Underneath the Moon

Finally getting into the swing of things here. Don't have to go into work any days this week. Maybe I won't be plagued with that constant feeling that I SHOULD be doing something. It's made it tricky to wind down. So far, I've done my typical first days-of-summer thing, which is to deep clean closets, do hours of yard work, read books about curriculum, etc. etc.

However, I've also watched Scandal. It rocks, but Dan refuses to watch it. I just finished season one.

I also read Ender's Game, which is a book my brother gave to me for my birthday back in March. It's a good one about child soldiers who are forced to save the world from aliens. Very exciting. You'd probably like it.

This Kid is Five

You might not have realized that my youngest child is now five years old. Let me tell you, he's thrilled to be five. And, this dude's got style.

Here's what he likes: flat-brimmed hats, turned this way and that, and collared shirts worn open and layered over t-shirts. He also likes cool shoes and an occasional slick of nail polish on fingers and toes.

Birthday cake featured an iCarly motif. He wanted a message in pink frosting: "Happy 5th Birthday, Mac." First he wanted "Happy 4th Birthday," but then I reminded him that he was actually going to be 5.

If We Were Older

Had a couple of pals here for Bachelorette viewing on Monday. Come to find, each of them was feeling some jealousy about my summer schedule. I fielded a few of the complaints about "summers off," with my usual explanations. However, the crowd of three 12-month employees was not satisfied.

"Must be really tough, hanging out by the pool," said Gia.

"Look," I said. "I'm pretty sure I make less money than any one here." That's undeniable.

"Yeah," said Dan. "For working less."

Can you believe that guy has been married to a teacher for 11 years? No? NEITHER CAN I.

"Well," I said finally, "I am cordially inviting each of you to join me in the field of education. If any of you would like to do my job for my pay, you're more than welcome."

No takers. Not surprisingly.

The Organization

I am forcing the family to organize all of our stuff. The reason for this is that I have spent the last month hating my life as we ransack the house each morning for the shoes, the socks, the sunscreen, the appropriate sporting equipment, the preferred snacks, the uniforms, the homework, etc. etc. etc. In the last couple of weeks, I've been actually cursing under my breath (and, okay, sometimes aloud and in front of the young and impressionable children) because the process is so flipping frustrating.

So, we're folding, sorting, Goodwilling, calendaring, magnetizing, and bagging. The bagging is my best idea. Every activity will have its own bag. There will be a golf bag, a tennis bag, a swimming bag, a baseball bag, a tae kwon do bag, a study-time bag. Each bag will be pre-packed with the appropriate supplies. When we return home from each activity, the bags will be immediately re-packed and placed in the appropriate bin.

This requires some shopping today to make sure we have the appropriate number of sunscreen tubes, sports-appropriate outfits, and portable snacks.

We're going to get it done. I'm going to post photos of the results.

Eat your heart out, Fly Lady. This is going to be so stinking supreme.

Pineapple

OMG. It's finally over. I just got home from the last day of school. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that it's been a crushing couple of weeks. I did the narrative comments. That's 30 pages of writing, single spaced. I did the final exams, the grades, the cleaning of the room, the planning of the summer work, the wrangling of the children to and from school. I did not cry when I discovered that half of my comments were unreadable in the system because of some horrible Google Docs error. I did the final meeting and the picnic at the Arboretum. I'm now so exhausted I can barely stand.

But, it's summer, and it's time for near-daily blogging. I want to reconnect with my writer identity this summer. I'm going to do some writing. I've got some topics in mind, but I think this is enough for the first day. I blogged. Isn't that great enough?

Get Out On the Highway

I'm in the homestretch. Sadly, the homestretch means hours of reading and writing ahead. I will do this with a smile and a can-do attitude.

When it's over next Thursday, I will breathe a deep and happy sigh of relief before I attend my end-of-year picnic on Friday. I am guaranteed to have fun at the picnic. It's required.

Go Fight Win

All year, I've been pumping my advisory up for Advisory Olympics.

"Look," I told them on the first day of school, "I want us to win Advisory Olympics."

I have to admit I didn't get a lot of response to that. Something along the lines of, "meh."

Then, May rolled around, and Advisory Olympics was imminent.

"I will give you candy if you win Advisory Olympics," I said.

That time I got a little stronger response. Other kids came into my room and said they'd heard I was bribing my advisory to win the Olympics.

"That's right," I told them.

Then, Advisory Olympics for 8th graders morphed into a Kickball Tournament.

"I want to win the Kickball Tournament," I told them.

Some guys nodded dubiously. Another girl said, "Well, that's probably not going to happen."

"Don't give up," I told them. "Believe in yourselves."

"Will you give us candy if we win?"

"Yes," I said definitely.

I showed up at the Olympics Planning Meeting which bought us a first-round bye. The team we were facing in the next round was Ms. G's.

"We're facing Ms. G.," I told them. "I want to win."

"Well, that's probably not going to happen," they said. "G.'s Advisory is really athletic and tall."

"We're scrappy!" I said. They sort of shrugged.

Later Ms. G. told me her team had done a lot of strategizing and drawing diagrams on the board. It seemed like they wanted it a little more than my team, to tell you the truth.

So, what happened?!

We sort of tied. The other team was massively intense and disputed several legitimate calls, in my opinion.

Fine, we said, eventually. We actually didn't want to shout about kickball. We played a consolation round. Then, we lost our consolation round.

So, my year-long goal was dashed today. Luckily, I'm still in a great mood.