Oh, Saturday....

I woke up this morning at 7:30AM...and was happy.  I felt like I got my first time to sleep late in weeks.. even though it's only been one week.  And yes.  7:30 is sleeping late when I'm used to getting up at 4:30 on work days.

Being that I was so freakin' exhausted last night, I went to bed at 10.  It would have been a lot earlier, but I didn't get home until 9.

I didn't leave the school until 6.  It was 6:40 when I got home the first time to drop Butter and Jelly off, and then I had to rush out again to take Peanut to her friend's house for the weekend.  So by the time I did that, it was close to 9PM when I finally made it home for good to get in to my jammies.  I hadn't even eaten dinner.  I grabbed something quick to eat, sat down on the couch for a few minutes, and then just had to go to bed.  I couldn't keep my eyes open, and my body was screaming for rest.

Even though school only started two days ago, it's been a very long week.  Ten to twelve hour work days all week long takes it's toll on someone that has spent two months spending ten to twelve hours a day relaxing, swimming, or having fun.  Nothing like a cold, hard blast in to the real world to make one realize how hard they really work.

Speaking of cold blasts, Once I got up, I grabbed a cup of coffee and went to my normal morning place:  My patio. Except this morning when I went outside, I was hit with a cold blast of air.  It took me a second to decide if I had slept right through the rest of August and the whole month of September and somehow woken up in October.  I knew I was tired, but not that tired.

The temperature this morning was 57 degrees!  I'm not sure that temperature is supposed to exist in August.  I usually get excited when it's 70 degrees in the morning, let alone 57.  

The chilly temp didn't deter me, though.  I sat my big behind right on my chair and savored my coffee a little more.  I'm pretty convinced that even when there's an inch of snow on the ground, I'll still take myself out to my patio every morning for my coffee.  I've waited my whole life to be that person that drinks her coffee every morning on her patio...and a covered patio at that.  So regardless of what the weather is like outside, I can still enjoy the calm and freshness of the morning.  Hot, cold, rain, snow... none of it will stop me from doing something I've always longed to do.  My covered patio has become almost like a haven to me...a place I can sit and think, calm myself, get away from stuff like TV and air conditioning.  There's nothing better than starting the day with fresh air, birds singing, and the occasional mosquito bite.  When I say occasional, I mean cluster of mosquito bites.  But even those little buggers haven't stopped me from claiming my throne for my early morning me time.

Hubby took advantage of this beautiful weather and went out for a bike ride with his riding buddy.  They are going on an excursion, so he'll be gone most of the day.  Peanut is at her friend's house until Sunday.  So, that leaves Butter, Jelly, and I home today.  

On a day like this, I'd usually come up with some fun activity for us to do.  Especially with such nice weather.  But, my house needs some serious cleaning.  Being gone all day every day this week, has resulted in my house collecting a lot of dirt and dust.  Can't have that.  I will get all of my cleaning done, and then maybe encourage the kids to go outside and ride their bikes or shoot some hoops.  This would be a wonderful day for them to spend in the back yard...if our back yard didn't resemble a jungle.  With all the rain we've had lately, the grass has grown out of control.  My brother tried to mow it the other day, but the grass is so thick it just clogged up the mower.  Someone (probably me) will have to get out there with the weed whacker to trim it all down just so it can be mowed.  

I really have to try and savor this weekend, because it will probably be the last for a while where I don't have a ton of grading to do, or lesson plans to write, or grades to enter in to the system.  However, being that both Peanut and Butter start their sport practices on Monday.. I'll be at the school until 6PM every day.  That should give me some time to take care of all my "teacher duties" so I don't have much to bring home with me.

Yesterday at school was even better than the first day.  My kids came in a little less nervous, and our day was filled with a lot less gab from me and more opportunities for them to share and do some stuff.  I gave them a writing activity yesterday afternoon, in which they had to write about something they were nervous about in terms of entering 4th grade.  Out of 18 kids, 16 of them wrote about how nervous they were about me.  How they had heard that I was a mean teacher.  But, thankfully 14 out of that 16 wrote that they were no longer nervous... because I seemed to be a nice, fun, "awesome" teacher.  That was a nice ego boost.  In a matter of one and a half days, I had squashed the fears of almost all of the kids in my class.  The other two are still undecided...one stating that he thinks I'm going to be "just a little mean if [he doesn't] do [his] work or talk too much".  The two that weren't scared about me were scared about not having friends in the class or the work being too hard.  

One thing I was EXTREMELY excited about was the skills of most of their writing.  I have a class full of writers.  Good writers.  Not the best spellers or with the best handwriting, but they definitely know how to put some feelings on to paper.  To a writing fanatic like myself, that's like winning the lottery with my class.  I know we're going to have a lot of fun with Writers Workshop this year.

I'm so excited about everything that will evolve this year, actually.  It will be the first time I have my class all day long.  There will be no rotating around for math or reading.  Completely self-contained.  Just the way I want it.  I believe that self-contained gives me the chance to connect on a much deeper level with my kids.  It gives me a lot better insight to their abilities, and being together all day long better fosters an environment where they can feel safe and accepting of the areas they need to better develop.  I just know it's going to be a fantastic year.  Because I simply won't have it any other way.

But, it's time to get my head out of what's in store for the rest of the year, and focus on the now.  Which should be cleaning.  Better get started with it, or I'll be spending all day tomorrow working too.  And I don't want that!

Have a wonderful Saturday!!