Cleaning Up!

As usual, things have been busy, lately. For those of you who have been living under rocks for the last two weeks, it's been absolutely FREEZING in Minnesota. I mean seriously....freezing. I hate the cold. I know when I lived in Vegas I missed the seasons, but I don't think I ever missed temperatures below zero. Anyway, due to the extreme cold, I had snow days on both Monday and Tuesday. Talk about a nice surprise! Snow days are definitely a perk to being a teaching in Minnesota, that's for sure.

I learned on Friday afternoon that school would be closed on Monday. I was looking forward to an extra catch up day, because even though I was fresh off of winter break, I hadn't accomplished all I'd wanted to get done over the break. Normally, if I have a break, I take that time to clean my house, pay bills, do my laundry, etc. However, I was staying at my dads' house over the break, so I didn't really get the opportunity to do the deep clean I'd been planning on doing. So, I figured Monday would be the day! Then, I got a message from some friends asking if I could watch their kids on Monday, because their kids' school had closed, too. Now, as much as I'd been looking forward to cleaning, I knew having the kids over would be WAY more fun for Charley. So, I agreed to watch their kids while they were at work. It was such a fun day. We did some painting, which the kids loved, but I was about done with in 15 minutes (it's SO messy!). It's funny, though, because I look up art projects online, but they never turn out exactly as planned. I have great ideas, but I am just not artistic. My older sister got that gene, but clearly, I did NOT. Anyway, the kids had a great time, and I followed them around the house all day, cleaning up behind them as they blew from one room to the next. That's one of the negatives about living in a small duplex. There's just not enough room for a bunch of kids to play, without making a massive mess. That's okay, though, I accepted that my house would just be a mess for the day, and enjoyed the fact that the kids were having such a great time.

Sometime during the day on Monday, I learned that I would have Tuesday off from work, as well. Woohoo! Charley's school was open, so I decided I would take her to school on Tuesday and take advantage of that time to really clean my house. I didn't just want to surface-clean, because I do that all the time. I wanted to go through papers, boxes, closets, and junk drawers, and clean EVERYTHING out. So, I took Charley to school, and started my clean-up. Whenever I do serious housecleaning, it makes me feel good. On Tuesday, it was like I was cleaning up all of the negatives from my past. I cleaned out boxes of papers that I've moved with me across the country, but not really looked at in 5+ years. In some of the boxes, I found awesome memories, like a book my gymnastics team put together for me when I was graduating high school, a book my student teaching class had written for me before the end of the semester I worked with them, old yearbooks, pictures of Charley when she was first born, and a plethora of other things. It was fun to look through old pictures, but it legitimately made me feel old. Especially when I found the picture of my friend Lindsay and me at my birthday when I was 5...that was decades ago! Anyway, I cleaned for hours. By 1:00, I'd cleaned out my closet, the front closet, my desk and office area, and both of my junk drawers (which were legitimate junk drawers, full to the brim with random crap). I'd really accomplished a lot! What's the problem with cleaning out closets and junk drawers, though? The fact that I'd cleaned all day, and my house still looked messy! I took a little bit of a break, then got back to work, cleaning the rest of the house. By the time I finished, I felt totally accomplished, and relieved. I'd dealt with a lot of paperwork and junk that I'd been avoiding for a long time. And now, it's gone! Totally out of my life! Phew!

My attempt at a Pinterest project. Art isn't my strong suit...

When I picked Charley up from school, I was exhausted, but glad to see her. Her favorite teacher is still in school, and doing her special education student teaching this semester, so she's not there anymore. Her replacement came up and introduced herself which I appreciated. However, she wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy. Charley's old teacher was bubbly, loud, boisterous, friendly...Basically the perfect personality for a preschool teacher. This new girl, who's probably 21 or 22, introduced herself politely, but she seemed pretty rehearsed. She was like, "I understand that working here is a privilege, and it's really a partnership between us and the parents to ensure that all of the students blossom academically, and socially, etc." She might have been saying the right words, but honestly, I prefer teachers who can just carry a conversation and tell me how the day went. I was skeptical. On Wednesday, I went back to work, and it was a pretty good day. When I went to get Charley from school, though, her new teacher mentioned to me that Charley had been off-task, and had to be reminded by her and several of the other teachers to behave. My guess is that Charley was probably talking out of turn, which doesn't surprise me at all. What DID surprise me was the choice of punishment. "Charley wasn't behaving as well as she did yesterday, so instead of doing stations, she had to sit out at do a worksheet." Ummm....what? She's 2. The thought of expecting a 2-year-old to stay on-task all the time is unrealistic, in my mind, but giving a 2-year-old a WORKSHEET as a form of punishment? That's ridiculous! She can't read. The teacher gave me the worksheet, which was basically a piece of paper with scribbles all over it. When I asked Charley how her day was, she said, "It was great!" She didn't even realize she'd been in trouble. I'm not one to complain much, especially to teachers, but this time, I'm going to have to say something. It's a Montessori school...Worksheets are not exactly part of a well-rounded Montessori school. I'm also looking for other daycare options, because quite honestly, it's not worth the extra money for me to drive totally out of my way to take Charley to daycare and do worksheets. I think I'll find somewhere for her that's closer to my work. 

Okay, enough of the rant about Charley's school. I have a funny story from school this week, that people might find amusing. On Wednesday, in social skills, we had done an activity were the students were discussing emotions, and how they felt in certain situations. The kids described what happened to their bodies when they felt happy, sad, etc. So, Thursday, I extended the lesson, and had the kids play charades with emotions words (excited, upset, thrilled, surprised, etc.). One of the assigned words was confused. A child pulled the card, and the boy sitting next to him (I'll call him Alex) saw part of the word. Before the word could be acted out, Alex shouted, "CONSTIPATED!" He looked surprised when all of the students, teachers, and paras in the room erupted in laughter. The teacher I work most closely with, looked at him and asked, "Do you know what that means?" "No," he stated. "It means you can't poop," she told him, matter-of-factly. His face turned red, and he immediately burst out laughing. He was embarrassed, but definitely handled himself well. He was able to laugh at himself, and in a group like that, that was something worth celebrating. As much as that group can be crazy, that comment totally made my day.

Alright, that's all for now! Have a good weekend!