Yummy Mommy

Hellooooo out there...

My goodness, it's been a long time! Let me tell you something ~ there are silly rumors out there that teaching is an easy job; you may be suprised to learn that this is actually not true! I know...shocking! Who'd have thunk that standing up in front of a room full of 30 children who would rather be ANYWHERE else on earth doing ANYTHING other than what you are trying to get them to do wouldn't be a piece of cake??? But it's really not. Don't get me wrong, it has it's fun moments, but it really is a slog much of the time. So...I have been focusing my energy on coming up with FANTASTIC activities for them to do (also not as easy as it sounds), so that I can at least keep some semblance of order in my classroom, and not focusing on poor Yummy Mommy.

I still plan on putting pictures of our Halloween cake on here ~ hey, it's only been three weeks since Halloween (man, is that all??? It seems like 3 months!) but my *&^%$# husband's MP3 player happens to use the same cord to connect to the computer as my camera does, and, despite me asking him HUNDREDS of times, and that's actually not TOO much of an exaggeration, to get another cord so we each have our own, he has gone and lost the $%*&%#$# cord, and now I can't download my pictures. I will try to remember to get TWO new cords today, so I can get on with my life. Ta!

Fun facts about insomnia...

There are as many reasons to lie awake in the middle of the night as there are nights to lie awake in the middle of! You can even lie awake in the middle of one night for one reason, and then lie awake in the middle of the very next night for exactly the opposite reason. For example...

I had a job interview 2 days ago, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon after a long day of subbing at a middle school. I found out about my 5 o'clock interview during my subbing gig at about 1:30. Not a ton of time to prepare, but it was for English 9, which I have taught before, not to mention my degree is in English, so...shouldn't be too much trouble, right? Except that apparently my brain shuts down at about, oh, 4:45, so...let's just say I fully believe that 2 days ago, I gave the worst job interview of my life! And that is what my brain started obsessing about when I woke up at 3:30am 2 nights ago: I don't mind not getting a job because I don't have as much experience or seniority as the next person, but to not get a job because I gave a crappy interview would really suck. Except...I did get the job. Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call at my subbing gig yesterday (of course, I'm thinking "Here it comes, the old 'thanks but no thanks'") to hear the principal say "I have good news for you"! He even said that they were impressed by the interview (did I mention there were THREE people interviewing me?). I couldn't help it, I blurted out "You were???". Very cool. He kindly replied that they could tell I had had a long day, but that they were very excited to have me on staff!!! Amazing. So, you would think that tonight I would be having the sleep of my life. Oh no, dear reader (if there are any left after not posting for weeks) I am wide awake at 5am because this morning, my brain decided to start obsessing about what I am going to teach this grade 9 English class whose very literacy I am now responsible for! Don't get me wrong, that is a much better type of insomnia than the "I am such a dolt" kind, but still... the end result is the same ~ extreme tiredness at about 3:30 this afternoon. Oh well. Now, to start my planning...

Part II

Another advantage of early rising- two, count them, two, blog posts in one day. A slight increase from the two a month I was managing previously. The reason for this post is to share some exciting news- no, I'm not PREGNANT ('cause thats what people always think when a woman says she has news!)- I got one of the tasks from my list that I was really dreading done this morning (yet another advantage of getting up with the birds). And, as usual, it wasn't nearly as bad, nor did it take nearly as long, as I thought. Here are before and after  photos to prove it!

Agh, thats embarrassing! And I had actually already put a few things away before I thought to take a "before" photo.

But now...

We'll see how long this lasts!

Yep- second official day of my summer vacation.....

...and it's 6:20 am and I have already visited facebook, had a bath in which I even shaved my legs, had my pot of tea and started cleaning up my computer desk. This is partly husband's fault, because it was his snoring that woke me up at 5am. *sigh*

It is a glorious morning out there, though, and I guess I should be grateful I got to make it a part of my day. When I witness a beautiful moment like this, I always think of this quote by Brandon Lee- Bruce Lee's son, from his last interview before he died:

Because we do not know when we are going to die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well and yet everything   happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many times will you remember a certain   afternoon of your childhood? An afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you cannot conceive of your life without it? Perhaps 4 .... 5 times more. Perhaps not even that. How many times will you watch the full moon rise ...... Perhaps twenty and yet it all seems limitless. 

That goes for glorious mornings too! So thank you, honey, for waking me up so I could be a part of this lovely dawn!

I took these pictures 5 minutes ago so you can see what I mean about "glorious"!

I may not be posting for a little while, as someone in my husband's family has passed away, and we are dealing with that. Husband is not big on the sharing of the details of his life on the internet, so that's all I will say for now.

The lighter side of marking!

Up at 5am this morning. Why? I'll tell you why (Yes, I know you didn't ask, to quote KK) It's MARKING! The bane of, but yet the reason for, every teacher's existence. What a conundrum! I don't actually really mind it all that much once I get into it, but it is time consuming, and I can always find something better to do (like post on my blog). One of the neat things about marking is that sometimes, your students really dazzle you with their brilliance. And sometimes, yes, they try to baffle you with their bulls**t. Here are a few funny examples from an email that was sent around out school:

Personally, I would have given out some marks for creativity on these ones!