Friday, February 27, 2015

Rain snow summer

As the title suggests our midwest weather has been a little nuts lately. Two weeks ago it was 80 degrees and today it's 13 and snowing! I love winter weather and I love warm weather-just not at the same time!

The constant changes in weather cause my auto-immune diseases to flare up which makes it no fun for anyone. The more I hurt the grumpier I get-I'm just ready for the weather to be constant again.

The worst part about weather changes is the affect it has on my students-it never fails when there is a weather change their behavior gets worse and worse. This past month has been super challenging for the kids-they keep hoping for a snow day which hasn't happened yet!

State assessments are coming up so I've been pushing them which doesn't help-we have so much to cover and not nearly enough time to do it in. I've been gone a bunch during February which doesn't help. It's just been one of those months.

While I still have to respond to misbehavior it's helpful to at least have some understanding of why they are misbehaving. Since I teach 8th graders I can explain to them why I have to be gone and prepare them-which does help with a little bit of the misbehavior. Honestly February is probably the worst month for teacher-and I'm happy it's over!

Sometimes in teacher you just have to grit your teeth and do your best. It's always okay to take a break! Today my kiddos are watching Scooby Doo-not for any academic purpose but for a nice treat. So far this week they've made propaganda comic strips and written a lengthy book review. Last week they wrote an argumentative essay and made a parts of speech collage-they've worked hard and they deserve a treat (plus it's letting me catch up on all the grading!)

Even though teaching is a high pressure business (hello high stakes tests and Common Core!) you really just have to let it go sometimes!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Life Update

Life has been busy lately resulting in less posting than usual (but since very few people have found this blog it's okay). DH and I realized that every weekend in February we will be traveling! I know one of my goals for 2015 was to travel more, I just didn't realize I would pack it all into one month!

The great couch issues were ended rather quickly-the repair guy showed up earlier than expected and fixed the couch in under an hour. We are loving our awesome new couch, but we are never home to enjoy it.

Today is our dog's last night of Canine Good Citizen training. Unfortunately our trainer thinks we need to wait before we take the test due to Massey's fears of unknown people which was disappointing. I know it's just a set of letters that mean nothing to anyone but I was still sad to realize that her anxiety is what is holding her back. In my eyes she's come so far with her anxiety, but in the eyes of others she's still too anxious for certain things.

February started off with a back injury for me that laid me up for 2 days which sucked hard core, especially since I don't even have a cool story to tell to go along with it. My back kept hurting until my doctor finally decided to adjust it. That one adjustment made all the difference in the world! Several months of pain simply vanished from that one adjustment! I've never been a big believer in chiropractic care, but the relief I found from that simple adjustment really changed my way of thinking!

I also bought a new car (well a new to me car) which was a huge decision. A post is on the way about that and how I made the decision.

I've been writing a ton lately (Which means I've been neglecting my blog shamefully). DH and I spent Valentine's Day in Kentucky and I found SO much inspiration that the past four days have been all about writing! If I can keep up the pace I should have a manuscript to edit over summer vacation!

I have a post coming about our Kentucky trip and our car purchase so watch for those!