Keeping up

I am keeping up with my busy summer schedule. So far anyway!
Jack and I were talking to Wayne on his way home from work (at 9pm) last night. Talk about keeping up. I don't know how he does it. Lauren, too. These kids are working 90 hr weeks. Geesh. Get your act together, Patty!
We had a nice weekend, including a Father's Day brunch at Matt and Sally's with Mary and Bob (Matt's parents). Wayne and Julie were in Iowa at a music festival, so we missed them. We didn't get to see Bucky or any of  the rest of Jack's side of the fam. Boo.
I would have to say that the highlight of the day was getting to feel our grandbaby move! The baby has been pretty active lately and we could feel him/her move!!! Sally is 27 weeks on Thursday! So so exciting.

Matt and Sally and Baby B

feeling the baby move--greatest gift ever!

I may have been a bit dramatic with my last post

You will be so relieved to know that I am feeling oh so much better today. I really am. I have to admit that I may have over reacted about ESY. I say maybe because the jury is still out. I did actually enjoy my time working ESY this week, but I still have 3 WHOLE WEEKS to go. I know, life is tough.
I can tell you with certainty that I worked with some  talented special educators who have amazed me in the last three days. And the kids are amazing too.
Life is good.

Over committed and over whelmed

I think I over commited to summer work, at least for the first month of summer break.
I agreed to work ESY  which stands for extended school year, also known as summer school. School districts pay for students to receive special education services over the summer if there is a chance that the child might regress during the long summer break.
I have not worked ESY in 21 years that I have been employed by my special education cooperative. ESY has usually had enough speech language pathologists sign up and besides, I usually do group play based assessments in the summer (faithful readers of my blog will know this :)). However, a few weeks ago, our cooperative put out an all call to the SLPs, asking if anyone would be willing to provide speech services for ESY. There was a huge need.
I can never turn down the opportunity to work. If God puts it in my path, I feel like I need to accept it (within reason, of course).
So here is how my summer is shaping up so far:
I finished my school year last Thursday, June 11th. I started ESY on Friday, June 12th which goes through July 10th. I have done some private speech sessions and I took a two day class on Google, Google drive, Google calendar, etc. on Tues and Wednesday of this week.
And  I am teaching a continuing education class next week, on Mon, Tues, Wed from 12:30 to 4pm. And I am doing 9 evals in early July. And doing two presentations, one for a school district and one for a grad school speech language seminar.
Lots of commitments and some of these things are a bit out of my comfort zone which makes me feel uncertain and sometimes inadequate. Not that I am, I just feel that way.
Giving it all to God. I will do the very best I can and I will keep a positive attitude. Well, for the most part, except when I am having a mini-meltdown like I did last night. It's not that I don't want to work. I just want to do a great job when I work. I feel so responsible to the students and families that I work with.
I have never been very good at transitions, but I will do my best. That's all I can do!

Hello, June!

June, I love you. As I sit in my living room, writing this post at 8:42pm, it is just getting dark outside. I love light and the longer days and the warmer weather. We have the Blackhawks game on in the kitchen on mute. That is our tradition. Right now they are down 4-3 in the 3rd period. I better go in the kitchen and watch for a minute. They usually score when I do that. I don't want to be one of those bandwagon fans, but I kinda am.
Another good thing about June is peonies. I really love this shrub with the fragrant pink flowers. Four years ago, one of my students gave me a small peony shrub for an end of the school year gift. I didn't think I could ever make it grow, at least not the way my mom cultivated hers. I wasn't even sure I was going to plant it. We were having our giant evergreens trimmed by a guy named Jimmy and he noticed the shrub sitting there. He asked if I wanted him to plant it and suggested a place for it. I was thrilled, but never thought it would actually come back the next year. It did! It only had one bloom, but it was awesome. It has had a few buds and blossoms each year.

This year, it started shooting up through the soil in early May. I checked on it every day, watching it grow almost before my eyes. It ended up having about 15 buds this year, but as of Wednesday night, none of them had opened at all. I saw all of the other peonies in town in full bloom as I took my daily walks and I was disappointed that it just wasn't my year for blooming.
Then as I came home Thursday night, after a long and stressful day, there they were....buds that were opening, revealing their inner beauty. It was such a miracle to me!

May 8th

May 11

May 27

June 6!!! love love love

God does such great work. Especially in my life. I am ever thankful for His mercies.