Life gives us melons

Whoa what a week(or two) it's been, I'm finally at a state where I can sit down and write without possibly saying something I'll regret. The school year was off to a great start and then, like always it got crazy. Not normal beginning of the school year crazy, crazy crazy. Three IEP's due in the first two weeks of school is insane, the only good part was to see my students do a superb job running their own meetings and helping me write their goals. That I must say was validating and way cool. Doesn't erase the fact that IEP's that early in the year is nuts. To top it off, some kid decided to light fireworks in the area and started a huge fire (over a 1,000 acres) causing the air quality to suck. Quite literally you'd suck in before you walk outside to avoid smelling the smoke. It was so bad that it was in the hazardous range (worst in the country at the time) so kids at school and Gage could not go outside. Try telling that to a toddler who lives outside. After a week of indoor play, we were all looking forward to the weekend when it cleared up just enough.

Schedules at school have been crazy too. The first few weeks (and sometimes months) of special ed are always like that, but it doesn't make it any better each time, I mean you have much of the school year and summer to forget about it. Either way, spending two weeks with almost no lunch breaks or prep time is not my idea of a great start. I'm grateful that I've got some great teachers that I work with, who understand and forgive me for any lack of my attendance.  I also have great paraeducators that make my job easier and appreciated.

Today the air quality went back down and kids had to stay inside. I didn't have to deal with it though, because I was at home taking a personal day to pack. Great way to spend personal days right? Yeah so a big reason for my grumpiness and irritation lately has been the fact that last Friday John got a call asking us to move out of our place within 30 days for the owners son. This came out of nowhere. One of the fortunate parts of where we live is that we're not expected to pay rent, just maintain the property. The unfortunate part about where we live is that we don't have to pay rent so that means no lease and that means they can take everything we've talked about and understood  and just throw it by the waste side when people make bad choices. Now I get that people have lives and responsibilities and that we had a great set up here. I get that people get sick and that we are not family. What I don't get is how people can just throw a single income family (with a baby) living on an American teacher salary to the wolves with no remorse because of someone else's bad choice and then act like we're strangers. We've done nothing wrong. The worst part is that we were concerned about the health of both owners and assumed that they weren't in a positive mental state. Apparently they are doing better and that had little or nothing to do with this situation. Oh and we were not told the whole truth, we found out unintentionally through the grape vine. Such crap. So now at the age of 30 and 34 we get to move back in with the parents. I'm grateful that we have a place to stay and that we're being accommodated well, but it's still hard to be happy about it. It doesn't help that I lost my cat while we were here. There are perks to being back in town and living so close to a high school for John so that's good. I need to process everything and accept it, which I'm working on but it'll take time. At least we're all healthy right?

I am ending the week in a positive state because I spent the evening walking in quiet Fall colors with the best child in the world who makes me smile so much. I'm also going to bed happy about tomorrow and what it has to bring, yoga and friends to name a few.  Onto a new week with hopefully less melons.

Weekly reflections...first week of school down.

Well just like that I went two weeks without reflecting. Three weeks into setting my goal and I've stumbled. It's a goal right? So I can keep working on this weekly reflection thing. Anyway I'm sitting here in a coffee shop with a friend on the first Saturday of the school year. Two teachers who have worked their buts off all week and stayed up too late in deep conversation about education and our lives, while our kids played together and our husbands were in deep conversation about some ridiculous video game on their phones. Both of us full time teachers, devoted mothers, and typical learners (that may or may not struggle to balance their passion with time). Here we are after feeling tired, stressed, and agitated feeling successful and relieved to have devoted our Saturday to complete our homework, not to mention excited that we can now get back to our children and enjoy spending time with them without having our brains entirely clouded with worries and things to do.

It's only the first week of school and it will get better, but the season of weekend classroom visits and late night work after the kids have gone to bed is back. I'm happy I have a teacher buddy and mommy buddy who is on the same page as me and who's kids love playing with my kid. I love that our husbands get along too! Today was a much needed, productive, and enjoyable day as a teacher, a student, a mother, a wife, and a friend. The first week of school went pretty well (I can't complain) with just a handful of stressful situations that have or are working themselves out. Now I need to boost my exercise, me time, and husband time up. Gotta love the first week of school and the 3 day weekend immediately afterwards even more. I hope everyone enjoys theirs.

Reflections and goals

The last time I wrote was right before the new year. That was a while ago and I can confidently say that we got through winter (although we had to call in to work once and dig ourselves and others out of the driveway a few times) and the school year without too much heart ache. Now summer is over (well the fun part is) and school is getting ready to start. I feel like teachers have two types of years, the calendar year and the academic year. Well the academic year has began for many and begins for me, officially, Tuesday. Since our trip to Nevada was in August (officially ended today), I have been going into school since mid July so my head has been in school mode since then. I have some fun projects, new procedures and lessons that I'm excited for. I also started my yearly professional development in early August so my head hasn't stopped since then.

Speaking of that, while doing my homework I learned about a technique called daily sentences. Basically each person should try and write a sentence a day to wrap up their night on a positive note and anything more is a bonus. Now a daily sentence on my blog would be pretty boring for ya'll to read, but a paragraph a week might be bearable, so I'll start there. That's my goal and with all the paperwork I do on daily basis, I think a paragraph once a week is manageable. I'd like to get back into a habit of blogging again, because I find it more personable (like email back in the day). I won't waste anymore of your time so here's my first paragraph.

Summer has been such a great time and really made me appreciate my teacher schedule. Although the school year is insanely busy and difficult to manage sometimes, summer makes it totally worth it. John, Gage, and I have had a lot of fun this season playing outdoors, having play dates with friends, gardening, attending the weekly farmers market, exploring more of our local area, swimming outside, biking, attending fun family activities including story time at the library and baby/mama yoga, and traveling. I've been so blessed this summer being able to focus on my family and enjoyed so much time together. It makes me excited for the next one and really sold us on teaching. No summers are not why I entered this field, but they sure are a perk, especially with children.

I am saddened that summer season is ending, but excited to start the new school year and see my other kids. I hope they've had as fun of a summer as I have. I look forward to sharing pictures of my classroom next week. I'm grateful that we still have plenty of warm weekends left to play and for family watching Gage. I'm worried about the transition back to work and feel bad that he won't really understand why things are changing again, but I know he'll be in good hands. I hope that you are all enjoying the last weeks of summer and get to see the amazing eclipse tomorrow.

P.S. I did not include pictures in this post since most of you reading are on my Facebook and/or Instagram. If you'd like to see them, let me know and I'll email them to you.

Love,
This happy teacher mom, dog mom, cat mom, and outdoor wife ;)