Knowing that I would have more time available than I am used to, I put forth some effort during the last few months to prepare myself to use my skills and knowledge to help others outside of our home. Substitute teaching is one of those avenues; presenting information about childhood cancer is another.
Last week I didn't do a very good job of finding the harmony that would make all of these things work together. Everyone else did fine. I just ended up more exhausted by the end of the week than I should have been. Lesson learned. I will continue to work on the skills necessary to balance all of these parts of life.
First the kids, though ... Kate had swim week last week. Of all of the aspects of school, swim week is Kate's least favorite. She enjoys swimming, but she dislikes public locker rooms. A lot. We have tried to teach her strategies to help her deal with this, but she still dreads swim week. We had a grumpy girl on our hands a different times last week.
But, Kate likes the leaf pile ... which is still growing thanks to some neighbors.
We finally had Ethan's parent-teacher conference last Tuesday. This boy is loving kindergarten, and kindergarten is loving him. Our family's culture tends to set our kids up for success in school, and Ethan is no different. Not only are Ethan's academic skills growing by leaps and bounds, but he is finally having all of the social opportunities that he enjoys :)
Here's his disguised turkey for the yearly kindergarten turkey project. (There really is a turkey hidden in there!) Not only does this boy have some good ideas, but he also has the ability, desire, and determination to work on them from start to finish.
Some of our best stories of his year, though, so far include his interactions with his teacher. Early on in the school year, we learned that his teacher has a "Friday morning dance party". Apparently, after a few weeks, Ethan asked his teacher why they don't ever listen to any 80s rock songs during their dance parties.
(Side note ... 80s rock songs are part of our family. Matt and I learned early on that they are some of the few songs that we both enjoy listening to. Now the kids like them, too. Anna's pretty good at identifying many of the bands as well ... Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Guns N' Roses ...)
At this point in the story, it's helpful to know that Ethan's kindergarten teacher is a big Bon Jovi fan. She asked Ethan what songs he was thinking of. His response? "The Final Countdown." So, Ethan's kindergarten class listened to The Final Countdown during their snack time one morning.
The next day Ethan came home asking us to write down a list of 80s rock songs that he could share with his teacher so they could listen to more 80s rock songs as a class. Now they have a few "older" songs to add into the general kid songs during their dance parties :)
During the conference last week, we also learned a little more about what Ethan calls his "talk time" with his teacher. The students have a variety of options during their open choice time and one of them is now being able to just sit and visit with the teacher. Given the option, Ethan chooses to sit at the back table and have his "talk time" with his teacher. She shared that he usually opens the conversations with "So what are you having for dinner?"
We always knew that Ethan's early childhood experiences of participating in Anna's appointments and therapies would affect him. Now we are getting an idea of how :)
Anna powered through a long week with strength and grace. She has been able to take more ownership of her classroom learning and homework than she has previously, in addition to taking on more responsibility at home. There are definitely still rough times, but they seem to be fewer and less intense than they have been in the past.
Anna and Ethan have joined the 4H club this year, along with Kate. Last year was a bit of a trial run for the family, but I think we're committed to this being a good opportunity for everyone in our family. Thursday night was the monthly meeting, which made for a long day. But Anna seems to be finding ways to develop her confidence and identity through the experience.
She also is enjoying an extended supply of Tinker Crates. For some reason her birthday gift from grandparents went a few months longer than anticipated, but that's okay with us. Anna and Matt have had a good time building all manner of contraptions with these kits delivered right to our front door (!) ... all while listening to 80s rock songs :)
Mom's week consisted of a busy Monday prepping the home life for an anticipated busy week. I had hoped to land a sub job on Tuesday, but I'm learning that these kinds of jobs tend to pop up as the week goes on.
Wednesday evening I was a guest speaker at a class for UW students pursuing educational psychology. The pieces fell into place for this opportunity in a God-directed manner and the experience went very well. I hope to be able to continue to share some of what we have learned about children's experiences with cancer with those who can have an educational impact on those same kids.
As I pulled into the driveway on Wednesday night, Matt was holding a phone call for me about a sub position at the high school as an aide on Thursday. Since I'd like to get my feet wet at each school and get my name/face out in the district, I took the job. (This is where I should have just said no since I was already pretty fatigued ... but I didn't ... and paid for it on Friday and Saturday.)
It's been a long time since I have been in a high school all day as part of the teaching staff and by the end of that day, my brain and my body were t.i.r.e.d. But, now the special education staff there knows my face and my name, and I feel a little more comfortable getting back into that building. And, I got to spend the first block of the day making a pair of mittens during a sewing class with a handful of pretty cool high schoolers :)
And then on Friday morning, we woke up to snow! Yikes! At least the kids already had the day off of school (even if Anna still had speech therapy at 8 a.m.).
All three of them ended up playing outside for a good portion of the morning, which was better than the afternoon since the snow had already melted by lunctime.
Then Kate and I ended up going to a 4H activity where we learned about the Hispanic cultural traditions of the Day of the Dead.
Somehow we have already had to transition to winter weather, even though there were still leaves littering the yard on Friday under the snow. At least Matt had Monday off of work due to the Veteran's Day holiday so we were able to finish up the rest of the fall yard work, even if it never got above 30 degrees that day!
And now we are thrust into the holiday and birthday celebrations that are all fast approaching. Hopefully, I will do a better job to find the balance in my life during the coming weeks.
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