This week provided a much-needed time to chill for 3/4 of the family (Paul still was working). I did a little bit of work right at the beginning of break (mainly report cards and a bit of lesson planning), but for the most part, I made myself not open my computer. We also had the time change back to Daylight Savings Time, so the kids’ sleep schedule (mainly Abigail) was a bit off. We didn’t really go anywhere or do anything out of the ordinary. Normally I’m itching to take the kids somewhere and do something with them, but after the last couple of months, I was ready to do…nothing. I’ll make it up to them over summer break. 😉 The weather also was a bit wonky-donky (some days were warm and sunny while other days were cold, windy, and rainy…today included). I’ve just got today and tomorrow left before reality hits me in the face in the form of Paul’s alarm going off at 5AM and knowing that I actually have to get up (instead of rolling over and snuggling down in the covers like I have been doing). Just nine more weeks! 😀
Going down the slide. She asked me to take her picture so that she could see how good she was getting at it. 😀It’s hard to see (and Abigail knocked it down with a rake before I could get back to photograph it better), but there is a spiderweb here, with a spider in it. If you look slightly above and to the right of the leaf, there’s a white smudge. That white smudge is a mass of web that is hiding the spider. I walked up to the web (I could see it from the back porch) and the spider was more in the center of the web. As I got closer, it scurried up and into the mass of web (it was kind of cup-shaped, so it hid the spider well). Nature is amazing!I’ve been eyeing this Ms. Marvel bag for a while and it finally dropped in price to where I felt I could justify getting it. I also grabbed one for Tracie, since her birthday is coming up. 😀These two have been friends for probably 6-7 years now. They don’t get to hang out too often, but when they do, they seem to be able to pick up right where they left off.I was on my way home from getting the car washed after a busy morning with the kids (I left them home when I went to get the car washed because I knew they’d be happier at home than at the car wash, haha) and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything…and it was almost 2:00. I swung through a drive-thru on the way home and splurged with a shake. This is me finishing up my meal in the car so that nobody (*ahem* Abigail) would ask where there’s was. 😉Paul is getting me really set up with a home office. He brought up the idea of setting me up with a monitor so that I could have two screens open at once. This is a game changer. This way, I can have one screen open with my grade book and another screen open with whatever program I’m pulling grades from. It’s way more efficient than having to click back and forth between tabs!This is Paul’s new set-up. He gave me the monitor he had been using and got himself a new one. This is helpful for him when he’s working from home (he often needs to have several tabs open at once, so it makes way more sense to have separate screens instead) and makes online gaming more fun.Blowing bubbles. I love that she still loves the little things!Hey, look! It’s the resident tween!He heard me whispering about “such a rare sight to see one in the wild” and how I “needed to document its presence.” 😉Paul got me a desk pad (kind of like a giant mouse pad). It’s nice to be able to rest my wrists on something softer than the desk and it’s pretty!
We finally made it to spring break! Paul is still stuck working, but the rest of us have an entire week off, which is going to be so great! This past week was a busy one. Paul was busy at work because they moved locations from one office space to another. It was a lot of physical work and quite stressful at times. His schedule should be back to normal this week, though. It was busy for me as I was compiling grades into my grade book, testing my students to get updated reading levels, and completing report cards. We also had field day, which was fun, but kind of stressful at times because I was wanting to be able to keep an eye on all my students. One funny story about Abigail: while she was at field day, she picked up the bucket of water that the students were using to fill their water shooters and decided to dump it on herself…it was a good thing she had a change of clothes in her backpack, haha. I was walking down the hall, about to make some photocopies when her teacher nabbed me because Abigail was having a hard time getting dressed. Her jeans were so wet that she was having a hard time getting them off to get her dry ones on. I got her adjusted and back to field day. It was fun getting to see Joseph interact with his classmates and friends (I’ve never been able to volunteer for one before). Oh…and I took the first of the three tests I need to take in order to upgrade my one-year certification to a standard certification. I already got my results (it only took two days!) and I passed!! Now I just have one test in May and the last one in June. I can’t believe how quickly things are progressing!
Abigail made a card for Paul. Halfway through, she decided to make it for me as well…but couldn’t figure out how to give it to both of us, so she cut it in half. The left side is her and me and the right side is her and Paul (do you see his beard?). I love kid drawings!The spray bottle fight was a lot of fun on a warm day!They had to fill up the shooter and try to see who could knock the cups off the table first. I imagine this was the station Abigail was at (her field day was on a different day than Joseph’s) when she dumped the water on herself. Always keeping me on my toes, that one is!An epic light saber battle ended in a truce and both parties journeyed upstairs to play. I love the relationship these two have!The zipper on my previous Chromebook case busted, so I told Paul who said he’d grab me a new one. The previous case was the one Paul had used when the Chromebook belonged to him, so it was a plain black one, which he prefers. He mentioned he decided to get me a cute one, but I didn’t realize just how cute until it came. He’s got good taste and has a firm grip of knowing what I like. 🙂
There’s one week before we get to spring break. I think I’m looking forward to it as much as the kids, haha. This next week I need to get my students’ reading levels updated and try to get report cards done (they aren’t due until the Monday after spring break, but I really don’t want to be working on spring break if I don’t have to). This past week, we had Read Across America. Abigail’s favorite day was getting to walk in the Book Character Parade. She borrowed Joseph’s old Sonic the Hedgehog comic book and she was ready! I spent most of yesterday planning and grading (in between grocery shopping and laundry) and Paul spent most of yesterday doing yard work. He reconfigured our front porch area and even though it’s not quite done yet, it’s already looking great! The kids spent yesterday doing what kids do best: playing and relaxing, haha.
She loved getting to give my students high fives during the parade!She was moving so fast, her hood kept falling off. 🙂It always makes my heart melt a bit when I see the kids in Paul’s old uniforms.The snap dragons didn’t survive the last freeze, but there were enough seeds buried for some to pop up on their own! The wildflowers are also starting to grow, which makes me happy.This area next to the walkway has always struggled to grow grass, so Paul decided to take the stones from the patio planter area and make this planter. Abigail picked tulips to plant there. 🙂My shamrocks bit the dust with the last freeze, but there’s this one little guy popping out. We’ll see what happens. 🙂His plan for this area (now that he moved the planter) is to make a bench and then put the rose (which somehow survived the last two freezes) on top of it.Paul planted tomato seeds a while back and we’ve got seedlings! We’re well on our way to our spring garden.
