Christmas Vacation

So tomorrow afternoon, at 4 pm, I will officially be on Christmas break (or "winter break" for the PC crowd out there).  I am so excited!  With all the stress from school, IEPs, final exams, failing students, tutoring students, etc., I am just D.O.N.E.  I need a break.  So does my hubby, God love him.  Chris has been dealing with exhaustion and has had some really bad dizzy spells over the past few days.  Its gotten so bad he finally made himself an appointment.  With a doctor.  This is serious, people.  I am hoping they figure out why he's having these dizzy spells so he can maybe get better soon.  I'm thinking maybe an ear infection?  So yeah, he needs a break, but dear Lord, so do I!

Believe me, I know that working is easier than being home with the kids all day, but teaching middle school special ed?  Its HARD, thankless work.  I do NOT sit around eating bon bons all day, no matter what some may think.  We also don't watch soap operas...but believe me, there is plenty of drama.  Working and being a mommy is hard because you don't get to just come home and crash...There's always someone needing you (and you need them, too!) and yes, plenty of housework to be done.  My priorities have shifted and I have learned to let the housework wait while I take time for the kids and myself.  It all gets done eventually...no harm in letting it sit for a day or two.  I'm blessed to have a hubby who lets me take time to go out with the girls every once in a while to be an adult and not just mommy.

Anyway...so tomorrow is the last day of school before the break and I am excited.  I'll be leaving school @ 10:40 to go to the kids' preschool to see their Christmas program.  Andrew is going to be the star (literally!  He's going to be the star of Bethlehem!) and Hannah is going to be a horsey.  This should be good, people.  Pictures and video will follow, you can be sure.  I'm supposed to send a dessert, so I'm sitting here waiting for the break-and-bake cookies to cool (hey, I never said I was Paula Deen) so I can put them on a plate and run upstairs as fast as I can so I don't eat them all.

Speaking of...I think they're ready. Off to bed I go!

Too Much

Whine, whine, whine....I am a big ball of stress these days.  I feel like I'm wound so tight I'm gonna explode at the slightest touch.  I've taken on too much and I know it.  This is my biggest problem:  I can't say no.  Its all school-related stress, and I try *really* hard to leave it there, but it sneaks up on me a lot of the time.  I am teaching a math intervention class for my 6th grade students two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday.  This takes place during my planning period, of course.  On Tuesdays, as soon as the students leave, I meet up with a 4th grade student who needs tutoring as well.  On Thursdays, I go straight from tutoring my 6th graders to a weekly grade level meeting with our principal.  So on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have ZERO planning time.  Also, I am finishing up (two more weeks!) a hospital-homebound tutoring job with a student I've been working with for a couple of months.  Yes, I am getting paid for all this extra work, but still...its a LOT.  By Christmas break, though, I will have finished up with my homebound student and can focus on the tutoring I'm doing during the school day and not worry about the after-school stuff.  Its just all the paperwork that stresses me out.  Being a special education teacher, I am in charge of monitoring IEP's, classroom accommodations, and testing modifications.  I have to make sure everything that needs to be done is being done for each student.  I have to keep copies/records of everything we do.  I have to track testing data to prove that my students are (or aren't) learning anything.  I have to go to special education AND math department meetings.  Its a lot.
Teachers get a bad rap these days, getting blamed for students' lack of success, but getting no credit when the students are successful.  (Well, maybe I'm exaggerating, but its how I feel at this point in time.)  Our pay is getting cut, but we are expected to do more and more each day.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed and just want to explode.
Then I come home to my husband and kids and they make it all right.  Home is a good place to be.  And teaching isn't all bad...Heck, if I can stand the stress for two more weeks, I'll get two weeks off for Christmas!  I'm a lucky girl.