Busy...or What?

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get! In all the time since I've been off school, I have managed to (mostly) catch up with the laundry and clean the living room. Period! Last night, I was so discouraged (and tired) that I wanted to give in to the fatigue and the clutter and do nothing. Thankfully, the will to survive in a clutter-free world keeps working on me.

Robin, bless her heart, is bored. Yesterday, it didn't go so well. Today, she was better behaved but uninspired. I couldn't get her motivated to go shopping for materials to make Girl Scout SWAPS. Tomorrow or nothing! She has a trip to the Children's Museum on Thursday evening with her Daisy troop, then Muncie for the weekend. The time doth fly! (According to phone calls, Ryan is having a blast in east Tennessee with his boy-cousins.)

Major Pat called me tonight to tell me that the 60-meter net was going great guns if I wanted to check in. Posh! The 60-meter net is chanelized. I'm lucky if I can just check in to the regular nets on the regular frequencies! (In fact, I've only check in, like, twice in the last two years.) He's pushing his luck to ask me to do more! I will ease back in...

Spring Broke

I could have predicted the colder temps this week, because it is spring break for me, of course!

After a long and busy week, yesterday began our break from school. I was up at 5:30 in order to get Ryan packed to go to west Georgia with Grandma Judy. (Robin flew to Georgia with Grandma 2 1/2 years ago, so it was Ry's turn...only they were driving.) Worked hard all of the rest of the day, too...just to get started on the work of the week. And there's plenty of it to do!

I have been going through cheap keyboards for some time now. Meg brought one out from her room for me to try...and I fell in love. Went out the very next day and got one. It's a Logitech "Wave", which is one of the ergonomic ones. It was a little pricey (just over $50) but well worth it. I will recycle the others, keeping one as a backup...but I doubt it will be necessary unless I do something stupid like spill stuff on this one. I'm careful!

In celebration of being "off duty" today, I actually turned on my HF radio and started refreshing my memory of how to use it. I actually had to wiggle some wires to remember which antennas went to which positions on the antenna switch. I checked into three SATERN nets. (Happy, Patrick??) We are at the bottom of the 11-year sunspot cycle, so conditions aren't the best. In fact, the spots should be on the increase by now, but the cycle seems somehow delayed. (Solar flares=bad for radio; sunspots=good.)

Robin will be back from Muncie tomorrow. We'll have to plan our week. (She and I will man the fort here at home for the rest of our break.) I think she has a Girl Scout outing and an invitations to make Girl Scout SWAPS for a camping excursion she will attend with Meg later in the spring.

My main goal for the week is to get the house in order. If I get lucky, I can actually do some yard work. I have contracted with TruGreen Chemlawn to put on a pre-emergent herbicide to keep the dandelions in check so mine won't be the yellowest yard in the neighborhood this spring. If I'm REALLlY lucky, I'll be able to finish scraping wallpaper in the bathroom and get the room painted (after a year of shredded wallpaper walls!)

Just a couple more months before I am officially retired. I look forward to less stressful days (said with fingers crossed!).

My Day Off

I took today off from school. Had to go in on Sunday just to finish a test and lay out lesson plans to do it, but I had a list of things to get done at home... Guess how many of the things on the list I actually got done today? Go on, guess! If you said "none," you are correctamundo! Okay, so what DID I accomplish?

I gave Meg and Grandma Judy a morning off. I got up, fixed the kids' lunches, got them up, dressed, and breakfasted...then delivered to their prospective schools. Took a run to Fashion Bug (clothing store for fat ladies) but found that they didn't open until 10:00. Came home and unloaded the dishwasher and fielded a couple of phone calls. Set up an online account to pay the Comcast bill. Went back out to shop at Fashion Bug. (I need clothes!) Also stopped at Shoe Carnival. Then Wal-Mart for food. (Food?? Where am I supposed to put it? The pantry is full. The top of the fridge is full. The freezer is full. The problem is that we are buying more fresh veggies and low-cal food than we used to. It all takes up space!) By then it was 2:00. I started chopping veggies for a stir-fry. Picked up the children from Grandma Judy's, referee'd a fight or two, and went from there.

At one point, I realized that it was Monday and probably a Girl Scout meeting night. Yup! Took Robin to GS while Meg and Ryan went shopping for some things that Meg needed. At issue is the fact that Meg's debit card is missing. It's around here, somewhere.

Ryan's new soccer coach called tonight with the info on the spring schedule. Looks like we'll be splitting our time! We are trying to maintain a calendar so we all know what's up, but it gets tricky.

I have three more days of school before spring break, but I have to be honest and say I really don't want to have to go in. There are so many things to be done here that work seems to be a waste! (See how I am?)

Meg loaned me a new keyboard tonight...an "ergonomic" board that I am loving. Gotta get one of these!! Oh well...it's only money!

During spring break, Ryan will be going with Grandma Judy to Tennessee to his cousins'. Robin will be here with me. (Meg doesn't get a spring break.) I have to get a plan together. There are lots of opportunities. For example, Robin's GS troup is going to The Children's Museum. We'll get by!

WAAAY past bedtime. Hitting the sack shortly.

Gosh..

Has it been three days since my last post???? Where does the time go?

My students calmed down a bit after my last diatribe. Some get it. Some don't. At least I haven't come home angry every night since.

I am taking Monday off in order to get some paperwork done re: retirement. Since I wasn't able to get everything done for a sub before I left school today, I will have to go over the weekend. Ugh!

We took the children to Chuck E. Cheese's tonight as a reward for good behavior (mostly Ryan's). Meg was able to get off work about an hour early so we could beat the insanity....somewhat. Since they aren't going to Muncie until tomorrow noon, we tried to get the kiddos to clean rooms tonight, etc...which was somewhat unsuccessful. Robin is currently sleeping in my bed--just feet away--FINALLY. Robbie is a complex character, very much like her mother. That bugs her mother!!

Bedtime.

I'm Ticked!

And the longer I think about it, the more ticked I get!
I have ONE student who pushes my buttons. Today, unprovoked and in the middle of class, he announced that his mother lives in Plainfield, so he intended to look me up in the phone book, ride his bike over here, and egg my house. In the same class period, ready for the dismissal bell, he managed to break a ceramic art project of another student. I'm done with him!

Meanwhile, grades were due today. Bonus points saved a lot of kids, unrealistically...but I basically don't care. I have 50 days left to care. Beyond that, I'm done!

All I want out of this spring is to keep the lid on. Ugh!

Ugh

This has been a "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" weekend. I shirked the things that really needed to get done in favor of what I wanted to get done. It is a beautiful day. I should have been working on things outside. Instead, I worked on things INside. My bedroom has been the source of my attention. Never mind that I have about 117 themes to grade and a whole yard to tend to...not to mention laundry and clutter. Grades are due Tuesday. Never mind about that, either! All I really want out of life is for everything to have a place to be...and for it to be in that place!

I have promised the grandchildren a swing set. I am somewhat torn between a traditional metal-pole deal (which is cheap) versus one that is more like a playland (which is more expensive and they will eventually outgrow). Gotta make a decision soon because I have to find someone to put it together and have it ready for good weather. And broken bones and bloody lips, etc. What am I thinking????

The children are over at the other grandparents' with Daddy and Kendra right now. Ahhhh....!

It's Me Again

We have had two half-days with students the last two days, with the remainder to be meetings. I was to meet with the other two English teachers at the middle school, but both have been absent. Thus, I departed early, came home, and took a nap both days. It has helped.

Today was designated as a day to do safety drills: lockdown, tornado, fire, earthquake, power outage, bomb threat. It was a "reverse schedule" day. My worst class was to be under my supervision for the biggest part. I was impressed by their behavior. They took it seriously. Imagine!

Then came the bomb threat deal. We were under Code Orange. Then I got a card that said we were to avoid a certain area during evacuation. I patiently waited for the word to evacuate. It didn't happen. Then we got the word to dismiss to the next class...and my students informed me that everyone was returning to school from the outside! Oops! Somehow, I had missed the fact that the PA would not be used to dismiss us because of feared bomb detonation. In short, in a real event, my students would have been in harm's way! I wasn't alone, but it didn't make me feel any better....

Meg drove Ryan to Muncie tonight.
Robin stayed here...her choice...to attend a birthday party tomorrow. She and her mommy got into a play-riot act tonight. It probably did both of them good!

Tomorrow is another day.
Waaayyyy late.

Cold Again

Someone needs to 'splain to me why my grandchildren are holy terrors when I pick them up from Grandma Judy's and in the car on the way home...but sometime thereafter they become civilized. I don't get it.

My day at school was not too obnoxious. I am covered up with papers to grade, etc... All I really want to do is crawl under a table and hide! One of my young Lochinvars got stupid in between periods and said something inappropriate to a teacher on my team...and got a bunch of lunch detentions for his trouble. He was pretty subdued after that. He's not a bad kid...just mouthy. This is the time of year for that. They will learn!

I finally got Robin's jacket washed tonight. It has been filthy for a couple of weeks. Both her mother and I wonder what in the dickens she does to get it so dirty.

Meg spent some time tonight fixing tomorrow's dinner. I love it! Anytime I don't have to cook, I'm happy!

I have managed to (sort of) keep up with the laundry this week. Maybe I won't have to work so hard this weekend.

Time for bed. I just flop over!

Not a Happy Day

The day did not start well. Meg got sideways with the children and took it out on me. I think everyone was crying by the time they left the house...except me. I was just angry. *First thing I learned when I got to school was that there was a shooting that killed the stepfather of one of my students. Apparently a stray bullet from target practice somewhere nearby... Then there was the classroom door that was "locked" from both sides. (The door had to be totally dismantled.) Then there were the toys I had to take away from kids...and lunch detentions to hand out to kids who refused to be quiet during silent reading... And stupid "what if" responses to directions for our "disaster drill morning" on Friday. Things are after me at home, and things are after me at school. I hope I am able to survive retirement! *So much more to think and write, but no enthusiasm. Later, my friends!

Feeling Better Now

The day started well. We had some rain overnight, but it was still warm and the grass is greening. Of course, it was an hour later than I wanted it to be, by the clock, because we changed to Daylight Savings Time overnight. I don't mind DST, but we definitely need to be in the Central Time Zone because what little daylight we had gained for the morning commute will now be gone for another 60 days or so. Bah! Humbug!

The kids were largely good today...but Meg was crabby. Not a very good trade! We have new neighbors, with children. "Jack" is in third grade. There is also a toddler. The poor people haven't even finished their move yet and they had Robin and Ryan. Understand that my grandchildren, (since they've been here, at least), haven't had local kids to play with. We are having to teach them about not going someplace uninvited, not getting out of sight, blah, blah. It goes with the territory.

I tackled much of the housework today, unsuccessfully. I have finished all but about three loads of laundry. Have cooked three rounds of food, so have done three loads of dishes. Everything comes in threes today! Took the children on a somewhat minor shopping trip. Had a couple of incidents while out...then again when back at home...which I attribute to boredom and fatigue. It will take a couple of weeks for everyone to adjust to the new time deal. Ugh!

Signs of spring:
1. Robin told me the other day that she say two robins "fighting" and that one almost got run over. I mentioned that they get a bit distracted this time of year. Heh heh.
2. The grass is magically greening. Can dandelions be far behind??
3. I don't wanna go to school!

The clock says it's 9:21, but my body ain't ready to give up yet. It'll take two weeks for me to get the bod and the clock together. Ugh!

Windy, But Gorgeous

Thought I was talking about myself, did ya? HA!

We turned OFF the furnace today because it kept trying to come on. No need. The house was warm overnight...and again today. Love it!

At last, we had a warm-weather day on a weekend. I didn't get up particularly early, but the day was fraught with cleaning in preparation for the arrival of our "guest" Mariah, Robin's friend. As much as I really needed to tend to the laundry, I couldn't waste the good weather. I worked and worked in the front yard, raking leaves from the fall, nipping off volunteer shoots from shrubs, sawing off mulberry branches in bushes where they shouldn't be, and sorting through some junk that was left in front from way back when we got Meg moved out of her storage unit. In short, I'm beat...but the house's "curb appeal" has improved considerably.

Meg and Ryan went to the library and did some errands in order to give Robin and her friend some space. I did take the girls to the park for about 1 1/2 hours. The rest of the time, they played on their own. All the wind and fresh air have wiped me out. There is SO much more to do, but for today, I'm done!

Sleepover!

Since the grandchildren did not go to Daddy's this weekend, Meg and I had to shift gears. She has homework that she normally does on the weekends while the kids are gone. I do laundry and cleaning, and somewhere in there is grocery shopping. We'll get it done, but just on a different schedule.

Tonight, Robin's school had Family Fun Night...a fund-raiser for the PTO. It started at 6:00. Meg doesn't get home until 5:45, so we were rushed a bit...and we threatened murder and mayhem if the kids misbehaved. (Last fall, Ryan had to be taken home from a game night by Grandma Judy because he was still in the "throwing fits" stage of his development. It left a sour taste in our mouths for another venture of its kind.) The big draw tonight was a movie (that we have at home) to be shown in the gym. The children were encouraged to bring blankets and pillows. We did that. Meg let me go just as the movie was starting so I could do the week's grocery shopping. When they all finally got home, the children were raving that Mommy said they were the best behaved kids there! It is ever thus. I have taught elementary school, high school, and now middle school, so I have seen it all. When I was at the elementary level, I never ceased to be amazed that we'd have some evening meeting or other and parents would just turn their kids loose for someone else to supervise. It happened tonight, even here in Plainfield. Kids running all over the gym in spite of a zillion people in attendance. Parents? Where were they??

Meg mentioned that there have been a couple of comments made to her in recent months that other parents have made re: she doesn't let her kids run amok, so it is easier for them to keep theirs in line when we are all together (soccer games, fun nights, etc.). It reminded me of a time when we first moved to Plainfield and knew no one. (Meg was a potential middle-schooler.) We lived right down the street from the library. Meg had met a few kids there and asked if I could drive them "home"...at 9:00 PM. I took one to a laundromat where Mom was, at least a mile from the library, and took another one home to the north end of town...also distant from there, since they were all on foot. When it was all over, I told Meg that she needed to understand that she wouldn't have that kind of freedom. I will never forget her response: I know, Mom...and I prefer it that way. Hallelujah!

Meg apparently promised Ryan a sleepover on the futon in the living room. Robin followed suit by asking to sleep with me. It seems that everyone is now asleep but me! We also have a new development for tomorrow. Friend Mariah will be coming to play with Robin in the afternoon. Mariah is Robin's Girl Scout leader's daughter. Having neighborhood friends has been a missing element in the children's tenure here. They need to be "socialized". Working on that.

At least one of my ham friends has expressed boredom at reading my blogs all about my grandchildren. After looking at the posts, I am, too! Dayton approaches. I need to get serious about my weight loss program again. Meg is working hard at it. God bless us, every one!

Pretty Nice Day

The weather must have heard me complaining lately because today was pretty decent. We didn't have a lot of sun, but it was warm (if windy). It makes an enormous difference in my mood! We have near daylight on the morning commute, too--although we will lose that next week when we return to Daylight Savings Time. In any case, with a light teaching load this week due to ISTEPs and an improved mood today, I still had some energy left at the end of the day. Good for me!

The children have been largely good in the evenings this week. Robin, bless her little first grade heart, has tackled her homework two nights in a row right after school without being asked. Since she did that, we had time to do a little more than usual after dinner. Last night, we played Clue, Jr. Tonight, we all took a walk around a couple of blocks--or rather, Meg and I walked. The children rode their bikes. Since the kids WON'T be going to Muncie this weekend, we will have to dig in to keep everyone on an even keel. Without the "free" time for Meg's coursework and my housework, it gets a little tricky.

Normally, it's all I can do to get dinner together and get the dishes cleaned up on a week day evening. Tonight, I had enough dishes saved up to do two dishwasher loads...and had to do some laundry. Ryan has a field trip tomorrow and needed to have his pre-school t-shirt washed, and Robin was just about out of school britches...and Grandma was just about out of undies! (I'm waiting for the dryer to buzz now.) Thus, I feel pretty good about the extra work accomplished, but I am acutely aware that it is later than I like to be up on a week night, so I will suffer tomorrow!! Three more months...

Now that spring approaches, 'tis time to turn our attention to the yard and patio, both of which are trashed. I'm going to need help, which I'll hire, if I have to. I have promised the children a swing set. Will need someone to put that together. We also need to get rid of a whole lot of stuff on the patio and organize the mini-barn to get more in there. The shrubbery in the yard is damaged. Need an opinion about what to do about that. The kitchen flooring still needs to be replaced and I'd like to get a microwave built in over the stove. So much to do!

I have to stop writing about all of this before I depress myself! Tomorrow is another day!

Birthday and After...

Yesterday was our first day of spring ISTEP testing at school. It also happened to be the 62nd aniversary of my birth. I was going to keep it quiet, but KB9RAF (Ryan) got on the repeater first thing during my commute and announced it to the radio-listening world!

On Friday, Robin asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told her I wanted a big hug and kiss from her. She hedged. Then I said I wanted a nice dinner out with my family. She hedged again. "You know how kids always get presents on their birthday...like, what would you like from the store??" Uh...um... I couldn't think of anything that the children could buy, so I said a bracelet, figuring they could MAKE one out of macaroni or something.

Yesterday was an early-release day for Plainfield Schools, so Grandma Judy made sure that Robin had her homework done by the time I picked the children up. That was great because we were going out for dinner to Red Lobster and probably wouldn't be back in time to get it done. (Thank you, Grandma!) Judy also, bless her heart, wrapped folders that contained pictures of butterflies that the children had colored for me. They also had made cards, which I'm sure she helped to orchestrate. We met Megan at the restaurant in Avon and ordered our suppers. Then I opened my presents...and I got a lovely tennis-style bracelet from Meg and the children. I love it! It's just dainty enough and exactly the right size...and very pretty!

Dinner was particularly good. I ordered snow crab legs, of course. They were yummy and satisfying. (Sometimes crab legs can be frustrating because ya end up wanting more than what's on the plate. Didn't happen yesterday. I think everyone but Meg had a good time. (Ryan apparently locked himself in a stall in the ladies' room and was horsing around while Meg was ordering him out...with a line beginning to form behind her. She didn't look happy when they finally came out!) We came home to the cutest little four-person cake. I got "Happy Birthday'ed"...and then it was bedtime. As birthdays go, this one was pretty nice!

I've spent some of the ISTEP time catching up with paperwork at school. The end of the grading period is coming soon. Gotta get everything in so I don't have a crunch late in the game. As near as I can figure it, we have 3 1/2 weeks until spring break. I can really use the time, just to rejuvenate. Then I will have nine weeks left to finish cleaning things out in my classroom. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it!

Ever onward and upward. Come on, Spring!!

One of THOSE Weekends...

Last weekend, Meg moped around saying, "I don't want to be a student right now. I want to do fun stuff!" This weekend, I knew how she felt. There are/were a bazillion things to do...and I did work on them some...but I wasn't particularly productive at anything. I didn't do any "fun stuff" to speak of...but didn't get much else done, either. So what did I do?

I cleaned out the pantry, for one. Did some dishes...some laundry...cleaned both bathrooms...worked on finding kitchen surfaces. I even managed to vacuum some. Housework here tends to be overwhelming because we have too much crud packed into such a small space. Periodically, I go through and pitch stuff, evaluating whether we need it or not. Sometimes it is easier to get rid of something that is taking up space and buy a new one later, should we find that we needed it. Doesn't make sense, I know.

When we started the garage remodeling project last May--and thus, re-doing the other three bedrooms--I estimated that it would be a year before we had things in order. I've had to adjust that to later. At issue is the fact that my bedroom, when it was a garage, was the overflow valve for the rest of the house. Now, there is no overflow valve. For example, we have a broken kitchen chair. Where to put it until we can get it fixed?? The mini-barn is full. The worst room in the house, right now, is...you guessed it...my bedroom! I need a week of uninterrupted time to go through everything that has been dumped in there...to organize and pitch. Spring break?? Maybe. If the children are here, there may not be that opportunity.

An even bigger issue--at least for me--is that the cold weather persists. I want to be out cleaning off the patio, cleaning up the yard and the gutters, getting life back in order again...but it is not to be in the near future. It is cold and windy tonight. Tomorrow (my birthday) will have a high in the 20s. The next day, the high might get to 32, if we're lucky. I am SO done with winter!

My family is taking me out for dinner tomorrow...my choice. I haven't been to Red Lobster for a lot of years, so we are going there. Cheddar Bay biscuits, crab legs, etc. Yum!