Living through the crazy to get to the calm

Well it was another busy week full of ups and downs that lead to this blissful week called February break! Almost all the teachers I know start their year of planning by getting exciting and buying a planner or calender and then marking every single school break and day off! So when it's gets to the point of having a full week off excitement definitely sets in! For me, it was mainly because I hadn't had a full day off in 21 days.

Most of the time, my weeks are pretty routine. Mondays and Wednesdays are work at school in the morning and then tutoring at one of the Sylvan centers at night. Tuesdays I'm at school in the morning, at the city school for 2 hours in the afternoon and then have grad class at night, and Thursdays are the same except instead of class I'm usually working at one of the centers at night. Fridays have more variations. I always have work at school in the morning but then I could have the night off to be social or just relax, or I could work at Old Navy. Saturdays usually include work at one of the centers in the morning and then could include time off in the afternoon/evening or another shift at Old Navy. Sundays are also up in the air. They have recently been starting off with shifts at Old Navy and then allowing for some time off.

I'm sure for some people that doesn't sound routine at all, that just sounds chaotic. Sometimes that is how it feels, but as long as it is all written down I'm pretty good at keeping track of where I need to be, and when I need to be there.

This past week felt very chaotic! It was planned and organized and I knew where I needed to be and when, but to give you a taste of my insanity let me recap Valentines Day for you. Let's just say, Tuesday February 14th was nuts!
5:45-Alarm went off
7-Out the door on my way to school
7:30-12:30- School
12:45-1:45-Stopped at Wegmans and at Home to get a few things and pack up for the rest of the day
2-4- Work at School #20
4:30-5:30- Tutor a student privately in Webster
6-9- Grad class
10:30- Bedtime (maybe I can't remember when I actually passed out, but if I'm lucky it was around this time)

Now here are some of the details to go with this schedule. School was a pretty typical day. I got to watch high school kids on Valentin's Day, which meant the girls with boyfriends were all dressed up carrying around flowers or whatever else they had been given and the other girls were just giving jealous looks. It was quite entertaining really.

It was my week to provide snack for grad class. I had already made brownies but I need more to go with that, so I stopped at Wegmans to get a few things and then went home to pick up everything I needed for work, tutoring, and class.

Oh and then came work at the city school! Let's just say elementary school children on Valentine's Day equal sugar high children! Everyone was a little on edge. I'm not sure what was going on but none of the kids were in the mood to learn which made it that much harder to try to teach. At one point I had one student refusing to do work and screaming loudly that another student was being rude and disrespectful. Right before the students were getting on the bus, one of my students almost threw a punch at another student and I had to stand between them. It was a very eventful hour and a half to say the least.

I drove straight from the city back to Webster to tutor a student in Geometry. Luckily he's a really easy going kid so I could breathe for the first few minutes and get my mind back together while he started his homework. His family is great, they even gave me a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day :)

Then I went straight to grad class. As if I wasn't already brain dead, 3 hours of class just about killed me. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy this class, but we spent 2 hours talking about "why does 'invert and multiply' work when dividing fractions?" We were supposed to come up with an answer that we could explain to young children, but we are all so used to just doing it that it was a very difficult task. Let's just say we were all very frustrated. The last 40 or so minutes of class was spent taking a test a logically thinking test. He handed it out and told us that most people entering college score an average of 11/24. Our whole class did better than that and we all scored within the formal thinking range which is good but to be doing that at 8:30 after the day I had I was a little worried.

The rest of my week wasn't quite as hectic as that day but most days I was running around quite a bit. I was really looking forward to Sunday. It was my first full day off in 21 days straight and I was going to have dinner and play board games with a bunch of friends. And then I got a migraine. I'm not talking a worse than normal headache, I'm talking more pain than I have been in in quite a while. I barely got out of bed all day. I made a carrot cake to send with my friend to bring to the get together but other than that I was pretty much a complete bum. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my day. My medicine and sleep ended up helping a bit.

Break has been nice so far. I've been able to get coffee with a few friends and catch up with them. I've only had a few short shifts at work which is really nice. I'm going to visit my parents this weekend. Having this much time on my hands is kind of weird. I'm never this free! Relaxing is good, but it also leaves me a lot of time to think which isn't always as good. I've been thinking about my 25 before 25 list and realizing that there is a lot I haven't done or started thinking about doing yet. I'm also figuring out that as happy as switching jobs has actually made me it keeps my life almost as complicated as it was before and that I can still hide and/or run away from the same things. Don't get me wrong I am significantly happier now than I was a month ago, and I am considerably less stressed and emotionally in a better place!

Learning to be flexible

It’s been another whirlwind of a week. Lots of work, some time with friends mixed in, homework, plus dealing with car stuff made for a decent amount of stress but overall things seemed to go alright.

Bouncing between different tutoring centers is definitely something that will take some getting used to. Instead of showing up at one place every day at a specific time my schedule changes depending on the day (and the week). Beyond that, one day I’m in Pittsford another I’m in Greece. And half the time I’m coming from another job to get there. It’s a continual reminder to be flexible and be thankful for what I have. I really do enjoy the job itself, don’t get me wrong! The schedule is just a little crazy!

I was reminded how different some of the students I work with are from the ones I have at the high school. I work with kids in an inner city elementary school that have a lot to deal with at a young age. I work with the third grade reading level group, I have five students and they range from third through fifth grade. One of them was in a fight recently and was suspended from school; she’s only in fifth grade! It just made me pause and reflect on the fact that I can’t truly comprehend what these kids are dealing with and that most of the kids I’ve taught up to this point haven’t been in situations like this. They are good kids and most of the time they seem to want to learn. I just hope that they continue to learn beyond elementary school.They keep me on my toes for sure. Trying to teach reading and talk about ocean creatures with kids who have never seen the ocean before makes for a lot of quick thinking and adapting of lesson. It's wonderful experience for me and I'm learning a lot, I just hope that they are able to get something out of it as well. 

My headaches have been hit or miss lately which is more annoying that I'd like it to be. I can handle the constant pain, but when one day isn't bad and the next is excruciating pain, I'd prefer a constant of some sort instead of back and forth. I know a lot of it is tied to my stress level, and to the amount of sleep I'm getting (or the lack of it). Plus the random changes in weather are not helping either. School break will hopefully help with the sleep aspect. I'm still in less pain than I was before trying this medication so I shouldn't be complaining, but some days are still really hard to get through, especially with a smile on my face, pretending everything is fine. 

Even though I wasn’t working at night this weekend, I ended up having a pretty lame weekend. Friday night I just did some reading for school and then tried to relax. It was probably something I needed and was healthy in the long run. Saturday I just did homework. I had to work early Sunday morning and didn’t hear about plans so I spent the night writing a paper. I had the attention span of a small child which made it very difficult to get through but eventually I got a rough draft done.

Sunday I was quite productive. I had to work at Old Navy 7-11, and after driving home slowly in the snow I got through my massive to do list! I ate lunch, did my laundry, made beef stew for my friends for dinner (recipe below), made brownies for dessert and for grad class on Tuesday, finished proof reading my paper for class, and started to clean my room. A few friends came over for dinner and then to play games and we just hung out. It was a nice night.

This week I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but February break (for high school) is next week so then I’ll have time to relax and recuperate then.

Hearty Beef Stew – Modified from Women’s Day Magazine January 16^th 1990

Ingredients:

½ cup all-purpose flour (If gluten free use rice flour and it works just as well)
2 teaspoons salt

4 pounds well-trimmed boneless beef chuck or round roast cut in 1” pieces (I just used stew meat)

¼ cup vegetable oil

5 cups beef broth

1 cup dry red wine or water

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 large bay leaves

2 teaspoons dried marjoram leaves

2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves

1 ½ pounds carrot peeled and cut into bite size chunks

1 ¼ pounds parsnips peeled and cut into bite size chunks

1 pound onions cut into wedges

1 pound small mushrooms, halved

1 pound frozen cut green beans

3 large russet potatoes peeled and cut into ½ to ¾” cubes

Directions:

Mix flour and salt. Coat meat, shaking off excess.

Heat oil in a 5 to 6 quart Dutch oven over medium high heat until it looks thin and rippling but not smoking. Add and brown the meat in two or more batches being careful not to crowd the pot. Remove the meat to a bowl with a slotted spoon. When all the beef is browned, pour off any drippings remaining in the pot.

Return the meat to the pot. Stir in beef broth, wine, tomato paste, garlic and herbs. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer one-two hours ( I went about an hour and a half and the meat turned out to be very tender.)

Add carrots, parsnips, and onions. Simmer covered 45 minutes until the carrots are almost tender.

At this point we add the potatoes and simmer covered for 15 minutes.

Sir in mushrooms and green beans, cover and simmer 45 minutes more until vegetables and meat are tender, stirring occasionally.

Make 10 to 12 good sized portions- This recipe fed 6 people with lots of left overs to share. My family would make a half batch at it would feed all 4 of us with a little bit of left overs. 

Back to being busy

I'm almost done training at my new job which means I'm balancing both aspects of that job, plus working at the high school, occasionally at Old Navy on the weekends, and tutoring one student on my own. This week I'm back up to 45 hours of work total, which isn't too bad overall.

I'm enjoying the way the tutoring center itself is run and how I work with students. It is definitely a bit of a learning curve and will take a little while to get used to how some of the details work but I'm excited to get into it more. I'm feeling confident with the teaching part of it and I think the rest of it will work itself out.

Balancing life is going to be another learning curve. Since my schedule will change each week it is less steady than what I've had for the past year. It will teach me flexibility and remind me of the importance of taking time for myself whenever I can get it. Some nights I will be working until 8, which means I won't be getting home until 8:30ish which isn't horrible but when I'm trying to be in bed by 10 it doesn't leave a lot of time to relax, or get anything done at home. Not to mention the fact that mixing in a social life is going to be interesting.

I was able to get some fun in this weekend! Girls night was Saturday and then the Super Bowl on Sunday! I made a chocolate swirl cheesecake for the super bowl party which seemed to go over well. It was so awesome to just relax and watch the game with friends! It was a busy weekend with work and homework, so to spend a few hours doing nothing but relaxing was a plus!