Weekend

Like I told Adam, Friday was such a crazy day, it sort of went around the horn and wasn't crazy any more because it was just surreal.

The struggling students struggled hard.  I had tears, I had escapees, I had administrators and the school psychologist and the special ed teacher in my classroom trying to corral and cajole and calm.

But no one threw up. 

There's that.

The principal hugged me when I took my class to lunch.  She recognizes what I'm up against, which is validating.

We got everyone more or less settled.  We marched on, because what choice do we have?  I decided that since Adam wasn't home and Mark was going straight from work to hang out with friends, that I would stay at school until my to do list was done.

I wavered and considered I could just go back on Saturday, but I didn't want to.  I stuck it out.  I didn't finish my to do list, but I did a lot.  I was at the school for 12 hours.  Between leaving early the previous day (even though I took stuff home) and parent teacher conferences this week, there were many tasks to churn through.

When I was driving home, I wondered what was actually wrong with me.  Why did I just spend 12 hours at work?  I felt like I was doing life all wrong.

I went to bed early and slept for 9 blissful hours.  Saturday morning I was reading the Liahona and read an  article by a woman who helped people after wildfires in California.  She was inspired by Esther and considered that she was born for such a time as this too.  She quoted President Hinckley in the article:

You are good.  But it is not enough just to be good.  You must be good for something.  You must contribute good to the world.

That encouraged me.  Maybe spending time trying to teach children is not doing life all wrong.  It was a topsy turvy week and a confluence of circumstances that made it so I had so much work to do (it's not normally that much!).  

I want to be good for something.  I want to contribute good to the world.  Being a teacher feels like a calling.  It feels like I'd do it for free.  I love it and it wears me out and beats me down but makes me better.

I think that's the whole point of life anyway.

And I was extremely grateful for the restorative weekend I had.

The boil order was lifted and I puttered around doing household chores.  I watered my plants and paid the bills and did the dishes.  I tried to get the dry erase marker out of my shirt (occupational hazard).  I glued 320 pom poms on a sweatshirt for my Halloween costume.

Yeah, you read that correctly.

I am dressing up as my skittle machine.  I ordered more pom poms for the back (Walmart didn't have any--is everyone getting their skittle machine Halloween costume ready?  Is that why Walmart was fresh out of pom poms?)

The fact that I am putting thought and effort into a Halloween costume in September is because 1) I am a pre-crastinator and 2) peer pressure.  The teachers at my school are completely in on dressing up on Halloween.  I have gone from a Halloween hater to a person who prepares their costume in September.

I guess be careful who you hang out with because peer pressure is real.

I also worked on my cross-stitch and did errands with Mark.  He hung out with Marek in the evening and I ate bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and a slice of cheese for dinner.  It is one of my favorite dinners.

Sometimes you just need a chilled out day to work on solitary projects.

Sunday afternoon Mark and Emma and I had the most bizarre FaceTime call ever with Adam in Michigan and the Davis Davises.  It was sort of like a weird dream.  Just like a weird dream, I'll spare you the description, except Adam was in a bus and I was sorting batteries and Eleanor was being adorable and the kids were messing with filters.

Then we played Mexican Train and I may or may not have created a specific playlist for playing Mexican train.  

We had a gluten free dinner and gluten free brownies after which they talked about songs from their childhood which to me are just songs.  I have zero idea when songs were hits.  

I like weekends.  I wish Adam and Braeden and Anna and Eleanor were here too.  

(I think they would have liked the playlist.)