A Beautiful Fall Day
Let Me Dust This Off
I have been absent from here so long that the dust has piled up and they are ready to board up the windows and hang a condemned sign on the door. It isn’t that I don’t have anything to write about–it is almost that I have too much to write about and most of it stems from my work with charter schools and my PhD program in education. Much of it wants to be written about but I am a bit tired of being on my soapbox (I find myself there often in my PhD classes).
I have been busy. I just returned late Wednesday night from back to back charter school conferences and it has led me to become increasingly frustrated with my job and the limitations I have placed on me by those in power. I want to do more–to serve our charter schools more. But the academic politics are too much and are difficult to navigate and even more difficult to change.
The kids are doing awesome. Noah is flourishing at school. He is a real boy and is quickly having to learn to not be such a physical boy. But it is hard as boys really appear to be hard wired for that and that hard wiring doesn’t seem to change–watch a group of guys together and they are bumping into each other and punching each other “in fun” and then we wonder why our little boys do it. Of course we then wrestle with them at home, etc. He is just learning to navigate the social norms that we demand within a polite society.
Zoë on the other hand–what a pistol she is. No is her absolute favorite word. It is her go to answer. Her default. It’s pretty funny when she says no and then has that moment of realization that maybe that wasn’t the right answer. She is talking more and more each day. I can’t believe she is going to be two in just over a week. Unbelievable.
Life is busy and I am exhausted–both mentally and physically. I miss it hear–so please don’t condemn it just yet.
Hello Old Friends It’s Been Too Long
There just hasn’t been as much time for you as I wish there was. I know that being busy isn’t an excuse for ignoring friends, but it is all I have at this moment.
I am working slowly on the kids’ newsletter as Zoë is getting ready to turn 2 in less than a month. Can you believe it and there has been much talk of a birthday cake–“yello kikky” (hello kitty) birthday cake no less. I am ready for it to be here so that I can stop hearing about it. It is very sweet though. I’ll ask her if she wants a chocolate cake and she’ll say “Nooooo, yello kikky.” Too cute and such a total girl that one.
Noah is busy at school learning all kinds of things. His language is really taking off-even more than it was–and his teachers so often comment on his ability to hold a conversation. I am sure this has nothing to do with the fact that neither of his parents ever stop talking. He has friends and it is such a great environment. Everyone knows everyone–he can walk into any office at the school or past any of the teachers and they all know him (as well as the other students). I am so happy with our choice of school. I love the first name use and there are no Ms. Miss. Mrs. or Mr.’s in Noah school. It is great for community building. I grew up calling our friends parents by their first names, as well as my aunts and uncles and then I had parents who wanted to be addressed by their first names, etc. It is just that added bit of personal connection that is so important.
My school on the other hand is growing like the blob and more often than not smothers me to near death. But I am surviving and next week is the 1/2 way mark of the semester. I can make it. Only 8 more weeks.
So, what’s new with you?
Words Fail Me
I have been trying to articulate what’s been going on–but so much of it is stuff that I have blogged about before and people don’t necessarily want to hear me rant about the public educational system again and again. This topic is consuming much of my life now–as I have been observing student teachers and teaching interns–who are all working in urban public schools. The state of those schools and the education in them is horrible and I don’t know what else to say about it without ranting and getting on my soap box. I can say public education is broken and needs to be fixed–while we have schools for our kids–many of our kids aren’t getting an education and that is just as bad (if not worse) than not giving them health care.
I am down a total of 28lbs–that makes me smile.
My kids are healthy and happy. Noah has a big boy bike w/training wheels and loves riding it. Z got on it the other day and her legs are long enough–she pushed a little on the pedal and the bike moved–scared her to death. That made me smile too.
Overall, life is good. I am just busy and exhausted and trying to balance it all. The semester is only 9 more weeks. I can do it.
I Should Be Working
but instead, I am sitting outside on a gorgeous fall morning at Starbucks drinking a skinny vanilla latte after working out with my personal trainer contemplating life. Well not so much life in general–more specifically my life and how much longer before I will actually be able to fully live it without the demands of being a student, working 3 jobs to pay for my kids schools and for the life we lived before we had kids and realized how expensive kids would be.
I know quite a heavy topic for an early Saturday morning…
Last night we went to the Trace Atkins and Toby Keith concert. We were spoiled and go to sit in a VIP box–which is a great way to see the show. I will openly admit here to being a huge country music fan. It all started when I moved to Santa Barbara and got a job at a restaurant in the mountains that use to be a stagecoach stop. Country music was popular with many of the regulars who worked the nearby ranches and with a few of my fellow waitstaff who became good friends. I haven’t been able to kick the habit and it really is what I listen to most often. I have been wanting to see Toby Keith–because he just seems like he’d put on a great show–and I have to say that he did. It was a really great time and a nice way to end a week from hell that had me running in 8 different directions seemingly every day.
The kids crashed at grandma and grandpa’s house and hubby is at home in bed nursing one hell of a hangover. I didn’t drink–as I have too much to do to be compromised by the effects of alcohol. I should be reading rough drafts of memoirs for my online composition class. Can I just say they are horrible and it really is impossible to teach writing online. I need to be face to face with the students and we need to be able to have a real discussion about what writing is and how to do it better. Online is so hard. But that’s okay because when are they going to have to write a memoir? That is what I keep telling myself. The writing itself isn’t terribly horrible. If I am honest it is the style and that is what I would like to impart on them. But can’t do it through the computer. If I had more time I could podcast a lecture, but really let’s be honest–how many are going to watch it? Three maybe four out of 26 and it would be the four who do really well and don’t necessarily need it. UGH!
I am done whining and hope to be able to find a few minutes at work or in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep because Quantitative Statistics is haunting me to blog more. I miss writing and blogging. I do this for me. It is nice to have other people read and have an “audience” but that isn’t really why I started this blog and it won’t be why I keep doing it. So, if you are reading…I hope you are well and I promise to try to get here more often.
Embracing Imperfection 