Wow, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss writing posts in WordPress. Their interface has never been my favorite (especially after the invent of “blocks”) but it sure does beat typing in a document or email and then pasting it back into the app on my phone. No thank you. Unsubscribe.
But at least I can type posts on a computer (instead of my phone), which I appreciate. That is one of the things keeping me sane these days. Oh, and that my ocular migraine this morning only last two block periods. Thank the universe for that. Here are a few others I’m appreciating these days.
A clean(ish) house. On Sunday, after my 9-hour belt test, I woke up and was struck by what a dumpster fire my house was. Everywhere I looked I saw mess and filth. And I no longer had the excuse of my belt test looming to put it off. So, I got to work. I did my regular weekend chores of vacuuming all the floors and shaking out the rugs, but I also cleaned both bathroom floors (and counters/sinks/toilets), and parts of the kitchen, and vacuumed the downstairs and changed all the sheets. Our downstairs bathroom was especially gross and I’ve been so pleased to walk into it this week, and to revel in the clear and clean counter tops and the sparkling floor. It sucked to spend so many hours after my big test cleaning, but once it was done I felt even more stress fall off me.
The belt ceremony this Saturday. The black belts got their stripes and the high red belts got their black belts at the test, but the rest of us have to wait until the belt ceremony, which is this Saturday. I am really excited to get my red belt, which was made by the founder’s mother and has my name embroidered on it. Red belts at our dojo are no joke. I’ve been training for this for seven years and I’ve been training especially hard the last two years. I am honored to receive this belt, and to have my effort and service recognized. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that I rarely feel appreciated at work, where it can seem like most of my middle schoolers are more interested in avoiding my efforts than appreciating them, and I love feeling seen and recognized by my peers at the dojo. Also, red belts get to train in t-shirts, so no heavy gi jacket when I’m hot! (I’ll never forget when I was a yellow belt and saw someone training without their gi jacket on. I immediately took off mine and marveled at how nice it felt to train without it. Except someone promptly told me that only red belts (and above) could train without their jackes and I remember being so disheartened because I was sure that I would never, NEVER be a red belt. I wonder what yellow-belt me would think about this Saturday’sbelt ceremony. She would probably be stunned.
Summer is coming. Next week I have four work days (I’m missing Tuesday for the 11yo’s 5th grade promotion). The following week I have four work days with students, but one I’ll be at Great America (with the 8thgraders) and two are 1-6 minimum days where the students will be signing yearbooks and I’ll be packing up part of my room. The hard part now is striking that delicate balance of having engaging activities for them to do next week, but not needing to score any of it. I have a few ideas, and I hope they pan out. The best news is I didn’t have to cover Preterite past tense this year in the 1B classes which means we have some breathing room, instead of a giant test coming up. Woot!
June (un) gloom? (WHERE IS THE STRIKETHROUGH WORDPRESS SERIOUSLY?!) June is generally really foggy in the city, hence, “June gloom,” but this June we have some fun stuff on the docket. Honestly right now I feel a little panicked looking at our June calendar (which I put on the white board last weekend because I needed to see everything up there), but I’m trying to remind myself that most of the stuff on there is fun, and doesn’t require massive time commitments or effort leading up to them. Even the turning-15yo’s birthday should be relatively easy on the 7th. We’ll have the grandparents over in the early afternoon, then her two best friends will spend the night after the 11yo goes home with the in-laws). The almost 15yo doesn’t want much for her birthday, so I’m not even stressing about presents. And yes, 8th grade promotion at my school is a little stressful (I’m reading names this year!), but I’ve done it (literally) twenty times before so I know how it goes. I’m trying to keep June light, and get excited about St. Louis and the farm (we fly there on the final weekend of the month).
Books and TV. I finished Un Mundo Sin Fin! 50 hours in Spanish! I ended up really liking the last 20 hours after picking it up again. I’ll def listen to later Pillars of the Earth installments (there are four?!), but am taking a break for now. I’m really liking the audiobook of Light from Uncommon Stars, but I’m also reading it in bed some nights. I started a new Dolores Redondo audiobook (Todo esto te daré) and it’s shaping up to be the crime thriller she writes so well. The 15yo and I are watching the third season of Ted Lasso and she’s joining me periodically on my Secret Lives of Mormon Wives binge (I only watch while I’m working). The 11yo and I are listening to Ready Player One, which I loved the first time (and he’s reading Hunger Games, which he likes!) The husband and I finished the final season of The Righteous Gemstones (that show is consistently amazing and I loved the ending). I realized the Murderbot audio novelas are on Hoopla so I can plow through them without waiting. I’m on #3 and am really enjoying them. Oh, and I got three episodes into Eternaut, a Chilean end-of-days drama on Netflix and really liked it. The husband is at a concert this Sat and I plan to continue (or finish?) it. Finally the family took a break on the Fast and the Furious franchise to pick up Mission Impossible (after watching Edge of Tomorrow first, which everyone loved). We started on MI:4 and have watched MI:5 and let me tell you, they are very watchable movies. Absolutely no character development, but the stunts and effects are amazing. Also, Tom Cruise is not hard to look at (and a very young Rebecca Fergueson thrilled the 14yo and I in Rogue Nation). I will admit that having stuff to watch and listen to really helps me manage stressful stretches. I’m thankful for all this entertainment right now
Congrats on your red belt! That’s such a huge accomplishment!
Thanks! It really is!
RED BELT!!!! Hurrah.
And a clean house already before the last two weeks (8 days) of school!
Lovely. As well as time with tv and books. Whew! A lot done and time to get more wrapped and finished for this year and head start of being ready for the new school year before stopping the circus for summer fun. After reading the post yesterday I am glad you have such a high note.
THANK YOU.
Yes! It’s been a tough slog but I’m feeling okay. Most of the hard stuff was my choice and I own that. And soon summer will be here and it will be so much better.
I like how you describe the significance of the red belt, because I don’t know much about these things. I knew getting a new belt was obviously a good thing, but I didn’t understand the importance, and how important it is to you. So- CONGRATULATIONS! I’m thinking your belt ceremony is today! I hope you really get a chance to soak it all in, how hard you worked, the setbacks you’ve had, and appreciate reaching this milestone.
Hopefully this post will inspire me, because my house is a disaster right now. My husband has been out of town but he gets back tonight, and I had dreams of cleaning while he’s gone- so far that has not happened. We’ll see.
Good luck with the 8th grade graduation! For my son’s college graduation, we were marveling at how hard the job of reading all the names must have been (the guy did amazing and only stumbled once). Luckily, I’m sure there are a lot less 8th grade graduates than college!
I want to write a whole post about the dojo and my martial arts training and what it means to me. This is probably the time, because getting this belt is such a big deal. Hopefully I’ll manage it soon. I’m glad what I’ve written so far conveys how important it is to me.
I am NOT reading ALL 8th grade names. And an 8th grade teacher records them all saying their names so I can be sure I’m pronouncing them correctly and can practice. I think I’ll be reading 50 total? So not bad at all. But I do have to get started practicing. 😬
Congratulations on your Red Belt, that is amazing and such an accomplishment! I used to have a blog friend who wrote about her martial arts training, and it is SO impressive.
Do you know the group, The Wallflowers? They have a song with a lyric that gets stuck in my head when my house is particularly messy. The song is ‘One Headlight’ and the lyrics are:
“Well, this place is old, it feels just like a beat up truck
I turn the engine, but the engine doesn’t turn
What smells of cheap wine, cigarettes
This place is always such a mess
Sometimes I think I’d like to watch it burn”
LOL. Yeah, that feeling of wanting to burn it down has hit me from time to time, and a good cleaning takes care of that and makes the place feel lighter.
I’m going to check out ‘The Righteous Gemstones’, thanks for that.