Losing

I have a student who has had a rough semester. His aunt died in late August. She was 43 and it was a suspected drug overdose. His step-grandmother died about a month ago. And, he found his 73 year old grandfather dead on his floor last week. He's a sweet kid who's having kind of a hard time coping. It seems like he looks at all of the people around him with a kind of clock over their head that's counting down to the time that he loses them. It also seems like he might not have the greatest support system in his life. But, he's made good use of our guidance services at school and seems to be hanging in there.

We were chatting this afternoon about our respective experiences of finding our deceased grandparents; I think that he felt better knowing that someone else had experienced and survived a similar encounter. And, we were talking about the suddenness of death, sometimes. And, we were talking about the things that so often go unsaid to the ones that we lose. And, since it's my 'Grandma' time of year, I was feeling perhaps more chatty than usual. I think that it helped him a little to just talk and share. Maybe. I know that I'm not qualified to be a real assistance, but I'd like to think that his afternoon might have been a little bit less stressful. Maybe.

Daily blogging = failure

You know, we do the best that we can...so...there.

I think that I've decided that both Matt and Joseph had H1N1. Joseph had a fever between 100 and 103.5 for five days...up and down, but never gone. He had a gross cough that complicated itself into croup. And, all he wanted to do was lay around and snuggle. Matt had a fever for four days, gross cough, chills, and body aches. So, I'm kind of hoping that's what it was since we can't manage to get in to Joseph's pediatrician for a flu shot. Hopefully I won't have to worry too much about it now.

And, I'm officially half way through my first master's class. I don't know what I was expecting, but this is a lot of work. I'm making it, and I think that I'm doing all right with it, it's just particularly stressful to try to keep up with all of my other responsibilities, and add student duties to the mix. Our house is just disgusting, and Matt is perpetually ticked off at me for being stressed out. So, I'm not sure if this was the best decision, but I'm going to persevere. I'm not getting any younger, and this is the only way that I'll earn more money as a teacher. I guess that we'll all just saddle up for another 2-3 years of this. Oh boy.

And here's another picture from this summer for your viewing enjoyment. We were at THE Yankee Candle and Joseph was coloring the flowers.

Innovation and YouTube

This daily blogging thing is going to be hard. I feel like a lot of my life is pretty trivial and rather un-interesting to the casual observer. So, I'm going to bring something to this virtual table that was a topic of discussion today.

Election day is a teacher workshop day in my district. So, this afternoon I went to this workshop on Interdisciplinary Planning (IDP). It was ok. Not great, but ok. The best part of it was something that didn't even work. The presenter had a link in his presentation to this that ended up not working. Well, I don't know if it was really that version, but that's the one that I like the best right now. It really speaks to the absolute necessity for innovation in the classroom. The intention was to start a conversation about IDP and how we can integrate that into our classes, but I think that anything that gets teachers to think creatively is worthwhile. And, teachers are notoriously the worst students, so it's pretty futile to try to keep us on task. So, I came away from today with some energy to try to integrate some cool stuff into my classroom. We'll see how that goes.
I had more complete thoughts, but I'm currently distracted by Matt who is on the other couch crying (I'm not kidding, he has real tears) and coughing up whatever lungs are left since he's recovered from his flu over this. Ahhh, the future of America...I have hope for Joseph.

Camera and Mending

So, I found a cord for the camera and cleaned off all of the pictures. There are some cute ones from the beach this summer. And, there are some cute ones from a trip to Chicago. And, there are some cute ones from today. You get a handful of sand from this summer and two from the last two days.Thankfully, both of my boys are on the mend. Matt slept all day while my mom hung out with Joseph. I went to school and got some things in line if I should need to stay home later this week. I think that Joseph should be well enough to go back to school tomorrow, and Matt's probably going to take one more day. Phew.

This first picture was yesterday. This is pretty much how we spent our weekend.And then, today. Better? Why, yes!

F-ell-U

I need to find the cord for my camera. I found the camera this weekend, and it's got some really cute pictures from this summer on it. So, I need to find the cord.

And, the flu needs to go f- itself. If that is in fact what has made our house unclean. I feel like I need to go find bells for us, or something... I thought that Joseph picked up my cold and it complicated itself into the croup. Matt has a fever, though. I never had a fever, as far as I can tell. I tend not to take my temperature, though. It's harder to ignore illness when you're more informed. Whatever.

I'm most concerned about what to do with the young man tomorrow. He's been fever-free all day and has been perky with the exception of the 3-hour scream/cry/whine-fest that ensued after he got woken up from his nap after only an hour. I think that he's going to go back to school. We'll see how that goes. As for the big guy, he's going to be on his own tomorrow. That's why he's the big guy.

Raining! Pouring!

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain it would be... So, really, yesterday was the "rain all day" day, but it seems as if the storm has continued.

These have been a rough couple of weeks. I went to Dallas a couple of weeks ago for a conference on integrating the sciences and some other stuff. I missed two days of school and was gone for four days. It was a pretty good conference, and I got to see Max and Jackie (which was cool), but since I've been back, it's been kind of a mess. We're getting it all put together, though, and things are really mostly fine.

I came home from TX with a cold, though, which Joseph kind of picked up...maybe. He started out with just a cough on Monday and Tuesday. Then, he woke up with a fever yesterday, so Matt stayed home with him. It was my turn today, and his fever is a little higher, although still considered low-grade for an almost 2 year old. He still has a gross cough. So, Matt's up tomorrow! We're going to keep him in for the weekend so that he gets all the way better. It seems to be a little flu bug, but he seems to be doing ok with it. We'll see how it rolls. Hopefully this is the bad day and he'll be on the mend tomorrow. Poor little one, though, will miss his Halloween party at school and trick-or-treating in town :( Next year, I guess. The good news is, though, that this is the first time that he's gotten sick this school year, and we're almost 1/4 of the way through! Yeah for immune systems! We worked hard to build his up last year, and it's going much better this year--phew.

Hang on for NaBloPo--it's coming up, and I'm practicing :)

Formula for my life

1 dog + 1 long-haired cat + 1 kid + 2 parents + 2 full-time jobs + 2 master's programs = 1 mom at the end of her rope + 1 disgusting house

As usual, it all gets done. Except for this blog. I've been Facebooking lately, which I'm kind of hooked on. I feel like a quasi-stalker when I go and look at my friends' pictures. Whatever, they post them!

So, November is NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month), and I made it last year. I posted every day. I need something else to do, so what the heck?! I'll give it a whirl. So, hold on to your hats!

Here are some adorable pictures of my kid to get you excited :) And when did Staley start to look like an old lady?! Look at those white eyebrows.