Summer's End

I have one week of summer vacation.  Sam and Emily have a bit over two weeks.  I was looking at my list from the beginning of the summer and, miracle of all miracles, we got it all done.  We've also managed to get a few friends over, played some games, and seen a few summer blockbusters.  Our faves:  Mr. Poppers Penguins and Captain America.

We are now all feeling a little flu-ish. We're hanging around the house more lately anyway because it is so hot and it costs money to interact with the world.   I am  working my way through "The Kennedys," an 8 part series over the presidential years of JFK.  I am also getting last minute things done for school that will make things a little easier once classes get started.  Next Friday, I will meet with my new administration for the first time.  I am a bit nervous, but mostly anxious to understand the expectations and schedule.

Emily will be in middle school and she is crazy nervous about it.  I know she will be amazing in middle school, but I can't keep her from experiencing the required anxieties over each rite of passage moment. Sam is looking forward to 5th grade, but is not necessarily in a hurry to start school again.  He is enjoying this sleeping late thing. He is deeply struggling to get to sleep at night.  That makes his morning wake time later and later.  I hope we can all get back on track smoothly in a couple weeks.  

Mid-Way

Can you believe summer is more than half over?  On Monday, I stayed up all night finishing a project for a class. I might be too old to be doing that.  I finished my first two classes for my reading specialist work.   Now I have moved on to prep for the new job.

It has been a busy summer.  First, Emily and I went to girl scout day camp where she was a teen helper.  I stayed the night with the girls from our troop.  That was the first opportunity I have had to get to spend time with her new school friends since she started at Merriam Park this year.  Next, she and I went on a canoe trip with more new friends.  The junior high youth group at our "new" church situation takes the 7th graders on a canoe trip so they get that chance to gracefully transition in to junior high ministry.  I have join the junior high youth staff.  The kids are very different than those I teach, but they were pretty normal pre-teens and they warmed up to Emily and I nicely.   Once we returned, we went to Iowa for our family reunion.  There were some concerns, because this portion of my family can be sensitive and anger-driven sometimes.  However, nearly all of us have grown up in lots of ways.  We had a fabulous weekend of fishing, playing, cooking, etc.  I received a trophy for a sheet cake recipe I made for my mom's 60th birthday.  There is a lot of irony in  that, but I will not elaborate on why.

The whole family came home.  Ashley, Kreisa and Emily helped reface the cabinets. A few days later,  Emily left for church camp.  Sam and I ate out a lot and had one of his friends over a couple times.   We purchased school shoes, lost a couple teeth, and slept late.  Meanwhile,  while Em was at camp, we had a crazy brief storm that did some water damage to Emily's room (siding issue, I guess) and pushed down two LARGE pieces of trees.  One fell on the back fence.  The other fell into the neighbors yard and made it all the way to her house.  We, mostly Michael, have been cleaning it up since (for about 10 days).  This week we have visited the vet, dentist, orthodontist, and pediatrician.  Next week we visit the optometrist.   All that to say, we have made use of the time off.

I have 15 more days off and the kids have 25 more days off.  It goes by so fast.  All of us will be in different places each day once school starts.  I will be praying for what happens and what we bring back to each other at the end of each day.

GS Day Camp 2011

Summer is in Full Swing

One class down.  One district project down.  Two more of each  to go.  
Most of my list is done or scheduled to be done.   Now I thinking toward two weeks of movement.  Em and I will go on a canoe trip for the 7th graders in youth group.  We will come back to KC only to repack and head to an Iowa-based family reunion.  We will return to a short girls-trip somewhere (details not final).  I will then settle in to finishing my second specialist class and prepping for my new adventure at Harmon, while Emily heads off to her last year at camp with elementary kids.

So far this has been the most relaxing, pressure-free summer since I went back to the classroom.  The kids are hanging with friends.  Emily is playing softball.  Both are working on some keeping-the-brain-sharp summer lessons.  Emily also has the summer work for her advanced science and English classes.  Ashley, my beloved grown girl, is recovering slowly, but consistently, from her broken ankle.  She is also re-taking that terrible philosophy class.  I wonder if anyone likes their college philosophy class?

Worries?
__ Sam being at Merriam Park without Emily.
__ Emily beginning middle school.
__ Starting a completely new job with many unknowns.
__ Helping mom work through the grief of losing our dad.
__ Keeping my kids active in church when we are all going through a weird stage with that.

When you look at the world and all that humankind is forced to endure,  I have no true worries, but how to make a bigger dent in the problems and worries of those in so much suffering.  I should make that list.  That will have to be another post.  

Note: Blog needs more pics.  Working on that!

What Must Be Done

Ominous title for a general summer to-do list.   Ever get to that place where you have so many things to do and you know you are going to forget something important?  I'm there.  I eliminate, or at least reduce, that stress with lists.  I make daily, weekly, monthly, even seasonal lists. Yes, I admit I am an obsessive list maker.  One of those that puts little boxes in front of each item so I can see all the check-marked boxes at the end of the day.  Obsessive, but effective.  As I watch my son, I see that I passed him my own ADHD.  Instead of medication, I used my own types of behavior management (which I am teaching him to do, too).  My two most successful:  making lists and never procrastinating.  Today, I am making a list so I won't procrastinate.

 This is my summer list:

PERSONAL  (Sadly, there are no little boxes to check.)
Girl Scout day camp (check)
Garage Sale
Hair cuts: Em and Mom
Em and Mom to eye doctor
Sam/Emily/Mom to dentist (July)
Family Reunion
Trip to Branson
Em to 5-6th grade church camp
Emily needs tetanus shot b4 school
Raymond to vet
Locate piano teacher - double check Em still wants to start again
School clothes and supplies, school fees
Submit application for volunteering at Wayside Waifs
Walking/Biking training for events
Organize the basement covered in stuff from my NW classroom.

PROFESSIONAL
30 hours of iPad lesson development
15 hours of resource development for literacy
2  specialist classes finished by mid-July
Unit development for English (Harmon)
Tech idea development for high school English

Okay.  I already feel better just seeing this.  I looks a bit less overwhelming laid out like this.
I feel a more unsettled than usual this summer because I am transitioning from middle school literacy to high school English.  I don't yet know if I will be teaching just freshmen or both sophomores and juniors.  A few years ago the idea of teaching junior would have made me crazy anxious, but not now.  I am ready for whatever they offer.  I am ready to just get rocking through my first year in high school.  I know a lot of growth will be involved.

I didn't get that TL (teacher leader/instructional coach) position, but other than a little pride pain, I am so cool with staying in the classroom.  It is where I belong.  I don't read the politics well enough to be successful at that level, and I hope I never do.   Every time I thought about not teaching or I thought of a good idea I wouldn't be able to use as a TL, I would regret even applying for TL.  I am meant for the classroom.  This culture often makes you feel like you should be seeking bigger, higher, better positions of authority (power, if you will), but what's bigger or better than working with students.  I let myself get sucked into the thinking that teaching wasn't good enough.  I don't even know how it happened.  I used to know better, but I bought into the things people say about what I would be good at and what I should do.  It is all a lie.  I am ashamed of myself for not seeing it.  I am embarrassed that I thought I could fit into organization politics, when others could see I clearly can not.  Lesson learned.  A little humbling is essential sometimes.  Now that the process is passed, I am so excited about my next adventure with high schoolers.   One day I will make a fine instructional coach, but I am not called to it now.  Students still just jazz me too much and most adults just don't.  Enough said.

Okay...now on to conquering this list........

We Continue to Grow Weary

Weariness is still the theme of the summer school portion of our summer break.  I practically dragged the kids to Ashley's his morning, both so tired they just wanted to go back to sleep.  Later in the day Sam actually fish hooked our little friend Connor (finger inside of one cheek) because the two were arguing and Connor was doing some pushing.  They haven't been getting a long anyway, but that was crazy even for Sam.  After I picked them up, they had dental appointments.  We went straight there from Ashley's to Dr. Dyer's office.  Sam fell asleep immediately in the car.  He then slept in the waiting room while Emily had her cleaning.  When it was his turn he wouldn't wake up.  We put him in the chair and he slept through his cleaning.  He finally woke when the dentist was doing his check up.  To top it off, our child who would like off of sugar if allowed, had no cavities.   Poor Emily did not fair so well. After the dentist we went to dinner with Ash, Keisa and Mike at the Godfathers.  Sam, Em and Ashley played a little Monopoly pinball. We are now so tired, that we are lounging and watching documentary on a survivor of the holocaust.  Long day, but we got a lot done.  I am looking forward to July so I can have that month to catch up and my
kids can relax before they start the process of making friends in a new school.

We have been pretty tired and run down this week.  It makes no sense given that we had a three day weekend and minimal physical excersion.  Monday we could barely get our heads out of bed. We intended to come right home and rest, but we went to the books store after school and found this frustrating puzzle of the world.  Today, Emily seems to be sick, maybe the flu.  As if Monday morning wasn't challenging enough, we decided to get up early and go to Bob Evans for breakfast with our free coupons from the "Blue Crew"(2nd pic) It was a good effort, but the breakfast probably didn't warrant it.   When I picked Sam from Ashley's,

where it seems he is being a pain, he wanted to go home and watch Edward Scissorhands. I hope we will all take a nap soon.  Sam has a 6:00 game.  His season has been short on W's, but it is the first year for many and I think they are improving.  It is stressful for parents to watch the guys battle through every game.  I hope they are having fun.  They would probably be okay with most of the boys if they could just practice together and never play a game.

    
This weekend we have 3 birthdays and a baby shower.   Who knows what that will mean for the spoiled summer vacationers in the house.

Summer To-Do List Underway

As I mentioned in my last post,  summer is underway and it has a long list of family-related to-dos.  Emily is well on her way to conquering some of our book list.  She is seen here reading the second installment of Haddix's Missing series called Sent.  This week we also finished listening to A Wrinkle in Time.   Emily loved it and, fortunately, we already have the second book in that series.  I don't think I even realized that book was the first in a series.   I ordered some books for Sam about heroes in American history.  When a nine-year-old boy picks up a Webster's dictionary and asks if you know this was started by Noah Webster, you have to follow-up on that interest.  He is the first small child I have known in ages that openly professes his love of history.  I have to give Maranatha credit for that.  One thing private schools do so much better than public schools is teach American history.  More importantly they teach about our heroes (of every culture in America) so that our kids can see themselves in the power of the individual. Actually,  I think the focus of teaching heros is to see God's power through the individuals.

Speaking of the power of the individual,  on Friday we went to Cinemark to see the newest version of the Karate Kid.  We took our friend Connor. This pic was taken before the movie.  After the movie, Connor couldn't keep both feet on the ground at the same time because he was so enthusiastic about all the Kung Fu he saw in the movie.  Actually,  even Emily and I wanted to at least join a kick boxing class after watching that movie.  It is more about the power of the focus and discipline than kicking someone in the ribs.


I am back at work on Monday.   However, one class for 3 hours a day is a lot less daunting than the regular school day expectations.  Since I invited the kids who come to enrichment, I know them well and we get some fun things done.