I can't believe it has been 2 months since my last post! Then again, if I think about how my life has been for the last two months it should be no surprise. Here's my recap...
I have been struggling with my new teaching position. The school I have been placed is going through a very difficult transition. It used to be the school in the poorer part of town that all the white kids were bussed into, but since the end of forced bussing its population is changing dramatically. The school is about 90 - 95% black and it is in a very poor area of town. Needless to say, that the balance of kids is completely out of whack. I'm dealing with kids who simply do not know how to behave and many who are academically behind. My last few years of teaching had been difficult enough with chatty kids who made it hard to just teach. This makes all that look like a piece of cake! To make things more difficult, the school is overcrowded, and that leaves me without a classroom of my own. So I teach music on-a-carte... This is about the most counterintuitive solution for freeing up classrooms that I can think of. Imagine trying to carry books, instruments, CD's, and other classroom materials from room to room...Then trying to teach music and movement on one (two if I'm lucky) area rug. To make things more difficult, the school is on three levels and there is no elevator. This forces me to have 3 different carts. My stuff is spread out all over the school and needs transported between each class. I have plenty of plan time, but I spend it calling parents or moving things around from cart to cart. When I do get to sit down and plan, I have to try to find a spot at a table in the teachers lounge or library, but mostly I have to bring all my planning home. If I run out of time to do it at home, I go in really early on Monday and try to get caught up. Anyway, I'm not sure how, but I will somehow make it to the end of the year and then things will have to change, because this is wearing me so thin I don't think I could do it again.
On to happier things. Halloween was exhausting, but fun as usual. It is a really stressful time for us since it is the majority of our annual income, so there is a lot riding on the weather and attendance. I'm always amazed at how expensive it is to get things up and running, but since we raised the price $1 per ticket at the field, it helped. We didn't increase our attendance over the last couple of years, but things went well. The island added a new twist and it was not as busy as we had hoped, but we didn't lose much money on it. We are going to try it for one more year and hope it will make a profit next year. If it wasn't for the vandalism, we might have broken even.
I am enjoying lots of design work right now. I just wish it would have all come in January instead of August! I spend most Wednesday mornings and every Thursday with my client who is building the 2 million dollar home. It is really fun to see it all coming together. Since it is very custom, I feel like I get a lot of creative input. I have several others right now who are getting custom window treatments and bedding that I have designed. It is one of my favorite things to do, but again, I am so short on time that I am falling behind. I got my first commercial job. It is a temporary vet's therapy office. It is a remodel for a very short term office, so they are on a very tight budget. I'm hoping it will lead to work when they build the new building in a couple of years.
Aidan is enjoying third grade. He has a fabulous teacher. She is very thorough, and some how manages to get the best out of Aidan. His parent teacher conferences were great. She commented that he had a "flair for entertainment." I'm not sure where he gets that from... He continues to entertain the class at recess with many imaginative games and he appointed himself lead reporter for a class newspaper. He also recruited an editor and illustrator....and a printer (that would be me...). The newspaper has had one publication, but there is talk of another. A few days ago he was inquiring about Santa and trying to figure out how he could really make it around the world in one night. He made himself laugh and stated that he bet Santa was a "techie" and secretly used special rocket boosters and wheels. We laughed about it and he declared that he would make a publication about it to let all the kids in on Santa's secret!
Owen is cute as can be. Mostly I just get a glimpse of him before I'm off to work and around dinner and bedtime. But he is happy most of the time. He smiles and goes anywhere without much fuss. Friday night I thought I would drop him off with mom and he just wanted to go home. This was one of the only times I have seen him fuss about getting dropped off. He was just so tired and wanted his mom and his own home! Otherwise, he smiles and loves everyone who takes care of him. He has the cutest little voice and wants to say everything. I love it when he runs down the hall and falls or falls off of a stool and says "I'm okay!" It cracks me up. One day this past week he patted me lovingly on the arm and said "Good boy." It was so funny I laughed out loud. He tells me, Kip and Patsy that all the time now. I keep telling him that I'm a good girl but he insists that I'm a good boy! The one thing that I hope lasts for a while is how much he loves to cuddle. He says "mommas bed" every night and morning. He repeats it over and over until we get in the bed. In the morning when he wakes up, he cuddles up with me and repeats over and over "momma" in the most sweet and loving way. Then he rolls over to dad and does the same thing with "dadda." I know this will end all too soon, but I can only hope it doesn't!
