get from the library. And practicing my ukulele. I'm still loving it and getting better, but it's going to take work before I can play all the things I really want to play. (And Christmas is coming fast!)
Saturday: Left the house at 8am to drive to Augusta to help lead a teaching conference on the Berlin Wall. I'd prepared for it for hours, drove two hours to get there, and then...there were only five of us there. Sigh. It was great talking to the people who were there, and I did get some good teaching ideas, and they DID really enjoy my presentation...but it was a bit of a let down. Not to mention that it was two hours there and two hours back, so I didn't arrive back home until nearly 7pm, Jeff was already at work, I paid the babysitter, and then had to put the boys to bed. Yawn.
Sunday: Church in the morning, Jeff left for work in the middle of church and didn't get back until 9pm that night. I had a great time with the kids, but it was tiring. I took them on a picnic at the playground, played with them in the basement, etc. Oh, and tried to plan classes for the next week. Aaaaand...dealt with a crisis with Max, who lamented to me that he was different from the other boys and girls because he couldn't talk like them and he wanted to be the same as them. (And also, he wanted to dress differently and wear a rainbow shirt. THAT, we could fix, thanks to a very neat tie-dye merchant at eBay...The rest is harder).
Monday: I played for musical rehearsal until 4pm, then had until 5.30 to prep for "Open House" -- the night when parents come in to visit their kids' classes. Not parent conferences, thankfully, but still a bit of a dog and pony show. Also, rather anticlimactic, since very few parents came for me. Most of my kids are upperclassmen, and most of their parents met me last year. So, a long long night with very little real substance. On the bright side, my classroom looks pretty awesome now (except for that one area behind my desk...).
Tuesday: Max had speech therapy (at which his therapist was totally awesome and did some specific retraining based on the incident from Sunday, helping him realize that being different is ok, and working on some of his speech issues that will help him get along with his classmates better). So, I took him to therapy, picked up Robbie and brought both home, by which time J was at work, so I did all the evening meals and bedtime myself. Again. (Love love that my husband is working this awful job. Hate hate that it keeps us apart and lands me with most of the evening duties).
Wednesday: Faculty meeting after school, then I went down to Portsmouth shopping (ok, this was fun, but still draining). Picked up new clothes for everyone at the 50% off sale at the awesome thrift store (part of the same chain as "Value Village," for my Canadian readers). Hit the new "Trader Joe's" for supper fixings, then came home, ate supper, and went back out to choir practice. The yawns continue to pile up.
Thursday: Anyone out there remember the professional development course I took at my school's "Summer Institute"? It's called "Skillful Teacher" and it's pretty great...except for the fact that in addition to the four days of summer work, it also involves two afternoons and a Saturday of additional meeting time (and homework). So, Thursday from 3.30-6.45 I was in class...and had to do a project to hand in for that day too. How I found time for that I'm still not sure.
Friday: Which brings us to today. Blessed Friday. Jeff worked from 4-9 but he's home now. We're watching an old episode of Doctor Who (catching Jeff up on 6th season). Jeff brought a pizza home that someone had evidently decided they didn't want, so I've got a bit of pizza, and I've opened a bottle of riesling. Thank God it's Friday.
Tomorrow I'm sleeping in. Jeff's working at 11am, but I plan to spend the day inside with the boys out of the rain and making a giant pot of my killer minestrone soup recipe and some bread. Oh, and reading "The Graveyard Book," which I finally managed to get from the library. And practicing my ukulele. I'm still loving it and getting better, but it's going to take work before I can play all the things I really want to play. (And Christmas is coming fast!)