Not a Wasted Word

*Actually, make that four. (How is strikethrough not an option in the title block?!)

May kind of steam rolled me. But when I look back at it, it’s clear why.

Work

• Finished the free reading program. I estimated that I checked over 1500 free reading submissions and put that many stickers on bingo boards. I also gave out many, many prizes.
• Planned and executed the blackout party. Tamales, mole and homemade horchata for 40+ students. Also prizes for that many students. I think it went really well.
• Wrapped up video skits. Every 7/8 class did three video skits except one, so we filed eleven in total. They all were edited (in iMovie) and ready to share with students (and parents) in Digital Portfolios and during the Celebration of Learning.
• Finalized Digital Portfolio Templates. I had to create a different digital portfolio for each of the 1A classes. I decided not to do it with 1B this year (it was a thing I could jettison!), but that still left three classes that needed templates with their unique class characters, stories and video skits. Luckily I know how to take little steps throughout the year
• Participated in Celebration of Learning. I got my classroom all cleaned up, made sure students had work to show parents, played the 7/8 class’s video skits, and chatted with lots of parents. It actually went by really quickly.

Home

• Hosted Book Club. I hosted book club at the beginning of the month. I cleaned up the downstairs and ordered catering plates. I’m not a confident host, so it was stressful, but I think everyone enjoyed it. And it was nice to get the downstairs in mint condition. It had been a while.
• Tackled the backyard. It wasn’t even on my list, but once someone pulled me out there I couldn’t stop. It’s so nice to have all that high grass gone. We have more work to do, but the big initial push is finished.
• Packed away the winter clothes and boots. I did not go through my own clothes as much, but all the big winter jackets and pants are packed away in the shed, along with all the rain boots.
• Hosted son’s sleep over. This required a big clean out of his room, and a smaller clean up of the upstairs.
• Hosted daughter’s promotion party. This is happening right now! There are 12 of them upstairs. They are so big and loud. I did a much deeper clean upstairs, and we moved most of the cat stuff downstairs. The cats are sleeping with us tonight. They had never been in the downstairs unit before and the first two hours were tough, but they’ve chilled out considerably.

Family

• Played the family taxi. I drove my daughter to so much swimming. And to friends’ houses. And to other events. I drove my son to the dojo. And to friends’ houses. And to other events. I really spent a lot of the time in the car, driving my kids around.
• Hosted my kids’ friends. I know I mentioned these before, but they are big deals, so I’m mentioning them again. It’s a lot to have groups of my kids’ friends over. Especially to spend the night.
• Supported my husband. He had a crazy two weeks at the beginning of the month. He was working long hours and super stressed. I stepped up a lot to help him. And right when his work stuff slowed down, mine got super crazy.
• Gave my daughter layers. She has been asking for layers for ages, but I assumed I’d have to pay someone to give them to her so I was stalling. A woman’s hair cut is like $90 around here! The thought of spending that kind of money on an adolescent’s hair cut was more than I could bare. Especially since I’ve been cutting all our hair for so long. But she said I could try it, so I watched a couple YouTube videos and gave it a shot. And it came out really well! I’m so relieved, both that she likes it, and that I can keep cutting her hair at home.
• Supported daughter through promotion. There have been A LOT of big feelings about finishing middle school and moving on to high school. It’s been a lot to help my daughter through it. I am tired. I feel like I’ve done a lot to manage other people’s emotions lately. I wish I had more support managing my own.

Personal

• Watched an Vanderpump Rules Season 11 in five days. Title says it all, except it doesn’t mention how much fun I had doing it. That escape really got me through a shitty week.
• Almost finished the summer fun photo book. But I didn’t need to rush it because I had a coupon. I plan to finish it up this week.
• Took a break from martial arts. I’ve barely been on the mat this month and I think that was the right move. Both my knee, and my mind, needed a break. I’m glad I was able to take it.
• Returned to running. I went again today and it felt so good. It felt like a regular run. And it totally turned around my shitty mood. I can’t wait to get back to real running again. It will be glorious.
• Reconnected with friends. Cutting my daughter’s hair prompted me to text a friend who used to cut her hair when she was much younger. And that prompted me to text her daughter, who I babysat for and then tutored until we became friends. The daughter and I are going to meet up when I’m at the KOA with my son and his friends. I can’t wait.

I would love to add a fifth topic to round this out, but it ain’t going to happen, so I’m going to stop writing and just post this already.

May June be a slower, more restful month for me and anyone else who hopes for that.

Last week I was officially 12 weeks out from my knee injury, which sports medicine considers to be 3 months (1 month = 4 weeks). This week I’m at 13 weeks, and 3 months as far as the calendar is concerned (I injured it on 2/27). At 3 months, I was cleared to return to running. And that is exactly what I did.

Of course, I was cleared to return in very slow, baby steps. My doctor told me that at 3 months I could start “run/walking,” starting at 30 seconds of running every 5 minutes for 30 minutes total, and adding 30 seconds every time I ran until I was running the entire time. If you do that math, it would take 10 runs to get up to a consistent 30 minutes of running.

Last Tuesday I had my final physical therapy appointment. My physical therapist was happy with my progress. He gave me balancing, jumping and lateral movement exercises now that my fracture is officially healed. We also worked on flexion. He agreed that I could return to running, and said to make sure I was listening for the sound of my foot hitting the ground. He said that if I can hear my foot hitting the ground, my knee joint is taking the impact.

The day after my PT appointment I put on my new Brooks with my new premium personalized insoles and I headed out on the trusty trail by work. I was nervous, sure, but I assumed all would be fine. On the second foot fall my knee started hurting. It hurt on the inner side, which is a place it never hurt before; my meniscus sprain was only a grade 1 and my fracture is on the other side of my knee. I was so bummed out when it started to hurt, but I assumed the pain would go away. Of course it didn’t and I finished up the “run” feeling pretty despondent. I knew it was going to be hard for me to take it so slow coming back, but I never really considered that my knee would hurt when I ran. Since that is not how I injured it, I didn’t think it would be an issue returning to it.

I spent a considerable amount of mental energy keeping myself out of a spiral of despair on Wednesday. I told myself that it was probably the PT that made it sore (we worked a lot on flexion, and my knee still hates to bend all the way). I also wore my compression sleeve when I ran I and I don’t normally wear that, so it might have been the culprit. I decided to try again on Friday, without doing any knee bending work before I went, and without wearing the sleeve.

Friday definitely went better. I was up to 1 minute of running and 4 minutes of walking. But I realized my “walking” was really jogging. Or something inbetween power walking and jogging. Trotting? It definitely felt more like a trot. My feet stayed very close to the ground, but there was definitely a moment in my gait when both feet were off the ground. When I got to the 1.5 mile mark in 15 minutes I knew for sure I wasn’t walking. I stressed out quite a bit about whether or not I should really walk, but my knee felt fine and my “trot” kept the muscles around my knee totally engaged, so I decided I’d keep doing it and see how things went. Also, the combo of running/trotting got my heart rate up and made me sweat – it almost felt like going on a real run – and I knew that if I kept it up, I’d be more likely to slowly add running time over the next ten runs.

I will say, the uncertainty of how to proceed has been hard for me with my knee injury. I’m a rule follower and I always want to be a “good” patient. I also know that I’m impatient and prone to pushing myself through pain, and I didn’t want to re-injure my knee because I wasn’t willing to let it rest and heal. It’s been a mind-fuck all around, honestly. The martial arts test also forced me to walk lines much finer than I would have liked. I will be so glad when this is all over, but I also appreciate that I’ve learned a lot about my mental and physical capacity to come back from an injury.

I ran again on Sunday and a fourth time yesterday. I felt twinges in my knee both times, but they always passed. I’ve never felt the consistent pain on the inner side of the first run, though I do sometimes I notice it for a minute or two. I’ve never worn my compression sleeve again, and I got Shokz open ear headphones so I can better hear if my foot is striking the ground too hard upon impact. When I run tomorrow I’ll be at half/half run/trotting. My trot is turning into a full fledged jog, but I’m telling myself it’s okay as long as I keep the muscles around my knee engaged. The whole point of this ramp up is to make sure that my knee can take the strain of impact, and if it seems okay after each run, I’ll assume it can handle it.

I will say, it has been SO wonderful to return to running. The weather has been beautiful and the effort is enough that I’m getting a taste of those amazing endorphins. It has been a very positive experience, and I’m so grateful that my knee has been able to manage the strain of such a high impact activity. If I keep running 2-3 times a week, I’ll be up to normal by mid-June! But now that I’ve upped my “walking” to trotting or jogging, I’m okay with the slow ramp up. When I run I think hard about my foot falls and it’s a little mentally exhausting. I’m glad I’m also learning how to jog in a way that requires less mental work to feel safe.

I’ve stayed on a trail that is flat and even. There is one by work (Sawyer Camp Trail) and one in the city (Great Highway) and each is the perfect length. I think once I’m back to a full 30-40 minutes of running, I will try my favorite spot in the city, which is a park closer to home, but has some hills and uneven trails.

I honestly can’t really believe I get to run again. I really hope the ramp up continues without issue.

It was a nice long weekend. Really nice. Well, most of it was. Monday things with the kids kind of went off the rails, but Saturday and Sunday were amazing. Even Friday was nice. We had a minimum day, which made Friday afternoon feel very long indeed. I had to get my prescription filled, which was a bummer, but I was able to get it done, and get in for a lab test. I’m glad those are off my to-do list now.

My parents picked the kids up at 1:30pm on Saturday. I spent the morning doing chores and helping them pack up. After they left, my husband and I went to lunch at new Tijuana-style taco place that was amazing. It really brought us back to our trip to Mexico City, which was only three months ago but feels longer ago. Then we saw a movie at the Roxie, before grabbing drinks downtown.

At the bar where we got drinks we watched several episodes of an anime show called Bartender: Glass of God. It’s an anime about a bartender who makes people the perfect drink. It was first a manga, then a show that ran for several seasons (thank you Google). Actually, Glass of God is the reboot of the original Bartender show. The fact that this show exists at all is insane to me. We had so much fun watching it. What a trip.

After drinks we walked into Chinatown to go to a new, very popular restaurant that my husband only got a reservation for when someone cancelled (he had an alert on some app). The meal was amazing. It was a real treat.

After dinner it was only 8:30pm, but we’d been out for 7 hours and were pretty tired. We also needed to get home to feed the cats, who are used to getting dinner at 6pm. We watched a little TV, but ended up heading to bed early.

Sunday morning we slept in. Eventually we walked to the Mission to have chilequiles sandwiches – another throw back to our Mexico City trip. We watched some of the Carnaval parade, did a little shopping, then headed home.

I worked on the summer fun book a bit, but when I went through the mail I found some coupons that give me unlimited pages plus 40% so I didn’t need to finish by Monday to get the Memorial Day deals. It was nice not to be in a rush.

I went down to my parents’ to pick up the kids around 6pm. They went to our local amusement park on Sunday and had an amazing time. We got In-n-Out on the way back and then watched some X-Men ’97. They were pretty zonked from the big day and went to bed pretty early.

Monday was a little rough. We saw the new Garfield movie (meh) in the interactive theater were water and air blows on you and the seats move. I’d wanted to try it out, and this movie seemed tame enough for a first try. It would also make what was sure to be a pretty mid movie a little more interesting. And all that was true. The movie was very meh, but the interactive experience was interesting.

Things went kind of downhill after that. My son was upset that I didn’t let him get more Pokémon cards with his own money and that meltdown lasted a long time. I didn’t get as much done around the house as I had wanted. My husband and I got into a little tiff. My daughter was stressed about a party she’s throwing on Friday that her friends can’t seem to commit to. It was just a lot of people feeling stressed and upset and I was over it by the end of the day.

This week is short and stressful with our daughter’s 8th grade promotion on Thursday and the party on Friday. This is the kids’ last “real” week of school as they only have two days next week. Summer is coming hard and fast. I’m so glad my husband and I had two lovely days this past weekend to slow down and enjoy each other. I hope that can carry us to the summer fun that’s scheduled for early July.

I did it! I made it to Friday!

When I get really underwater with a couple of big, important events, I get tunnel vision (oh! another tunnel metaphor!) and focus almost exclusively on what is right in front of me. I think this is good in that it keeps me from heaping on more stress by thinking about other stuff I can’t prioritize in the moment. But if I do it too thoroughly, I can come out on the other side of the big commitments to find the rest of my life has been thrown into a dumpster fire. This is never a great feeling.

Last night, after our Celebration of Learning, I collapsed on the couch. I managed to drag my ass up to put my son to bed, but then I passed out. This morning I spent the drive to work reminding myself of all the other areas of my life that need my attention, now that work is quieting down. When I got in, I opened my planner and calendar for the first time in FOREVER and started writing things down. And then I decided that maybe if I wrote a post about stuff, it would settle my brain a bit. So here is what I’m focusing on now that the onslaught that was work has subsided.

Daughter’s 8th grade promotion and party. It’s on Thursday. She needs to decide if she’s okay with the dress and shoes she already has or wants something else. We’re going to dinner with the grandparents after and she’ll be getting her promotion/birthday presents then, so I don’t have to host in a couple week (yipee!). Then on Friday she’s having 10+ girls over for a sleep over. Lord help me.

Cleaning the house. The house is not where I want it to be. It hasn’t been for a while. But when I do go to clean it up, it doesn’t take as long as it used to, so I haven’t undone ALL that work from earlier this year. I need to tidy and clean before Friday (see above bullet point), and I won’t have much time during the school week, so this weekend it will be.

Winter/Summer clothing switch. I need to purge some winter wear and pack away what I’m going to keep. I need to go through everyone’s summer clothes and see who needs more pieces (probably my daughter, definitely my son).

Quality time with my husband. We need it desperately, as we’ve been in what feels like survival mode for months. Between my knee, his work stuff blowing up, my work stuff getting crazy, and three different sickness cycling through the family, it feels like we haven’t even spent a weekend night together in weeks. My parents are taking the kids on Saturday and he made reservations for dinner so we’re definitely doing that. I’m really looking forward to hanging out and reconnecting, because it’s been a while since that happened.

Summer fun book. Every year I create a photo book of the four days we spend at “the farm” in St. Louis. If I want to be able to take advantage of a good sale I need to get it done ASAP, so I have time to wait for the best discount to present itself. So this weekend I’ll be going through the photos and sorting the best ones. I take over 3,000 photos over the four days we’re there, so it takes a while to look through them all. I’m actually really late starting this so I hope to get a lot done this weekend. {Update: I had already favorited them and I just moved them to computer via AirDrop. I’m so thankful to my last summer self for favoriting them.}

And now I’m off to officially start my long weekend. I hope you all get what you need over the next few days!

It’s Wednesday night and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The light is bright! It’s so bright! I really am close now.

But tomorrow will be a long day. Thursdays are always the worst days and tomorrow will be truly the worst Thursday. The worst of the worst.

Four block classes. No prep. Then several hours stuck at work getting ready for our Celebration of Learning (formerly known as Open House). I will be at work a solid 12 hours. It will be a long, and kind of awful day.

But then it will be a steady descent to the end of the school year. We’re always end later than most parts of the country, and even most schools in the area, so we still have three weeks of school left. But they should be much easier than the last month has been.

Today was the big party. 40 students came. The tamales were warm enough (barely) and the horchata wasn’t too watered down (should definitely add the ice at the last minute next year). The kids seemed to enjoy their prizes. A few of them showed genuine gratitude and thanked me sincerely.

I’m glad its over and I spent several hours cleaning up my classroom, which I should be able to make presentable for parents tomorrow night. I just finished editing the final video and the free reading boards have all been processed. Truly, the light is bright.

I just need to get through tomorrow. It’s a rough part of the tunnel, but it’s the end of the worst section for sure.

This weekend was pretty good! Our daughter had a sleep over Friday night, our son had a sleep over Saturday night, my husband was sick and pretty much out of commission both nights, and I managed to make it so Sunday without going crazy. I’ll take it!

There were some definitive wins that I appreciated. I shall list them here, because it’s important to acknowledge the positives.

• I was able to pick up the mole from the restaurant while my son was at the dojo on Friday. I walked there and it was a lovely evening to be outside and I really appreciated the reprieve.
• The homemade horchata was a big hit! I used this recipe and both my kids loved it and their friends liked it too. I’ll definitely be making it for the party this year, and probably for many years to come.
• Costco had evaporated AND condensed milk for a FRACTION of the price I paid for them at Safeway. Hooray!
• I got the final prizes for the party ready, and I found cheese tamales. At this point I have everything I need for the party, I just need to soak the rice tomorrow night and make the horchata on Tuesday night.
• I did one class’s free reading boards Friday night and one Saturday night which means I only have two tonight, and both of them don’t have that many boards. {UPDATE: It’s 10:50pm and I just finished them all! WOO HOOOO!}
• My daughter and her friend let me watch Dance Moms with them Friday night and then they watched an episode of Vanderpump Rules. It was fun to hang out with them, and this is when I got one class’s boards done. I love me some trashy reality TV. Which is a great foray into the next bullet point…
• My husband signed up for a free week of some streaming service to watch the NBA semi-finals, and it has the most recent season of Vanderpump Rules. It’s the post-Scandaval season and I am 100% here for it. I may have already watched 7 episodes on my phone (mostly it’s just on in the background while I do other stuff). {UPDATE: I’m on episode 9 now.}
• The summer camp that uses our campus over the summer gave our school’s staff a 50% off code and I put my son in 2.5 weeks of camp, with one week of extended care, for $750! Now we have his entire summer confirmed. It was especially nice to get the week I’m still in school for such a low price, as we really needed that. Also, for one week he’ll be at a camp on my school’s campus and my parents will be taking him to camp for 2-3 nights that week so my husband and I can have a no-kid break for a bit (our daughter will be at an overnight camp that week). I am VERY excited for this. I spend A LOT of time with the kids in the summer, and the travel can be intense, so I will really appreciate some down time in the middle.
• Speaking of my daughter’s away camp, we did all the paperwork for it this weekend. There were so many forms to fill out! I am so glad it’s all done. It’s been hanging over my head for a while.
• The boys did well during the spend the night. They ate dinner, didn’t ask for a ton of snacks, gave me their devices at bedtime, were asleep around midnight, enjoyed the pancakes I made, and were gone by 11am. It honestly wasn’t that big of a deal to have them over.
• My son ran some errands with me today. We’re listening to John Scalzi’s Redshirts (I already had it on my Audible account) and we listened to that in the car. I really like running errands with my son. It can be much nicer than going alone, and it gives my husband a break at home.
• We made an initial assault on the backyard and after I figured out how to fix the weed wacker, we made good progress. I covered my whole body, and wore a mask, and didn’t have an allergic reaction, despite being out there in the considerable wind for over two hours. The last time I cut the high grass I got hives, so this time I went out in full riot gear. It worked!

This week I have my final physical therapy appointment for my knee on Tuesday, the Blackout Party on Wednesday and our Celebration of Learning on Thursday. Friday is a minimum day and then it’s a long weekend (I literally just realized this, I’ve been so fixated on getting to Friday that I forgot about the long weekend!) Once I remembered it was Memorial Day weekend, I asked my parents if they could take the kids on Saturday night and they said sure. So not only will it be a long weekend, but my husband and I will get some kid-free time! I feel like we’ve barely seen each other this spring, so it will be very much appreciated.

And now it’s getting late so I might as well put up this post. I hope you all have a great week.

The end of the school year is always crazy. It’s crazy for my kids. It’s crazy for myself as a teacher. It’s crazy for our family (our daughter’s birthday is right after she gets out and right before I get our – literally the worst weekend every year). This year is especially intense because our daughter is “graduating” from middle school. There is a lot going on.

These are just a few of those events. Honestly I might be writing this text just to keep things straight for myself.

Son’s three friends sleeping

• Tomorrow night.
• The four boys made plans but no one else could host so I stupidly offered to host.
• Totally avoidable (and yet I did not manage to avoid it).
• Sigh.

Blackout Party

• Next Wednesday at lunch.
• 45 students invited (because they did extra work to blackout their Book Bingo boards).
• Costco bought tamales (though they don’t have cheese anymore so I have to find those elsewhere. Why?!
• Mole from one of my favorite restaurants (Donaji)
• Homemade horchata?! (I’m going to attempt to make it this weekend and if it doesn’t taste good I’ll buy a bunch of 1.5L bottles of Jarritos.
• Prizes! Squishmallows! Mini piñatas with candy! Merch from our favorite Spanish learning site! Mini-succulent LEGO sets!

Daughter’s 8th Grade Promotion

• At a high school near her actual campus (it has a bigger auditorium)
• Both sets of grandparents will attend
• Hoping brother can attend (we’re only guaranteed six tickets)
• On a Thursday evening, which I find kind of annoying.
• We all have school the next day. Blerg.

Daughter’s Promotion/Birthday Party

• Last Friday of the month (day after promotion)
• 12 girls sleeping at our house (including our daughter)
• 3 in beds, 2 on futon bed, 5 in blow up beds, 1 on sleep mat, 1 on couch?!
• Girls will have free range of upstairs, we’ll stay downstairs (son will be at grandparents’ house)
• I’m both dreading this, and immensely grateful that she has so many middle school friends she wants to invite to it.

Daughter’s Family Birthday Party

• This is not planned.
• It’s not even conceived of. I literally just thought of it.
• Maybe we’ll just do dinner after her promotion? But that would be pretty late on a weekday.
• My husband is out of town the whole week before her birthday and I refuse to be responsible for making out house presentable for a double grandparent event.
• I think dinner out somewhere after her promotion makes the most sense. I should make a reservation somewhere. Better yet, my husband should. He’s much better at that anyway.

This past week was long. Those margins I was remarking on earlier this week were absolutely not driving my daughter to swimming. After next week things will be much better. A week later they will be better still.

I just gotta keep on keeping on until the summer break.

May is coming fast and furious. I’m still eyeing next Friday for things to calm down at work, but I’ve already noticed some more margins in my day to day life. (I’m realizing this might just be that I didn’t have to take my daughter to swimming for two days.)

Saturday night I went to sleep wondering if my sore throat was really just allergies and talking a lot, or an actual cold. My 4am I was sure it was the latter. All day Sunday I felt absolutely awful. I rallied to have brunch with my parents (I told them ahead of time I felt gross), because reservations at that spot are hard to come by and I knew I won’t be able to meet with them on a weekend again for over a month. But once I got home, I didn’t do much. I was so, so grateful to my husband for managing everything, including taking our daughter to school at 10:30pm for her two day college visit trip to SoCal.

Monday I also felt awful but I went to school because it was not a good day to be out. The first three classes were rough, but by 5th and 6th period I felt better. By Monday evening I felt almost decent. I was able to stay up until 11pm to get some work done, and I was glad for that. Tuesday was another okay day at work. I took my son to the dojo, but didn’t assist. I tried to go to bed early but I couldn’t fall asleep until midnight. I am so envious of people who can fall asleep early when they want to.

Wednesday was kind of a nuts day. I had a meeting at school and then it was STEAM night at our daughter’s school, where a video project for her media arts was shown, and her Robotics team did a demo. Of course it ran way later than it was supposed to and we didn’t get home until 7:45pm.

Today is a hard day at work, but it won’t be as bad as it could have been because 3rd period lost their opportunity to film their third and final video skit. I am relieved and they honestly don’t seem that disappointed. That means I only have one more video skit to film and by this afternoon it will be over!

After I finish processing the free reading boards this weekend, and putting together each classes’ Digital Portfolio templates, I will be feeling pretty good about work. Next week is our “Celebration of Learning” (formerly know as “Open House”) and I’m trying to decide if I want to put on the big Blackout Party (for kids who blacked out their book bingo boards) the day before or the next week. Part of me thinks doing it the day before is nuts, but I don’t have to teach anything in Advisory that day, which means I could spend that entire hour prepping for the party. And if I decorate for it, that stuff will still be out for the Celebration of Learning. Also, I don’t plan to teach much on Wednesday and Thursday of that week, so maybe it’s the perfect time get it over with.

I think really I just want to get it over with. Because the last week of May there is a lot of family stuff (our daughter’s 8th grade promotion! Eek!) so I think I’d rather focus on family that week. I guess I just used this post to help me make my decision!

Sorry this isn’t much of a mid-May update. I can’t really believe we’re half way done with May. I can’t believe I just got a gnarly cold. I can’t believe that my daughter spent 48 hours in southern California on a school trip. I can’t believe her promotion is in two weeks. I can’t believe how bad my allergies have been, despite still getting shots once a month. I can’t believe I read that taking anti inflammatories can lengthen healing times for knee injuries, but my doctor never mentioned it to me (no more lower back pain relief I guess). I can’t believe there are only four weeks of school after this one.

I meant to put this up last night but I crashed hard around 10pm. Oh well. It’s Thursday and I’m taking my daughter to swimming again so it will be an extra long one. But there are only three horrible long Thursdays after this one! (the last Thursday is the last day and a minimum day so it doesn’t count). I definitely can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m at my son’s swim lesson again. It was my husband’s turn this week, but our son was home sick on Thursday and my husband stayed home with him. For this I was very grateful, and it felt like the least I could do was take him to swimming today.

Plus, I could grade quizzes while I was there. I could get some of my own stuff done, while giving my husband some time.

Then I left those quizzes at home. Sigh.

This is yet another weekend that will require hours of work from me. My free reading program is coming to a close and we’re filming our final video skits in the last two classes. Both require a fair amount of work from me.

I’ve been thinking hard about how to change things so I’m not working so much next year. The problem is that these two giant time sucks are the aspects of my program I am most proud of. Especially the free reading program, which is the result of many years of development and tweaking. It gives the kids’ choice, and incentivizes them to read more than what is required. Reading comprehensible texts is a powerful language acquisition tool, especially at this level, and I know it’s valuable. The thought of getting rid of this program breaks my heart. So I’m trying to find ways to scale it down or otherwise make it more manageable. So far I haven’t come up with anything.

The video skits are easier to par down. We could just do two in each class instead of three. There are probably other ways I could make them easier for myself. I’ll definitely be considering that, as I don’t feel they are as effective a language acquisition tool. Of course, they are a student favorite. Everyone on campus talks about it when we’re filming our video skits. It’s kind of a big deal. And it could still be a big deal when we do two, instead of three.

The reality is, I don’t mind working some at home, even on the weekends, IF I have the time to do it. This weekend feels very full, and I’m having to make time when it feels like there are absolutely no margins. Right now I’m on the elliptical because I needed to get some work done on the computer. I’m using my last ten minutes to finish up this post.

Tonight I’m seeing friends, which I desperately need to do. I worked about twice as long last night as I intended to, so I could not work tonight (the plans were made last minute last night).

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and I am so fortunate to get to see my own mother and spend much of the day with her. My plan is to work before we meet up for brunch and then to work while the family is watching Galaxy Quest (at my request).

It’s not ideal, but it is what it is. Next weekend should be my last big push, and I’ll be asking for students to turn in their pages throughout the week so hopefully I won’t have too much to do over the weekend.

I hope everyone reading this has an okay day tomorrow. I know there are lots of reasons to feel stress, anxiety and sadness on this day. I have a complicated relationship with it myself. So I hope you all find a way to take care of yourself tomorrow, and that you feel meaningfully seen and appreciated by someone you love, regardless of your maternal status.