Confession: Sometimes I Suck at Life

The last two weeks for me have been some of the busiest of the year.  Not only have my own children begun their end of the school year activities (our daycare uses a school calendar, and so their curriculum goes up until the end of school in June, too), but my own school where I teach have started their own end of year activities.

Though I am not required to participate in any of my school activities beyond teaching, I love getting to hang out with my students at the end of the school year at these events.  I’ve been taking my own kids to the home track meets where I am a time keeper.  My students love hanging out with my kids, and my kids love being up at “mommy’s school.”

I am also the National Junior Honor Society advisor at my school, and so we have had our busy end of school activities for my current members, and I also inducted 52 upcoming members for next school year at a ceremony where over 300 people attended. This ceremony included a long induction for the new members and a cake and punch reception which I had to plan and host.

Then, last Friday I was a chaperone at our 8th graders’ Gradventure night at Universal Studios.  I was super excited about this because I had never ridden a roller coaster before and my students were so encouraging and supportive when I rode the Hulk.  They were cheering for me and all night I got high fives and hugs from students who were so proud of me.  See?  Who could miss these events?

The verdict on roller coasters:  Never again.

While I love doing these things for my school and with my students, it does take a toll on my home life in some ways. Chris had to pick up a lot of my slack at home, and I missed dinner and bedtime for three days in a row two weeks go. But he is a trooper and the kids are pretty flexible, so other than me being tired, life goes on.

Then last week, I was sure my schedule would be slower. My calendar wasn’t as full and I was ready to slow down the pace and begin the steady crawl to summer vacation. Unfortunately, life had other ideas.

MONDAY – The week started out blessedly uneventfully. I should have known that calm waters were a warning flag…

TUESDAY – Chris and I took half a day off so that we could take Bean to kindergarten registration that morning. I had been planning this for weeks. I had all our paperwork in order. Bean was pumped. We were ready. We got to his school and it was so cute and not a little bit overwhelming. They had all these tables out with groups and clubs and organizations you could join – PTSA (yes), Boy Scouts (yes), Community Watch Group (no). It was a lot of fun. They even had a little table set up that was selling school paraphernalia, like bumper stickers, tee-shirts, and foam fingers. I got Bean a tee-shirt to give him as one of his birthday presents in a few weeks. The bummer was that none of our paperwork was correct. Apparently, the website that I got all my information from was “out dated” and so nothing I had as proof of residency or immunizations or anything was correct. They weren’t able to register him at all. It wasn’t that big of a deal. I just have to take the correct papers up there next week instead, but having taken half a day of unpaid time off (I’ve already used all my personal and sick days with my two carrier monkeys this year – can I get an “amen” from the working parents out there?), I was a little more than irritated. But whatever. I headed to work and taught my last three classes of the day.

Then, of course, Tuesday afternoon was the infamous first swimming lesson of the year for the kids. You can read about Gracie’s ear-piercing lesson here. I can’t speak anymore about that or I’ll have to pour myself a drink.

WEDNESDAY – I had a faculty meeting after school and was just about to sit down as it began when the daycare automated phone system called to tell me that a transformer had blown close to the daycare and they had no power (and, consequently, no AC) and that all parents needed to come pick up their children. Perfect. I left the meeting early, only to get to the daycare and discover that the power had returned and there was no need to come pick them up. Frustrated, I took them home and graded papers electronically for the rest of the afternoon. Then, that evening, I totally missed a meeting I was supposed to attend with friends from church. Just completely forgot about it. Had it on my calendar and everything. I got a text from a friend asking me where I was and where I was was sitting on my couch in my PJ’s watching TV. Excellent, Katie.

THURSDAY – I completely forgot about a doctors appointment I had scheduled for myself. It was on my calendar, too. Just totally forgot about it and didn’t go. I still haven’t even called to apologize or reschedule. Also that day, I was scheduled to be out of the classroom all day for a training session, which I was presenting at this week. But at 9:00 in the morning, just as we were getting started, my phone rang and the dreaded daycare phone number popped up on my caller ID. This time with the news that Gracie had an eyeball up her nose. I ended up leaving work all day long to sit in a doctors office with her while she shook her head and exclaimed, “Mommy! I can feel the eyeball moving!”

On the plus side, Gracie had an AWESOME swimming lesson that afternoon!  We had been pumping her up all week, and Thursday when it was time to go, she was so happy to get her suit on and get to swimming lessons.  She jumped right in the water, like I knew she could, and she was a rock star student.  Her teacher, Miss Julie, was so impressed with her.

(Side note: I know Miss Julie looks mad in these pictures, but she is actually super friendly and sweet!  Not sure how I happened to catch all her “serious” faces!)

FRIDAY – I vowed to not leave my classroom all day long. I didn’t care if the school burned down around me. And I didn’t. I actually taught a full day on Friday. I was a miracle. But halfway through the morning, I realized that a friend’s birthday party was THAT night and not NEXT Friday. Which wasn’t so bad except that I scheduled a babysitter to come NEXT Friday. That was just about the perfect ending to a terrible week.

I try not to complain too much about being a working parent. I actually love working outside the home. Plus, I only work nine months out of the year, and other working parents never get a three month break with their own children. So, in a lot of ways, I’ve got an ideal set up for my family.

Having said that, though, there are definitely weeks that are better than others. Last week was at the bottom of the list. But, that’s the good thing about the bottom of the list. You can only go up from there, right?????

RIGHT?!?!?!