Wow, I just realized that I kind of gave up on blogging the last
half of last year, and then sort of forgot about it over the summer.
I find that sometimes in the craziness of
life, I feel the overwhelming need to word-vomit on the computer screen just to
get my feelings out. When I feel a little isolated, or down in the dumps.
I think that was where I was when I started this thing.
Life has taken some crazy turns since the
beginning of school. My little baby is not a little baby. She has
officially moved into the PreK side of daycare in the 3-year-old room.
She has a great new teacher who has high expectations for behavior.
She needs that. We have been dealing with waves of rebellion.
All of my great ideas for behavior, she just wasn't ready to work with
last year. However, I think pretty soon we are going to try some of it
again. I would love to say that I will be truly consistent, but I know
there will be busy times when that will slip. Main thing, KISS, keep it
simple stupid. I have a tendency to over-do and then have to back-pedal.
Also, her language abilities and comprehension of what we say has
exploded. I knew she would have her
father’s gift of gab… and gift of spinning yarns. She has already spread a crazy story at
daycare that she has another house and a sister. Don’t worry, we’ve worked on that one, but
she had to learn the word IMAGINARY in order to explain herself.
My amazing colleagues, Julie and DeeAnn, have started up the
Trojan Children’s Choir. We kept the
KISS model in mind, and were very specific with the title so that all would
understand that in these infant stages, we want to nominate kids that we know
already from our North Andover feeder schools, but eventually, we would love to
expand it into an Andover Community Children’s Choir. Remember, Mrs. Berry, baby steps.
I hate that it’s happened, but I have had to scale back my
involvement in Church choir and Singing Quaker Alumni Choir. Not completely, but for the first time, I am
giving myself permission to take it easy.
After the first week of managing TCC, church choir, SQAC, and teaching
all day, I completely lost my voice and my zeal. It’s been a downhill slide since then,
culminating in a total body shutdown with a nasty sinus infection. I will still be there, once I am feeling well
again, but I’ve got to learn to chill out at school… The kids need the calm
side of me. I NEED THE CALM SIDE OF ME. I need to rejoice in our time together, and
learn how to manage our time better. And
QUIT WORRYING ABOUT STUFF I DON’T CONTROL.
However, taking it easy has in turn made me feel really isolated
the last few weeks. I miss my music
friends. And I hate to say it, but I don’t
really feel like they miss me. And THAT
IS TERRIBLE. My head says, “Of course
they miss you. They’re busy too, ya
know.” My heart says, “It’s your own fault
for not being around. If you were
around, you would be relevant.” Stupid
heart, quit second guessing everything.
