The good, the bad, and the sad.

So our teachers didn't find out until Friday whether they would have jobs or not, which was hard, and then when they did find out, it was even harder. The teacher I work with most is safe, as are all the other first year teachers. The bad news was that my daughter's teacher is not having her contract renewed. We are shocked. The only way I can make any sense out of it is that she has not been there long enough to need an explanation as to why she was non-renewed, and that she has a masters degree and is therefore more expensive. I feel so badly for her. It does not seem fair or right, and I don't understand how or why they made this decision. I'm glad I didn't have to make it, but I don't envy our new principal having to deal with it.

News about my job will have to wait a bit, but I'm not worried. I cannot stay in my job next year unless I am unable to find a general special education teaching job. But I suspect that the position I have right now will be cut in half. We shall see. Now I have to go update my resume and write a cover letter to state my interest in any positions that might end up open at my school.

The saddest part of today was saying goodbye to my dear friend. She and her family are moving to California for at least two years. Her oldest is almost to my chin now, though she is the same age (actually 6 months younger!) than my daughter. It doesn't seem possible I met her mom almost 10 years ago! Little Bug was just a baby and she was pregnant with her first. We were friends immediately, and we have so much in common. I will miss being able to see her when I want, and our girls' nights out with Danielle. I know we can call each other and email, but that three hour time difference is sometimes a pain!

All this makes for a restless me. Jobs, friends, house waiting to be sold....ugh. Give me patience, Lord!

Feeling for the other teachers.

Tomorrow is the day that some of the teachers at our school will find out whether or not they will have jobs there next year. There are several really good new teachers, and I really hope we don't lose them. The district has to cut 5 positions, and I suspect that 2 will be at our school, and the rest at the middle high school. There will also be several paraprofessional positions that they will either cut completely or cut to part time. I suspect my position will be one of them. This is not a big deal for me, for reasons I'll get into later. We shall see!

What a woman wants.

I want more time to update my blog more often. And something interesting to actually say in it, whether or not anyone reads it.

I want a bra that fits and to have the money to buy more than one.

I want to sell my house.

I want to lose weight. (I'm working on that one).

I want to pray more and worry less (how does one do that worry part?)

I want to be a good wife, mother, daughter and friend.

I want to find a good job for next fall, and not worry about what it will be in the meantime. (there's that worry bit again.)

I want to write. And be good at it.

Now I want to go have dinner.

New plans and old friends

It seems strange to realize it, but some of my Pemberley friends could now be considered "old" friends! I've known many of them for more than 10 years now! It was lovely to sit down this afternoon with a couple of them (and a bunch of other new friends) for tea and a lot of chat. I have only just now realized that I never even had any tea! I was too busy eating and talking (though I think I foiled at least one attempt to get a picture of me talking!). It was a nice day away from everything at home. I am only rarely alone these days, so an hour and 45 minutes in the car each way all ALONE was a treat.

We plan to list the house this week. I am both excited and apprehensive. There are so many more things I wanted to get accomplished this weekend, but I realized Friday night that I had to be downtown to help with the Girl Scout cookie delivery on Saturday morning. So that took up valuable time with projects at home.

I know I don't have to have it done all at once, and that we have next week off and I can get a lot done, but I keep looking around and seeing all that needs to be done. I am going to try not to nit pick and just get things weeded out, I guess. If the house does not sell, then at least I will have decluttered. Plus I'm going to paint the bathroom. I figure that is something that might help sell the house, but I'll enjoy it if the house doesn't move! :-)

Sick Day

My little guy was complaining this morning that he felt full, but other than that he was acting normal, so I figured he had just eaten his breakfast too fast. Just over an hour later I was working with a student in a second grade classroom when I happened to look out the doorway of the classroom, which has a view of the nurse's office. Through the window I could see the educational assistant from Little Bud's classroom, and caught a glimpse of my little guy going into the bathroom. He had diarrhea, poor guy. So the aide got his things together and I got mine and home we came. We'll have to go back later to pick up my Little Bug.

All the while I was cleaning him up and getting my things together I was thinking what a blessing it was that I am right there in the school and able to do that. What would happen if I was working at a different school, as might happen next year? I suppose it will be no different from any other working mother, and that we will all get through it, and I don't want to borrow trouble, but I am so glad I was right there when he needed me. The staff at school are so wonderful, and I am blessed to be able to be working there.

Just more things to think about in planning for the future. And now I need to decide how best to use this unexpected day home! :-)

What to do, what to do...

I am hoping to find a general special ed job for next fall, and would love to be at the school I am working at right now. I'm not sure how likely that is to happen, as they will probably have cut backs, but we will see. But I am wondering what to do in the long run. I have thought about getting my masters in special education. But now that I've started this Educational Testing course, I am thinking about doing Plymouth State University's school psychologist program. As a school psychologist I would still be helping those children that need help, by testing them and helping to determine what kind of help they need, it would just be in a different form from helping in the classroom.

I'll just keep on praying about it.
:-)

A Fine Woman

A woman can pack a lot of living into 90 years.

Ruth Kimball was 90 when she passed away on Friday. She was quite a woman. Ruth was a 4-H leader for many, many years, leading so many young people in so many good ways. I met her through her grandson and his wife (my neighbors) and her daughters. She was part of my Circle of Home and Family group, and I feel honored to have known her, however little. If the crowd at the funeral home tonight, the line around the room, across the hall, around two more rooms, out the door and down the sidewalk is any indication, I am not alone feeling that way.

I had only met 'Gram' a few times before she started greeting me with a hug. She was always more interested in what was going on with me or my children than in telling me how she was. She was the kind of person that would always go out of her way to help people, the kind of person you could always ask for advice, the kind of person who would put together a quilt whenever one was needed. Dependable, responsible, funny, considerate. That was Ruth. Just plain good Yankee stock, I'd say. And a heck of a good cook to boot.

A woman from our Circle of Home and Family group called to ask me to make some sandwiches for the luncheon after the funeral tomorrow, which I did after I got home from the wake tonight. My husband hates the smell of tuna, and I can't say that it was really what I felt like doing after I got home. But it seemed such a small and easy thing to do, the kind of thing that Ruth would have done without anyone even asking her. I'm grateful to live in the kind of community where they still do this kind of thing, the phone calls to gather the food and so forth.

When someone dies at age 90, it is easy to say that they had a full life and it is sad, but what can you expect. But it is also true that the more years you have with someone the more memories you have stored up, the more you will notice their absence. I hope for her family and friends that all those memories will be good ones, that the difficulties of the last couple of months will fade in their memories quickly, and that Ruth's legacy will live on for many years to come. I am glad I had the chance to know her.