It seems like forever since I’ve written a Small Success post. I’ve been pretty busy substitute teaching these past few weeks; right now I’m in long-term for a second-grade teacher. Because there’s only so much time in the day, not everything I want to get done is getting done. So please don’t look at my dining-room table, which is covered with a stack of paper plats and little metal buckets of utensils, all clean but not yet put away after Saturday night’s Folk Group Pasta Party. And definitely don’t look at my kitchen floor.
Instead, look at this:
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I’ve (mostly) managed to get a home-cooked dinner on the table every night. Except Monday, when Hubs called to say he’d be way late and they were getting pizza at work, and I hadn’t started cooking yet, so Little Brother and I got Chick-Fil-A.
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Yesterday afternoon and evening’s crazy plan all worked out.
- Our microwave broke a couple of weeks ago, and I’d pushed for as late an installation time as I could get, since I can’t leave school until 3:15 or so.
- I got home by 3:20 and found the installation truck sitting in front of the house. The gentleman assured me that he’d only just gotten there.
- He was done and out of here within an hour. I had dinner going in the crockpot since I wasn’t sure how long this would take and Little Brother had a rehearsal.
- I got Little Brother to his rehearsal in time for me to attend the parent meeting beforehand and find out how we can order tickets for the show and volunteer for hospitality jobs during the performances.
- I made it home in time for folk group practice, which is in my house, so if I’m not home, no one’s here to let everyone else in.
- Hubs got to the rehearsal in time to pick up Little Brother and two other Young Thespians who’d arranged to carpool with us.
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Yesterday one little girl told me, right before snack, that she had a headache. I suggested that she eat her snack and see how she felt afterward (because once you send ONE second-grader to the nurse, many, many others will want to follow.) She never mentioned that headache again until after dismissal, when she was walking back to her mom’s classroom. I was surprised; I told her that I thought her headache had gone away and I was sorry that I didn’t know it didn’t. Her answer: “I really liked the activities we were doing…”
And for a little religion-class comic relief:
Me: “November is the Month of the Holy Souls. We pray for them to help them get into heaven.”
Student: “I thought November is Men’s Cancer Month…”
I don’t know how you do it, but you are definitely working off time on your own purgatory! 🙂
It is tough out there, good job on keeping up with everything.
Sounds like you’re doing a great job keeping up with everything! It’s not easy running a house, caring for children, and working outside of the home. Great job!
You rock. I’m such a slacker.
“Keeping up” is a relative term. I haven’t read the newspaper all week (or all last week). I’m perpetually behind on laundry (and, now that I need to do it, ironing.) It’s not like I can show up at school wearing jeans and a fleece. Meals ARE happening because (1) takeout is expensive and (2) takeout is generally harder on Little Brother’s blood sugar than it’s worth.
This is the first time I’ve worked full-time since before I had kids. 2 things are keeping me going: this is temporary AND I feel a sense of responsibility toward my 18 foster students. They need stability until their teacher can be back.
I know you’re a meal planner already, so I don’t know if this will help or not, but in our house, since we both work, we make larger meals on Saturday and Sunday and then eat leftovers Monday thru Thursday. It works out to 3 meals for each meal we make (1 meal: Sat, Mon, and Wed; 2nd meal: Sun, Tues, and Thurs). Friday we usually do meatless, so we do have to make dinner that night, but at least on that night we don’t worry about the kids going to be too late, so dinner can be late if it has to be. Works for us, for the most part.
Interesting idea! I can tell you that Little Brother would happily eat the same chicken-drumstick recipe 5 days a week. I think I’d go crazy with that, though maybe it would lead me to stretch my side-dish wings (I’m notorious for the plainest sides possible.)
Kerri, I’ll need to keep that in mind for the first week of December, when the Christmas shows my girls are in both come to a head. I’ve already decided I’m pre-cooking EVERYTHING by Sunday evening so I only need to reaheat that week.
I’m exhausted reading it all! I would venture to guess that your kitchen floor is 100 million times cleaner than mine. 😉 Have a great week!
What a great list! When I was working, real meals were not the norm, so good on ya!
Meals have to be the norm. I refuse to work just so we can buy more takeout, and the more “real meals” that are served around here, the better off Little Brother is.
Just please don’t look at my kitchen floor. Because honestly, I have a choice today. I can make Welsh Cakes and maybe some cookies for Little Brother, or I can wash the floor. I’m sure you can guess which choice it’s going to be.
My floor doesn’t get washed all that often, either. And I even heard that it’s better for our health if it’s NOT scrubbed and disinfected too regularly because it assists our immune system.
I’m going to run with that.
[…] November, I was deep into substitute teaching and having “one of those days” fairly often. That’s November for […]