I'm still working 10-hour days on average at the middle school. Sixth graders in the spring are definitely a challenging species! In recent months, I've had 2 new students arrive to the school who definitely face many challenges themselves in their disabilities & struggles as individuals. Developing hormones have not been gentle to either of them, let alone the 80+ kids that are on my team! I'm still enjoying my job tremendously, and loving the challenges. Sure, there are the typical frustrations with school district budget limitations, administration woes, colleague woes, and parents who should be "fired" or disqualified from their jobs as parents. What keeps me going is that I know I can make a difference for these kids, even if my patting their shoulder is the only human touch they get that day. I try to make each of the kids smile at least once each day, and for some, that is not easy! One student in particular has been heavy on my heart lately, and I'm suspecting his disabilities are in actuality a lot more difficult than what I first observed. I know that I can't "change him" or "fix him" in the few months that he's been with us at school, but I can try hard to make sure he learns at his level, in his way, and on his own time. We have had a few field trips- time spent at the pond here in town, observing a State Supreme Court case in town, and a trip to the nearby town of Prescott to visit an Aeronautics School and History Museum. They were fun days, but I'm glad that the field trips are over now! School is out for us, on June 9.... 4 weeks from now! Sixth graders are such interesting beings. They're still such children, yet the glimpses of their future selves are starting to emerge, their life-long interests, habits, and emotions developing as they begin to really discover who THEY are. Watching this process is always so interesting to me.... I love how different it is for each one of them. I hope that they know, by now, that I'm nearby if and when they need me.
School....... I have SO much still to do in these next 4 weeks. Today we have a day off because of a built-in snow day that, if it had needed to be used, the district would still meet the required numbers of days of school. Monday also is a "snow day," and I'm loving the balmy 72* sunshine on my porch and no snow-shoveling in sight!! I've spent the day napping, reading, painting my toe-nails pink, and basically "recharging my batteries." I'm hoping that I can go to school on Monday's "snow day" and crank out end of the year paperwork. It's so hard to get that sort of thing done during average school days because of distractions, people always around, kiddo melt-downs, etc. So I hope that Monday can find me rested, recharged, and extremely productive!!
Life has been about perspectives, for me, recently. I'm happy with most aspects of my job (I wouldn't mind the days calming down a bit, ha!) and I'm happy with where I live and sharing my life with the best dog in the whole entire world. But.... I am trying hard to not focus on where I am at in my life and comparing my life to the lives that others I know, lead. Interesting how tid-bits pop up while you're reading, when you seem to need them most....
"If you spend time measuring yourself by another person's abilities or circumstances, you will always fall short of success and happiness. The only race is with yourself. Life is about being happy where we are at in each individual moment of time. It's about finding that careful balance between contentment and the desire to become better. For we must be happy with who we are and what we are...but we must also carry within us that longing to improve and progress." -L.S.
This summer, I am looking forwards to a trip to Texas to visit one of my best friends and her new daughter! They are in the US for a few months, visiting her parents and enjoying home soil for a few months. Her husband just re-deployed, and their home in Germany is closed up for a few months while she's in TX. I've never spent time in TX before, other than airport layovers in Houston. I am hoping to visit them over the 4th of July time-frame. Patriotism in TX with an Army family should be an experience in itself! Jess and I met in 6th grade, and I find myself often comparing who we are NOW as adults, to the odd young kids we both were back then... Not to mention, I want to snuggle that baby for hours and hours and hours....
I am also looking forwards to hours spent on my porch reading in the sunlight, and also creating a fire-pit/chiminea (Mexican clay fireplace) sitting area in the yard. I'm also keeping these simple, inexpensive pleasures nearby, because I'm finding that they make my heart so happy when I carve time to indulge them...
(This isn't MY house, but it's a space I'd truly love to create a semblance-of someday!
Of course, in a room covered with wall-to-wall bookshelves, comfy chairs, and family portraits!!)
Off to celebrate this "snow day" with a walk with my sweet Sayde Pup, and then some much-anticipated Mexican food..... my favorite!!
