To Be or Not To Be (Exhausted!)

Hi all!! Sorry for the lack of blogging... it is a super-busy time at school right now. Last week I had a sub for 3 days -- 1 by choice and 2 in order to be on the interview committee to hire the new teacher for next year. I think we've got a good one, but it's her very first year of teaching.... so we'll see how it goes!! I really like her a lot, so I think it will all work out well. This weekend I spent a couple hours doing more sub plans thinking I would also be gone 2 days this week for a training -- however I found out at the very end of the day Monday that they did not have enough subs and I didn't have to go to the training. While I was more than slightly irked that I had wasted time on sub plans, I was more than happy to just spend some time actually teaching my kiddos!!! :) Tomorrow is a teacher work day for us to figure out the classes for our kids moving up to 5th grade and get our classes from 3rd grade for next year. It's really starting to sink in how little time we have left this year!!! A huge part of me is literally counting down days (hours and minutes) until summer, but I also know I am really going to miss my kids so much :)
Speaking of the kiddos -- I helped out with Shakspeare Club this year and today was our final production. We did "The Tempest" and "Hamlet" and they pulled it off pretty well. I was proud of them!
Life just has a way of reminding you of all the good stuff, and I just have to say that over the last couple of days, I really have been able to make myself slow down a little and just enjoy the ride. :)

Sunshine :)

Well it was another very long week, but luckily I went to the doctor and got some antibiotics, so I'm slowly getting better. It has been so nice to have a weekend where I can sleeeeeeeeeep. The weather yesterday was rainy and cold, but today it was sunny and warm. I spent some time at school and then met friends for coffee (ice tea for me!) by the river. Then I went back to school and finished my sub plans because I have tomorrow off as a mental-health day :)

46 days until summer!!!

Well I made it through conferences! Unfortunately my cold has come back, so I've spent the weekend in my pjs in the hammock throwing the ball for Sherlock :) Anyway, conferences for the most part were pretty good. One kiddo ended up in tears, but the parents were finally waking up to how much he was slacking in class, so hopefully it will make a difference. The rest of them were also pretty supportive, hopefully we'll make it through the rest of the year on a good note! It's pretty hard for all of us to be gung-ho about school right now with the countdown on until summer break, but there is also quite a bit of fun stuff coming up (field trips, swimming party, guest speakers, etc.) so hopefully it will fly by! I also realized that I have 3 personal days to use up before the end of the year (since they don't roll over) so I'll be giving myself a few long weekends here and there too!
Some of you reading this may not know that I have a bit of a challenge coming up for next year. Two of my fellow 4th grade teachers are retiring, and the third teammate decided to move up to 5th grade, so I'll be leading the 4th grade team next year. I don't exactly feel like I know what I'm doing, but my principal is confident in me, and we'll see how it goes. The up-coming class is smaller than the current class, so there will only be three 4th grade teachers. One of them will be moving up from kindergarten, and I adore her... but as this was her very first year of teaching too... she'll still need a lot of help. The third person we will be hiring, but we both get to be in on the interview process, so hopefully we'll find an awesome person to round out the team. The three teacher-teers!! Anyway, it's certainly a lot more stress than I was hoping for in my second year of teaching, but I know I'm lucky to have this job that I love, so... we'll see!
In the meantime, spring is actually starting to peak through here in the mountains, and I just love the smell of damp earth and growing things! I'm REALLY looking forward to having nothing do to this summer but have fun :) After Africa, I hope the pooperdog and I will get to do some good backpacking trips around the state... maybe go visit camp sometime... and of course the nephews are coming in July!! If anyone wants to come visit, Fat Kitty said he might give up his room for a couple nights if someone is willing to love on him :)
For now it's off to school to get ready for another week! I hope your week is a good one :)

Check back next week....

Hi all,
Sorry for the lack of posting. Spring break and the birthday was fantastic, but way to short. Last week was rough... long and frustrating topped off with report cards. This week will hopefully be better, but also is conference week, so it will be very long no matter what.
So... 69 days 'till Africa looks sweet, but 5 days till the end of this week looks even sweeter right now.