Where Am I Supposed to Be?

Today was my final day to have all by myself. I actually didn't sleep in today. I got up and made chocolate chip pancakes with bacon for the kids and I made my wife a knock off of an Egg McMuffin. Once they left I got around and headed to the gym. As I mount the treadmill and look to engage my Iphone with my Pandora App I notice that I received a text from a fellow co-worker. Seems she was at an inservice that I was supposed to attend for content point persons.

I texted back and forth a few times and left off with my possibly attending the afternoon content specific session. This allowed me to get in a shortened cardio workout as well as visit the local market place to pick up chips and dip for my noon luncheon with my 5th grade team. I did enjoy a shortened luncheon with my team and headed off to the 1pm afternoon session that was Science specific.

Long story short, I got everything I needed in order to present science material back to my peeps at school. I did receive a text from my assistant principal that asked did I miss something this morning. Nobody at the inservice gave me a hard time and in all truthfulness I didn't end up sitting thru a beyond boring morning session that talked about designing lessons for English Language Learners. I say this because I figure that is less than a few % of our total population so I may or may not have this student in my class.

Did I forget? Did I delete an important email reminding me of my expectation to attend this inservice? I am not a planner kind of guy and have all the appointments and meetings rolling around in my mind all the time.

Summer is almost over.

Bored

Now I know why I run off to St. Louis for a month during Summer break. I can't handle having nothing to do. This morning I got up at 7am and fixed breakfast for the family before they headed off to a teacher workshop and kids club. I figured I'd climb back in bead and snooze a bit. Next thing I know it is almost 11am. I didn't do much today. First thing I did was return a lawn mower part to Home Depot. I then went to the gym for an hour of cardio. Last thing I did was come home and clean up a bit in our bedroom. 3:30 hit and the family walked thru the door. We sat around for about an hour and took off for a fundraiser dinner at The Purple Cow. That's all I did today. I'm tired too????

School Count Down

Can't really complain about having to get ready for school. 3 weeks from today we get live bodies in our rooms. In 10 days I officially report to our 9am beginning of the year Convocation. 2 years ago we had Ron Clark and he was wonderful.

As a teacher I feel very privileged to be able to take a 5 week vacation to visit family in St. Louis. We then came back for a week before I had to take a few days to get professional development hours.

The nice thing about this week is that I do not have any commitments and my kids are going to Kids Club for free while my wife is taking summer classes. I really wouldn't know what I would do if I had this much time all summer.

Being a teacher is a good thing. The pay is actually pretty decent. The hours are great. The time off is awesome. I'm psyching myself up!

Facebook Drawback

One thing about Facebook that has kind of gotten in the way is when you share something it may be intended for just a certain group of people. Not sure if I can edit who gets to view my latest comment. One issue we will have tomorrow is that we are having a birthday party for my son. I know of at least 3 different people we did not invite and my son attending their birthday parties. If we post pics of the party those who did not have their child invited may feel a little bit slighted. We shall see.

I also found a cream ale, Little Kings, that I drank occasionally as a younger adult and decided not to post it since many of my Facebook friends are through church and such.

I do pride myself in not ever really hiding things from people. In the case of the "case" of Little Kings I just know a few of my friends don't drink and probably are offended by it. Albeit a very small percentage, I err in not posting it.

The Wheels are Falling Off

This is the time of year in 5th grade when our students seem to forget normal expectations and begin to think it is okay to bully, cheat, steal and lie. Well, maybe not THAT extreme, but close. There is an art to keeping the balance while addressing certain issues and avoiding breaking spirits or stemming momentum since the big science test is next week. After Thursday, all bets are off.

5th graders only have less than 30 more recesses in their academic careers.

Sucker in the Room

I really enjoy mowing and I also enjoy performing acts of service for people. Recently I was asked to mow for a coworker whom I know is stuggling financially. The place is a bit out of the way, but I agreed to mow in exchange for future childcare. A fair trade in my mind is one mow, worth about $30, in exchange for about 3-4 hours of sitter service. Well, my coworker was just put on bedrest since she is having sciatic back problems while being pregnant. I know what this means, I'm mowing for charity.

Is it wrong for me to not want to continue mowing? My wife suggested I tutor her husband and teach him to mow. Is it wrong for me to mention to my coworker that maybe it is time that her husband take over mowing responsibilities? That is what homeowners do..take care of their lawns.

I'll struggle with this one. As Matt Damon says in the beginning of the poker movie Rounders, "If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker." That is kind of how I feel right now.

Blogging vs. Facebook and Grieving

I really miss blogging. Facebook really stole me away from blogging on a regular basis. I actually have 4 blog accounts, my TheMANFC, one for each of my kids and one based on scripture readings. Saddest thing is that I haven't posted to my scripture blog in over a year. I started blogs for each of my kids as a form of journaling what is going on in their lives. My daughter was born in 2001 and I actually wrote in a journal for her. My son was born in 2004 and I wrote very little in his journal. Blogging for them was kind of a way to document what is actually going on in our lives. It may serve as my memory someday. Sad thing is, I couldn't remember my password to my blog accounts. TheMANFC blog in its hey day was a good way for me to keep up with BillyV and Huffdaddy without actually talking to them. It also allowed me to connect with a few other people in the country who teach, one a substitute and another a professor.

I really enjoy Facebook and I give it credit for reconnecting me with MANY friends that I had lost touch with. I only try to become friends with someone if I would truly consider having lunch with them if we crossed paths. What Facebook has done is stolen what we call screen time in my house away from Blogger.

Last Thursday I made a visit back to blogger in a desperate attempt to find out what had happened to a good friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a few months. A mutual friend informed me that this friend had passed away. I didn't really find anything on blogger about my friend and ironically it was on Facebook that his wife posted the details of his Memorial Service.

Oddly enough both medium have allowed me to grieve the loss of my friend. Many of his friends posted their feelings as they shared how special a person he was. It was therapuetic to read how much he meant to so many people. Then tonight I was able to read his most recent posts. On a few of them I should have been able to realize how tough things were going for him on a daily basis. And most of his posts you would never realize how much he was battling just trying to stay healthy.

What I do have in our blog connection is the ability to read his posts over the past few years and to hear his voice in his writing. I can go back through my posts and read his comments. 9 times out of 10 his comments make me smile, even chuckle, and now I look forward to spending more screen time listening to my friend who has moved on from this life. It was also cool to see a new post from his 9 year old son on his blog. It was my kind of post too: A restaurant review......NICE!

I really hope I am able to keep a healthy balance between Facebook, blogging, bible reading and family.