Gulf Shores

This morning Korra and I borrowed a car and drive an hour to Gulf Shores where my parents and some of my aunts and uncles are vacationing. It was nice to have a time with them even though it was short. 

Prius Tires

We noticed the Prius has been riding rough so yesterday I tried to take it to get a tire rotation and alignment but they couldn't fit me in. On the ride down to Pensacola today, I called a couple of car repair places to schedule the work for while we're here visiting. 4 miles from our destination, the tire pressure light came on. At the next light, I looked out at the tire and noticed it was low. By the time we got here, it was half flat. While a flat tire sucks, at least it happened once we got to Nate's parents' house where we could change it in the garage with help rather than in the dark and rain on the side of the road. 

Getting things done

Korra and I got a lot of things done on our day off today. We walked to the library, purchased new shoes (Korra wore out her shoes we bought in August but STILL hasn't outgrown size 13), cleaned (bathrooms, vaccuming, mopping), got the car washed, made a couple of phone calls/appointments, and got the last 4 cookie orders ready to be picked up. And I still had time for a bubble bath! I can go into the rest of the break feeling like I can completely relax. 

13 Stop Cookie Delivery Route

After a long day of school (and a delicious dinner of homemade pizza), Korra and I loaded up the car to deliver Girl Scout Cookies.  We posted her flyer on NextDoor and while it drummed up some good business for her, it was a huge pain in the butt to map out getting to all these houses (even if there were all in a 3 mile radius of our house), text all these people I don't know to arrange the drop off, and then actually drive to each house.  It was not made easier when at the first house Korra tripped and scraped up her hand or when there was no parking for 2 of the apartment buildings.  Korra and I decided it wasn't worth the trouble (it took 2 hours!).  We'll stick to our neighborhood, friends, and family only next year. 

Amazing Pan Pizza

We tried a new pizza recipe tonight and I don't think we're ever going to make another kind.  

https://homebeccanomics.com/2021/04/07/cast-iron-pan-pizza/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-srfPL5CWZs

Cookie Delivery

Blairsville

After the Reading Bowl, we drove up to Blairsville to visit friends from college. We took a quick drive/hike up Bell Mountain before going out to dinner. Looking forward to more time together tomorrow. 

Just as Bad

The competition went from 8:30 until after 1:00. At 1, they announced that Korra's team won 3rd place (good but only 1st advances). At 1:40, they still had not even had all teams finish the final round for middle school so I gave on finding out the winner at least for today. Not only were there technology issues, but we had to contend with a rude coach who rolled her eyes and smacked her forehead repeatedly when my students were speaking. It was not a good way to spend 5 hours of my Saturday, especially since I didn't get to meet the quilt lady. 

Reading Bowl- Regionals

Today is the Regional Competition for Reading Bowl. Both our elementary (Korra's team) and middle (my team) are competing. I'm mostly dreading it because last time was such a disaster and because we have other plans for today. I need to meet the "quilt lady" in a church parking lot before 1:00. She only comes to Atlanta once a month to pick up and drop off quilts so I really don't want to miss her. We also made plans to drive 2 hours north to see friends. So here's hoping the competition goes smoothly and quickly. 

More of the Same

The rest of the week was pretty much more of the same except it didn't upset me quite as much. I did get a chance to speak briefly with the executive director and one of the assistant principals (in separate instances) after they saw what things are like.  I told them both the extreme irritability among the students, with themselves, their peers and the teachers, is constant and widespread and that we're not ok.  I hope they listened. I don't know how to fix it. I don't think they do either, but at least I said it and they saw it. 

Today was a bad day

I bought the kids pizza for lunch. And still...

A student cussed at me. 3 students told me "You do too much."  One student skipped my class. I found a picture of 2 animated Disney characters engaged in a sec act on a student's computer. Her mom later replied to my email in a very hostile and combative way. I had to cover a class during my planning. 

I'm doing all the things to keep my stress levels down, to reset, to... just be ok and I keep getting triggered back up to a 10. Over and over. I don't know how I can keep doing this. 

Time with Friends

Taking advantage of our "natural immunity" plus our vaccines to see more friends. Went down to LaGrange yesterday and spent time with a few people and then had some friends over for dinner tonight. It makes me so happy to be with people I love. 

300 boxes

I fit 300+ boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my Prius. Now I have to help Korra sort and deliver them all. 

All-inclusive Anniversary Trip

Nate and I had to cancel our 15th anniversary trip (thanks, COVID). We finally feel like big travel plans might be ok to make for the summer (we still bought the travel insurance though!), so today I booked 4 days and 3 nights at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. I am so excited!!!

Walker

Today was the 3rd day in the last week that Korra walked home by herself. Before Nate's new job, she just had to stay with me but now that Nate's working from home in the afternoon, we decided to try it. She walks 2 blocks and Nate meets her right outside our complex. She was nervous the first time but now she feels so proud and independent. 

A pint for each

I bought each of my Reading Bowl kids their own pint of ice cream (their favorite flavor) to celebrate our win on Saturday.  They were exactly as excited as I hoped they would be. 

Cookie Sales

Korra has sold 373 boxes of cookies.  I have to help her deliver 300 of them.  I can't say I'm as enthusiastic about this part of the process.

More appointments

The dentist needs to see Korra again in a few weeks to get sealants (she can't eat for 3+ hours after getting it done and our appointment was right before lunch today) and we couldn't get Korra's new glasses today.  Also the dentist recommended Korra gets an orthodontist consultation and the optometrist recommended Korra see an eye specialist. So today's 2 appointments just lead to another 4 appointments. 

Appointment Day and Quilt Update

Today Korra and I both have dentist appointments and then Korra has an eye doctor appointment. I'm enjoying a leisurely morning. I did some yoga, read a little, and finished my quilt! It's 102 inches wide and 98 inches long.  I just contacted a lady to do the top stitching! 

Absolute Mess

I logged on with my students at 8:30. We were supposed to be done by 10:45, but at 10:45 we'd only finished our first of four rounds. There were issues with the Zoom room settings that really slowed everything down. The elementary students were supposed to start at 11 and they kept those poor kids on the Zoom call for nearly two hours waiting for the middle school competition to finish. Most of the volunteers had to leave at 1:00 (when both competitions were supposed to be over), so there weren't enough people to run the elementary competition when middle school finally finished at 12:45. They decided to postpone the elementary competition until next week. It was all extremely frustrating. 

My middle school team did well though and placed second, which means we will go to regionals on 2 weeks. 

Reading Bowl competition

Since October, I've been coaching the middle school Reading Bowl team and Korra has been practicing with the elementary team. She's read 9 novels, most of them more than once. We have weekly after school practices where I quiz the kids over and over about trivia from the books and they practice buzzing in as fast as they can. This morning we have our competition over Zoom with other school is the area. I really want the kids to do well, but there's a tiny part of me that would be happy if we didn't... Winning means we go on to regionals and that means we keep practicing after school for a few more weeks. All the same, I'll be cheering on both teams this morning. Korra is really excited and nervous about her first competition. 

Ups and Downs

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I thought that maybe I've been exaggerating how tough the bad days are. I started to think that I can keep doing this. I love this. 

Then I have a day like today. There wasn't even one defining moment, just the fact that the kids' behaviors are totally out of my control. Horseplaying, leaving class, running in the hall, blurting out, playing on their computers instead of working, calling each other games... It's constant and I am absolutely unable to get a handle on it. It makes me feel impotent. Weak. Frustrated. Crazy. Exhausted. Like a failure. 

It's so hard to give myself more grace, more patience, more compassion, but I've got no shortage of opportunities to practice. 

Pick-me-up

Today we began the first of our 2 mid-year assessments. A good percentage of the kids who finished today did really, really well. Huge growth. It made me feel good. 

First Full Week

Assuming nothing crazy happens, this will be our first full week back at school since December 17. Of course, we're doing diagnostic testing, so it still won't be totally "normal" (whatever that means anymore) for 2 more weeks, but I'm hoping just being back in the building consistently for a bit will help the kids (including Korra) feel a little less irritable and a little more at ease. 

Sugar Scrub

I bought this sugar scrub at Target. I love it. Not only does my skin feel super soft and smooth but I smell like roses all day. Highly recommend.