Eye of the storm?

Well, I survived my very first week of middle school...as a teacher anyway! I'm not sure which is worse, being a middle schooler with all of the frustrations and confusion and drama that comes with it, or working my tail off to keep little twelve and thirteen year olds busy and engaged for four 72 minute periods everyday. Even though I'm certainly a lot more busy now than I was as a middle schooler, I'm pretty sure the teaching end is significantly more enjoyable. I have so much support from other teachers with good lab and classroom management ideas. I'm so lucky to have such an amazing support system!

After an exhausting week of teaching and planning and losing my voice, I deserve a nice long relaxing weekend, right? Something like that! I spent the evening chasing after my nephews, reading them stories and doing whatever was necessary to keep them happy. I slept that night next to one of them and discovered that he is a big kicker in his sleep. Needless to say, it wasn't the most restful night of my life. In the morning, I got up and got six kids ready for a wedding and brought them to the temple (I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to do it! My sister and her husband are superheroes for doing that everyday!). After that, I spent the rest of the day moving in to my new place. (Woo Hoo! I'm not homeless anymore!!!) After moving all my stuff in and unpacking as much as I could (which isn't saying much because I don't have any furniture), I drove two hours to my sister's house to hang out some more with her and her family. This Sabbath has been one of the more appreciated days of rest that I have had in a while!

I would like to think that now that I'm mostly moved in and my first scary week of teaching is over that life will be easy sailing from here on out...but maybe this is just the eye of the storm!