This was my third year completing 31 days of slicing, but this was by far the hardest year. There were several times I just wanted to give up, to just disappear from the Two Writing Teachers comments section. But, from years past, I know how rewarding it is to complete the challenge. Plus, I enjoy the challenge, so I wanted to finish. But this was a hard, exhausting month. This was a month of many long days and late nights. I often didn’t have the energy to write, and definitly did not have the energy to read and comment on as many blogs as I had hoped. But, I was committed to the challenge and refused to give up on myself. In the process, I learned a lot about stamina and perseverance. And I’m so glad to say that I have again been able to complete the challenge.

Some of my favorite posts from this month are:

Where are All the Oreos?

Summer Memories

Kindergarten Math

The Dance

Laundry Woes

Thank you to each of my readers and to those who took the time to comment on my blog. You helped fuel me and keep me going!

Ten years ago, when we moved back home, I was a little worried about connecting with people and making new friends. I had lost touch with many of my high school friends, or many of them had moved away. I’m not particularly outgoing and I’m fairly private, so putting myself out there to make new friends is out of my comfort zone.

We quickly found a church, however, that we really liked. It helped that we already knew some people there, but on our first Sunday, we were welcomed by several young couples and invited into a small group. With trepidation, we agreed to attend the group gathering and we’ve never looked back. We have been with this same group for a decade, and as a result, we have become closely connected to some amazing people. Together we have shared births, deaths, triumphs, scary diagnoses, big decisions, faith, and lots and lots of laughs.

Tonight, we went to dinner with one of the couples from our group. It has been a while since we’ve had a night out together and it just felt so good to be sitting across the table with people you don’t have to impress or entertain. You can just BE. Tonight, I feel blessed by their friendship.

I’ve been sitting here with a blank page for an hour. I’ve started typing about four different posts, only to hit the backspace button and erase everything. On one hand, it’s frustrating to not be able to develop an idea or not have the energy to develop it into something I can be proud of.  On the other hand, it’s kinda nice to have this much peace and quiet and time to myself. It’s nice to zone out and empty my head.  I just wish it helped me write a better post…

One of my favorite aspects of my job is doing classroom walk-throughs. I love getting into classrooms to observe the learning and teaching that is taking place. Some principals may simply go in to observe, but I cannot resist getting involved with students when I go in. Unless the teacher is teaching a whole-class lesson, I always strike up conversations with kids to hear from them what they are learning and understanding. It’s a great way to get a feel for the teaching point, the  level of understanding that is occurring, but is also a way for me to connect with kids.

Today, I walked into a fourth grade classroom where the students were working in groups, preparing for presentations. Each group had researched a historical figure and created a poster that included a life-sized drawing and the information they had learned.

Approaching one group, I asked who they were learning about.

“General Anthony Hopkins,” replied the boy.

“Who was General Anthony Hopkins?” I asked, expecting an explanation about this Revolutionary War General.
In all seriousness, the girl replied, “He’s the guy on our poster.” She pointed to the General.

“What have you learned about him?” I asked, prompting for more information.

“We learned all the stuff we wrote on the poster,” the girl replied with a sense of obviousness in her tone. 

The group seemed to be organizing sticky notes. I assumed I might learn a little bit more by asking what they were doing with the notes.  The boy told me they had written their facts on the sticky notes, assigned different facts to different group members and were now putting them in order for the presentation. Trying again for some information about General Anthony Hopkins, I asked what facts they would share.

The girl smiled sympathetically at me, clearly thinking I was beyond hope of understanding what they were doing and responded gently, “Mrs. Dyer, we are sharing the facts from the poster.”

Ok, I think I just need to read the poster.

Tonight….

…I have a bad case of writer’s block
…I am huddled under a blanket, but just can’t get warm
…my feet are aching from standing in heals much too long
…I am experiencing laundry failure once more (but tonight I’m ok with that)
…I’m wondering what happened to all the peanut butter M & M’s that were in the pantry
…my husband and I will cheer on the Lady Irish from our couch
…my alarm clock will be set for an extra-early breakfast meeting in the morning.
…my car worked and drove without stalling out on me!
…I really want to eat Nutella by the spoonful…
…I’m using self-restraint to keep the lid on the jar.

Rewind to last Tuesday:  I was just driving along, singing to the radio on my morning commute to work. All was normal as I approached the stoplight at two intersecting highways. I waited through the red, singing my song, waiting for green. When the signal changed, I took my foot off the brake and my car immediately died. Right there and then.  Blocking a lane of traffic, I turned on my blinkers and began the phone calls: first work–telling them I’d be late.  Second, my husband–to be rescued. Third, my mechanic–he researched the problem over the phone.  Fourth, the tow truck–they were on the way.

Fast-forward to Thursday: My car was ready. Yeah!  It felt so good to have my own vehicle back! No more borrowing cars or depending on someone else for a ride. Boy, we are so car-dependent in the Midwest.

Fast-forward to Today: In a rush out the door after work, I worried about being late to the sitter’s to pick up my daughter. At the light, I slowed down to allow the car ahead of me to safely turn. Eyes on the light, I willed it to stay green, which it did. With my foot on the accelerator, I pushed it toward the floor to –well, accelerate! Except my car began to lose speed and power and umpf.  I drifted onto the shoulder and my vehicle died. Right then and there. I turned on my blinkers and began the phone calls: first, my mother-in-law–asking her to pick up my daughter. Second, my mechanic–he researched the problem over the phone. Third, my husband–to share my woes.  At least this time I didn’t need to be pushed out of the road! 

Looking toward Tomorrow: I hope the problems my mechanic discovers are small, inexpensive and easy to fix. I really do not want to borrow cars and ask for rides again! I wish we weren’t so dependent on cars around here!

1. It is so strange to see a “For Sale” sign in our front yard. If our house sells, where will we go? We have no idea, but now seems to be the appropriate time to leave our neighborhood.

2. It’s been a super-productive weekend: On Saturday, we helped pack-up my husband’s grandparents and moved them into an assisted living apartment. It was a long day of packing, moving, and unpacking, but they are all settled in now and adjusting to the next phase of their life. After church today, I thoroughly washed my car and thinned out our ground cover. My hostas can now breathe again.

3. It’s been forever since I’ve been to the movie theater, but this weekend I went to not one, but two movies: The Lorax and The Hunger Games.

4. It was fun to watch Karisa form a new friendship with the little girl at the end of the street.

5. It’s time for my husband’s birthday cake to go…I’ve eaten way too much cake over the last few days. But my goodness, is it good!

6. I’m reading Auschwitz by Miklos Nyiszli. It is both gripping and horrifying to read the account of his experiences in this death camp.

7. I’m glad there’s only one more week until Spring Break.

8. I really want some of that chocolate birthday cake. Seriously, I need to throw it away so I’m not tempted anymore.

I’ve never been so excited to see a movie as I was to see The Hunger Games. The trilogy was amazing, and would naturally make a good movie. I was so eager to see the movie, Ihad to see it in the theatre (which is rare) and I had to see it on opening weekend.

Unfortunately, I think I hyped the movie up too much in my mind before actually seeing it. It just didn’t measure up to my expectations. The movie actually followed the book very well–all the major events were there. The movie wove the backstory in the best they could, and the scene with Katniss volunteering as tribute was powerful. But, I felt the emotions of the story fell flat. There is so much internal struggle in the book, but it was hard to capture that on film. It was hard to get inside Katniss’s mind. The berry scene, the climax in the arena, was flat as well. It didn’t feel nearly as suspenseful as it did in the book.

I did think the casting, however, was great. The producers found the perfect Katniss.

Even though the movie fell short of my expectations, I am still glad that I went to see it. It was still good, just not great.

Each time I do laundry, I have a little bit better understanding why God has blessed me with only one child. He knows exactly what each person can handle, and He knows that I cannot handle laundry for more than three people. I do not mean to say this flippantly; I truly cannot handle more laundry. Or, maybe its not the amount of laundry I can’t handle, but just laundry in general.

I do not have enough time or energy to get any article of clothing successfully through the entire cycle in a timely fashion. I can put clothing in the washer, I can even put them in the dryer…it’s after the timer goes off that I fall apart and hopes of completion falls by the wayside. It’s here that things get difficult. Actually pulling the clean, dry clothes out of the dryer. Because, when you pull things out, then they have to be folded. Socks have to be matched. Items have to be sorted into stacks for the correct person. Then everything has to be put away. Ugh.

As much as I hate to sort socks and fold laundry, the worst part is still getting everything OUT of the dryer. Tough, right? No, it’s not hard to pull things out, it’s the pressure of getting the items out before they have time to cool down and wrinkle. If the dryer stops while I’m making dinner, it’s almost a guarantee that I’m going to have to run the dryer again for 10 minutes later in the evening in order to de-wrinkle everything. And most likely, during those last few minutes of fluffing, I’m going to get interrupted or distracted enough to completely forget about the laundry for an hour, which means the clothes will need to be fluffed yet again.

It’s sad to say, but by this time, I’m probably going to be tired and ready for bed. So, the laundry will have to wait until tomorrow evening. Except, in the morning, I’ll realize there is a wrinkly item in the dryer that I want to wear, so I’ll have to fluff the dryer for a few minutes again. Inevitably, I won’t have enough time before rushing out the door to actually pull the newly de-wrinkled load out of the dryer and lay them out all nice and smooth and flat. Nope. They will need to sit in the dryer all day until I get home from work and can fluff them yet again, in hopes that this time, this time,I will be able to experience laundry success.

I’m in a new role this year. I’m a new principal of an intermediate school and I’m also supposed to be the school’s literacy coach. Both are a huge undertaking! Sometimes the roles fit together well, sometimes they don’t.

I have learned TONS this year about administration and leading a school. What I haven’t learned, though, is balance. Try as I might, I just haven’t been able to figure out how to be both a principal and a coach. I know I’ll figure it out one of these days (or years), but for this first year, I’ve been very focused on administration. I’ve had to experience new tasks and determine if they are things I hang on to as principal or if they are things I have to delegate. I’ve had to learn how to have a secretary. Really, I’m perfectly capable of making my own copies! I hate to ask my secretary to do that for me…or to type up a memo for our report card timeline. I can do that! But, she can’t go into classrooms and observe for me, she can’t evaluate teachers for me, or meet with students about discipline issues. So, I have to let go of some things. I have to be okay with that because when I say no to putting together the staff bulletin, I’m saying yes to spending time as an instructional leader and coach.