Highs and lows this week

HIGHS

Monday I had dinner with some high school friends. I haven’t seen them in a while and it was really nice to catch up. We met at the restaurant at 6:30 and didn’t leave until 9pm! I also met one of them before for a walk. She and I are going to try to keep walking regularly, though summer is the worst time for me to start something like that.

I took off Tuesday to spend the morning with my niece and nephew at the Academy of Sciences. I was trying to give my MIL a break, but she came with us. We got there at 8:30am for Member’s Hour and it was practically empty. By the time the schools showed up at 10:30 they were almost ready to leave. We headed out around 11am. It was really fun; I’m glad I got to to see them.

I went for a run in Golden Gate park after we walked home. The weather was relatively nice. I appreciated having that time, because I couldn’t make the class at the dojo on Wednesday.

We got to see our daughter in action at school on Wednesday night. We got to see her robot make the rounds, and some of her art up at the end-of-the-year STEAM night. She has a really good group of friends and I’m so happy for her. I struggled socially in middle school, so I don’t take for granted how happy and secure she feels with her many friends.

I got A LOT done at work this week. Looking back on it all it was a nuts amount of stuff, and I felt incredibly underwater Thursday and Friday, but it did all get done.

I finally got to see the electives response sheet and my numbers for next year are big. REALLY BIG. There are 70 7th graders that want to take Spanish 1A next year. 50 of them picked at their only elective! (20 of them will only take it if they can take zero period, most of them chose Band or Orchestra first). If that many 7th graders take 1A next year we’ll definitely have enough interest in 1B to fill two classes. This year I have 38 students interested in 1B but we can only fit 34 (and I would prefer to cap it at 32). I hate turning kids away, so I’m happy we won’t have to next year. Having said that, I could possibly have 120 7th and 8th graders across four classes. (I will also have a 6th grade section with two sets of 28ish kids that I’ll see at the first and second half of the year). That is A LOT OF KIDS. I’ve already struggled to run my free reading program with 98 kids this year. Another 20 kids would be a lot to manage. This really might be a case of “be careful what you wish for.” We shall see.

Speaking of my free reading program, I bought the tamales and a few more prizes for the party that the FORTY SIX students who blacked out their free reading bingo boards earned, and I think I’m only going to end up spending about $150 of my own money on the event. This is honestly much lower than I had feared.

And speaking of spending money on events, we finally reserved the park tables and sent out the evites for our daughter’s birthday party in early June. A few kids can’t come because it’s a week after their school is out – she’s feeling pretty bummed about that – but a lot of kids can come and I’m sure it will be a good time. We’re going to have a make your own boba tea station and a bracelet making station. Also bagels (it’s from 2:30-4:30 so we don’t have to feed them a meal). I was really struggling to figure out how to put this together so I’m relieved that most of the planning is done. I even have more of the supplies picked out, I just need to clear them with my daughter.

I assisted at my son’s belt test this morning. It was 3.5 hours long (32 kids tested!) and they were really grateful to have me on the mat. I even got to spar with the kids, and I held boards for breaking. My son was testing for a black stripe on his red belt. I missed his big red belt test last year (exactly a year ago last week!) because I was the first one in our family to get Covid), so it was really nice to participate this time. It’s a big deal that he (and three other kids) have red belts – it takes a really long time to get that high. I’m really proud of him.

That is a lot of highs! I guess it was a pretty good week!

LOWS

I didn’t get to go to a class at the dojo this week. There just wasn’t a time that worked. I’m really hoping to go twice next week.

That sour taste from that Wednesday at work lingered. On Thursday and Friday I was feeling REALLY underwater. Like drowning. But I did get everything I needed to get done by Friday, which means next week might be okay.

My classroom is not even close to ready for the Celebration of Learning (which takes place this coming Tuesday). It’s definitely no it’s way, but I know the final push always takes 3-4x longer than I think it will. I’m going to have to stay on Monday to get most of it done, because I’ve spent too many hours before previous Open Houses just throwing shit into Costco bags and hiding them in hall behind the science classes. I really don’t want to do that this year (though I have my own little storage closet in my room – it doesn’t belong to me but I could put stuff back there for just one night)…

My husband continues to struggle with what we’re pretty sure is clinical depression. He says he’s going to take steps to see someone, but I know that will be really hard for him. And I’m way too underwater to help him with it right now. Next month I can start looking into what our insurance covers. In the meantime, it’s lonely living with someone who is sad all the time. Lonely and exhausting. Some days are better than others, and I really try to savor those. On the bad days I try to remind myself that this too shall pass. I can’t guarantee myself that things will get better, but they probably will.

There are still FOUR WEEKS OF SCHOOL! HOW?! The next two weeks will be stressful and busy; the Celebration of Learning is next week and that party I mentioned is the week after. The final two weeks should be okay. My daughter’s birthday party is the Sunday before my last week of school. WHY?!?!?!?

My lows list is a lot shorter than my highs list. And last week felt really stressful! Maybe I should write a high and low list every week, to help put things in perspective.