Rules?

Warning... this is a vent entry! ;-)

Maybe it is because I am a teacher. By nature, teachers like to enforce rules. One of the challenges in any teacher's room is getting kids to follow the rules and understand the consequences of breaking those rules. I don't know of a teacher that doesn't struggle with the concept in the classroom. Sure, most of us have good classroom management, but getting the kids to understand the need for rules is tough.

I think I might know why.... it seems that there are adults breaking rules everywhere. It is one of my biggest pet peeves. There is a reason behind the rules, really. Today I was at the Y (starting to really get into a workout routine) and went into the locker room to change. There is an "adult only" section. I love kids... but sometimes I just don't want a child staring at me when I am changing. I like to keep things clean and dry when I am changing... kids don't always understand. :-) There I am with another woman changing in the adult only area. The rest of the locker room is almost empty. In comes this woman with her young daughter. She walks right into the adult only section past the curtain and the signs. I resisted the urge to say something.... but come on....

Issue number two... one of the rules is no cell phones in the program areas. Has to do with camera phones... and the annoying factor. I am walking away on the treadmill and the lady next to me answers her cell phone... not once but TWICE! Again, I resisted the urge.

I know that it shouldn't bother me... but as a teacher it does. How can I teach children that they need to follow directions when so many adults don't?

Vent over.

Too much on my plate

It is the start of a new school year... (we are really already halfway into the first quarter, which means the year is 1/8th over!) I swore to myself that I was not going to get myself so overwhelmed this year. So much for that theory!

The students in my classroom seem to have more and more needs each year. It seems that I am having to recreate my lessons each and every year making more and more adjustments to meet the lower abilities of the students. You would think that after 5 years teaching the same program, I would be able to use some of the same materials. I can, it just seems that I need to adjust everything. I want to be the best teacher I can be... I think any good teacher always wants to be adjusting to the needs of the kids. There are so many things that I want to do with my students. I get all of these great ideas during the day. I just don't have the time to initiate or develop most of them. My mind is spinning... I just can't seem to get things done.

I am the first to admit that I am a Type A person. I love doing things and need to feel a sense of accomplishment. I am my best when I am busy. However, I need to learn to find the balance. I need to accept the fact that there will always be more that I can do. There will always be more creative teaching ideas, there will always be more projects here at home, and there will always be creative endeavors that I want to pursue. I can't do it all. Sometimes you just can't give 100% to everything. In the end, there is only a total of 100% to give anyway... so how can I give 100% to teaching, 100% to my home, 100% to my marriage, 100% to my creative side, and 100% to my family & friends? It just can't be done. I need to come to terms with that.

On another note, I am excited to be the captain for TEAM McCLURE for the Walk for Hope here in Chicagoland. We are walking in honor of an amazing and courageous woman, Barb McClure who is battling breast cancer. If you can, please check out our team and donate if at all possible:


I need to go grade some quizzes, clean up the mess that Romeo made in the living room today, and also finish the design for our Team McCLURE T-shirts. Dinner is in the microwave, too....

9/11

It seems fitting that I am finally updating today. Today marks five years since our life as Americans was forever changed. I am never really understood when my parents explained that they remembered exactly where they were when JFK was shot or other events in American history. Sadly, I now understand. I will forever remember the moment I learned about the horrible attacks of 9/11/01.

I was in my first year teaching at Carl Sandburg. I was reading aloud to my students. My assistant was out of the classroom taking care of some things. She came in and told me quietly what had happened. I was stunned. At first, we thought it was a terrible accident. When the second plane hit, it became obvious that this was a planned attack on America. I was torn between my own emotions and protecting the students. I put the kids to work and started researching online to see what I could learn.

I remember an overwhelming unsettling feeling. I didn't know anyone in the buildings or on those planes, but I was scared. All of the wars that had been fought in my lifetime we on far away lands. I was removed from all of it. This was different. Would a war be fought on American soil? Would my life be forever changed? What did this all mean for the long term?

I couldn't get ahold of Chris right away. Unfortunately, he was at our infertility clinic leaving a sample. When I finally got in touch, I just wanted him to come home and be with me. I was scared. However, he needed to stay at work and be at the YMCA for people to feel safe there. I was angry... I wanted him to worry about my safety. In hindsight, I was simply scared. I mean really scared... terrified!

In the days that followed, I was obsessed with the news. I watched HOURS of tv. I needed to get all of the information I could. Information has always been my #1 defense mechanism.

Today, five years later, I am so grateful to feel safe and secure in my home. Life is different now in many ways. We are at war and have been since that day. I know how blessed we are that the war has not physically landed here on American Soil. My political beliefs are strong, and I also know just how blessed I am to live in a country where we have freedoms to disagree with our leaders and not fear for our lives.

I am proud to be an American. I am grateful for the freedoms I have and for the people whose sacrifices make American safe and secure for us. My heart still aches for the families of those who were savagely taken from us on 9/11.

In the end, I will hug my family a little tighter tonight and reflect on how lucky I am to be an American.

Anxiety

Ever since I was a small child, I would sometimes be overcome with a sense of anxiety out of the blue. I would try to figure out what was the cause, and usually couldn't come up with it. Its a feeling that something bad has happened or will happen. It passes after time, but it is almost paralyzing for the time. Sounds a little crazy, huh? Maybe it is.

So here I am in one of those moments. I tried making a list of things I have to do, thinking that would aleve some of it. Nope. I have lots on my mental to-do list. I have been on the go for the past week... maybe this is just a way for my body to tell me that it is time to just chill and relax. Who knows.

I am heading out in a little bit to meet my parents and sister for dinner. Today is my dad's birthday and he wanted to head up to the little "Taste of Antioch" they have in town. At least this way everyone can get just what they want! :) Chris has to coach practice, so he won't be able to join us. I am not feeling great physically, so I may only stay for a short time as well.

I have been spending too much money again. It is one of the things that frustrates Chris, and really myself. I think it comes from growing up without much that when we have money, I want to spend it in fear that it won't be there later. I really need to work on this. We have way too much debt, and Chris is really working hard to get us out. I know that "things" can't make me feel better, but I still end up buying silly things. I love Becky, but we have been doing WAY too much shopping this week. She will be gone all of next week, so I will have to just stay home and USE WHAT I HAVE!!!

My summer is quickly coming to an end... Next week is really it for me. We leave next Saturday for the YMCA National meet. We get back on August 4th. I will have to spend the following week getting my classroom together for the start of school the following week... Students start on August 16, and we have to report on August 14! And my studio hasn't moved any closer to getting done. That has to be my focus next week!

Ok... better head out the door. :)

one more for today

Just have to share this.... being a special education teacher, this really MOVED me...

Every OTHER day?

So I have a good excuse this time... we had no electricity! We had wicked storms come through on Monday night. VERY little rain with lots of thunder and lightening. We lost power about 10:30 Monday night. We heard the transformer "pop" so we weren't really suprised. That meant NO A/C however. We opened up the windows and that did help. Still no power when we got up Tuesday morning. Had to shower at grandma's house after I called about the outage. They had no record of our outage, and could not tell me when it would be back on. NOT a great way to start my day! So I ran away from home for the day! :) The power came on a little before 2 pm we think.

Becky is back in town... and I haven't sat still since! :) I love this girl, we are kindred souls and just love being together. We went to IKEA yesterday and hung out in her neck of the woods. Today she decided to come up to the "country." She is focused on getting ready for school already... I just am NOT ready to think about it yet. But she has made me! So, our day was spent running some goofy errands.

• We stopped at the local teacher store. They are in the process of moving into a newer much larger space, so they didn't have much. We did get a few new borders for our boards though.
• Michael's was the next stop. Becky saw this magnetic board at the scrapbook store we went to on Sunday and had to have one for her class. She fell in love with the magnetic papers too. I told her all about the XYRON magnetic cartridge. So, ,we had to get one at Michael's. She also got some papers so we could make her a few photo frames and other magnets for use on her board.
• We had lunch at Olive Garden.... salad, soup, & breadsticks! Yum! We laughed and she told me all about her cruise to Greece. Her new goal is to get me to agree to go on a cruise with her and Brian some time. We'll see! :)
• We headed to Hobby Lobby so she could get some fabric to cover her back board. We started using fabric a few years ago since it holds up so much better than paper. She wanted GREEN fabric. We found some great choices. They also had rub-ons 50% off... so I had to get some of course! :)
• Yesterday I saw some GIANT paper mache letters at Jo-Anns. We stopped at the one closest to me to see if they had them... NOPE. We'll have to check tomorrow when we go to lunch close to school.
• Our final stop was to Home Depot so she could get a new carpet for her classroom. It is still in my car. Can't go wrong with a 5 x 7 carpet for $21!
• We headed home and worked on her photo book she is creating of her trip from Greece and Italy. They are available through Archivers. Brian called and wanted to have her home when he got home so she had to head home.

I really should be doing something productive. I did clean the sinks in the kitchen before Becky got here this morning. Why is it that once I turn on the computer, I am sucked in and can't get anything done? :) I head that there is a new word for that... a "mouse potato" Guess that is me! :)

Whirlwind of a Week...

So much for blogging every day in July! :) I hardly had any time last week to even catch my breath, let alone update the blog. Here is the quick overview:

• Taught scrapbook camp at the YMCA where Chris works. Had a great time with 9 girls ages 8-13. Those are the finished books in the photo. I agreed to teach this in the Spring, but didn't put the dates together until the Friday before! So, I was creating pages a day ahead of the camp last week. All in all, I am thrilled with how the books finished. The style of the book was inpsired by my CKU album. Used up lots of my stash of fabric, stickers, and paper.
• The Y doesn't own a digital camera, so I stayed most of the day on Wednesday taking photos to be included in the brochure. The other branch is always in the photos, so this way Chris and Amy have a collection of photos to pull from. I still need to burn them to a CD for them.
• I am the guest design team member at Susans Scrapbook Shack this month. Part of my responsibilites included posting topic of the day for last week. Be sure to check out the site. Susan has an amazing site and is getting ready to launch an all new store soon!
• Our family has talked about having a garage sale for YEARS! Of course, we set a date and I didnt put two and two together. You guessed it... it was this week! We had gathered all of the crap from upstairs, but I hadn't priced any of it. So Wednesday night Chris pulled it all downstairs for me and I was up till after 11 pricing stuff. We got up at the crack of dawn on Thursday to take everything over to grandmas house and help set up. I ended up spending most of the day on Saturday in the HEAT working the sale. It rained on Friday, so mom and company decided to close it down. In the end I made $66, which was really fine. Whatever I made was a bonus to getting rid of the crap. My sister and uncle took two van loads full of the leftovers to goodwill this morning. We still have lots more that I need to get rid of. It will either go directly to goodwill or to the Y for the garage sale they have each fall.
• Thursday Chris and I worked a swim meet. A few parents from another Y team approaced us about running the computer for a community meet they were having. This was the first time that the club had ever used the software (Welcome to the year 2006!) It was hot and muggy, but it went pretty smooth and we made some extra $. That is always a good thing!
• My best friend Becky is finally back in town, so we spent all day Friday shopping with my niece Katrina. I needed some new shorts for our upcoming trip to the National YMCA swim meet. We discovered a great store called Torrid They have really cute YOUNG looking clothes for those of us that are NOT a size 2! ACtually, we are a size 1 in the store.... gotta love that! :)
• I have been looking for two of the newest scrapbooking idea books out there: The Me Book and Elsie's new book. None of the stores close to me have them. Sure, I could have ordered them online, but I have a need for instant gratification! :) So, I called Windy City Scrapbooking and sure enough they had them! So Becky and I took a road trip into the City yesterday. I love that store... we also stopped at a great wine store as well as the crate and barrell OUTLET! :)
• My cousin Gretchen graduated from HS in June, but they waited to have her party until yesterday. So I went right there after my trip into the city. Hard to beleive she is headed to college in a month!

Today was a day dedicated to cleaning house and doing laundry... it was nice to just relax and try to make the house more liveable again. I should get back to that laundry... :) I guess that wasn't such a quick overview afterall! Becky and I are heading to IKEA tomorrow and then have lunch plans on Thursday. I just can't seem to sit still! :)