Just read this great book...one of those can't-put-down-until-you-find-out-what-happens-to-the-characters type book! Sat up until about 1am last night trying to finish it. Have thrown Gameboys at the kids this morning to keep them happy while trying to finish it. (Totally selfish I know!) It's just a book from the local library. Nice to read some fiction - not related to work etc. Actually it's great to read & finish a book. To take a peek into other peoples' lives...pretend lives. Trying to get my groove back these holidays. Feel like I'm treading water. The house still needs cleaning, the ironing is breeding & we've hardly done anything much...feel like someone has stolen my energy to do anything. I told poor D to get pizza last night as I was too stuffed to cook (plus a nasty headache coming on)...
Thanks everyone for your lovely comments about the kids. They are lovely. Bon has been a sweetheart this week. Eric comes out with funny little comments...today's was: "I need to charge up it" instead of I need to charge it up. (He was speaking about a game of course. I splurged on eBay & bought the kids a game each.) We have a list on D's white board full of funny comments from him. The other day Dad said after Eric came out with something insightful & clever "Hey Eric, you've got lots of brains in there haven't you." He looked back & said "No, I've just got ONE!" LOL...
I have cleaned up both kids rooms - getting rid of teensy bits of half broken toys, artworks, half made things from old boxes etc. THAT is something that's been great to do. We bought a HUGE bed from bunkers a while ago which has just been too huge, too tall, too hard to make, too dangerous for me to climb around on, so we are selling that. When it's all gone then I'll buy a bookshelf & sort out Bonnie's room a bit more. I want it all sorted before school goes back. (She's trying to lasoo Eric in the background as I type...sigh...) The stategy these holidays is to give them some time apart I think. They need a break from each other...D took them all out to the movies last week & gee it was wonderful to just breathe & think in the quiet.
I've bought some new music books, thinking about doing a little bit of piano teaching this year. That will be good - after a 3 year break. I stopped all students after D got cancer. It just would have been too hard. I've missed it though...thinking about teaching. Casual is soooooo much harder than having your own classes. Building up relationships is that much harder, so many new families I don't know. When you teach for a while you get to know families, you get to know the kids strengths & weaknesses, you get to know how the ebb & flow happens in a class. As a casual you have a list of things the teacher wants you to do (if you're lucky) & you have to think fast on your feet. (Something that is that much harder since Mrs Mum/Post Baby brain has settled in after 8 years.) You don't know what's come before, don't know where the subject is headed, don't know what point to focus on...& then there's the whole discipline thing. With your own class you know that so-&-so has been having a hard time with their father, that Miss Bossy just lost her grandparents...none of this can be known as a casual. I don't think I ever really appreciated how hard it might be for the casual that took my classes on the very rare occasions when I wasn't at work. I certainly left plenty of work, plus extra extension work, plus a class seating plan, plus anything extra they might need - set up/pack up routines. Now, I'm lucky if I get a scrap of paper with the room number & a page number from a text book...but I guess that's all in the nature of the job. Casuals are a necessary evil & they work them hard because that's why they're there. At the end of every casual day I've gone home thinking about those kids though & thought "I want to do better next time!"
Well, time for a shower, for lunch, for some milk & cookies with the kids while we read some more books as part of the local library summer reading challange, perhaps some ironing, perhaps a drive to the local thrift shops to try to find some bookshelves? And of course, we are in dire need of some shopping but I can't think about that now...too overwhelming. I might even BAKE some cookies instead.
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