The Home Stretch... 51 Days and Counting!

It's that time of year, the end of school.

As always, the end of the school year is a very busy time. Teachers are busy trying to squeeze in those last golden nuggets of curriculum while also assessing and evaluating how much their students learned this year. There are also all of those end of year special events that require planning and executing. When you pile onto that, your home duties and responsibilities, things can seem overwhelming at times and the stress metre for this time of year can be at the maximum in a normal situation.

For me, it is doubly so this year. For the first time, I am dealing with the end of year events without my own "home security system". Usually, at this time of year, I can call on family to take the kids for a sleepover or just for a few hours so I can work on reports or stay at school for other events that I need to attend. Here, as you can imagine, things are a little different.

I am deeply grateful to the friends we have made here and their support, but really it all still comes down to me. When things go wrong, when the unexpected happens, when there is drama, I am IT. I have to problem solve and deal with things as they happen to the best of my ability. Sometimes, when I am feeling strong, I call it character building and think that I am better for it. Other times, I just want to click my heels 3 times and say, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home ..."

So, here I sit on Sunday morning pondering the tidal wave of items to check off of my "To Do List"...

Yesterday was the Spring Fair at our school and I can "tick" that one off of my list. It was a terrific event that raises A LOT of money for the school. In fact, it is the key fundraiser for St. Joseph's. I worked the "Flea Market Stall" which is basically, a Yard Sale. While I did that, Jacob and Jack visited the different games, event and food stalls and had a great time. The Fair runs from 10am until 3pm and is very well attended and supported - even in 33 degree weather. It's a great social and community building event. Ask me about it when I get home as I think it has potential.

Today, I hope to plow through the mountain of marking and recording I have so that I can begin my 30 reports - at least for a while. The first report draft is due on November 14. It is going to be a HOT one today (34) so we may have to go to the Narrandera Pool for a while. Sam must also start preparing for his final exams which start on November 14.

This week, our staff is doing the second of 3 Professional Development evenings. In New South Wales, the teachers have the option of "working off" their last 2 school days, which are PD Days. You do this by participating in approved Professional Development on a weekend or evenings after school. By "working these days off" , school will finish for us on Friday, December 16 rather than Tuesday, December 20. This means keeping my boys occupied during these evenings. The first one we did was a Spirituality Evening that focussed on Prayer. It was kind of like a mini retreat but was very beneficial on a personal as well as professional level. This week's is about I.T. It should be interesting.

We also have the "End of Year Concert" (notice it is not called Christmas Concert) on December 8 (4 short weeks away!). I have decided to make it "easy" on myself, so my class will be performing "Christmas Star" - a song my class performed at my last PJPII concert. I love it, the kids love it (we have started practicing each day) and it has all the elements of a good performance - catholicity, actions, singing, costume AND a surprise at the end: MRS. MCKAY where are you when I need you??? The concert will be in the NOT air conditioned hall in 30+ degree temperatures so that will be something different. Hmmm... we may have to make costume adjustments.

We continue to have our twice weekly staff meetings at 8:20 Tuesday mornings and 3:30 until 5pm on Wednesday afternoons. The morning meeting is a "Nuts and Bolts" type meeting while the afternoon meetings are PD Related. The focus for us right now is Comprehension Strategies.

Then there are all the normal life happenings: basketball, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, yard/pool maintenance, settling arguments, negotiating with a teenager (did I say "Negotiating?").

For me, these are the "known entities" but each week there are the unknowns that pop up and I have to swerve and bob and make adjustments all around. Those are the times where I feel my head is going to pop off and probably enter the Earth's orbit.

The unknowns for me at this point are things like, is Dan going to make it back before we have to pack up and move? Then, the actual packing, cleaning and getting to Sydney and then to Canada. Lastly, it is saying goodbye to the many wonderful friends and students that we have come to love. That makes me well up with emotion when I think about it. As READY and excited as I am to return home to all of you - it will be a difficult goodbye to this community that has welcomed us and supported us, particularly since Dan returned home to work.

So, while working on reports, I may be remiss in posting here but I know that you, dear reader, will understand. Well, I'm off to begin ... see you very soon - I hope!

P.S. Congratulations to all of you! We have had nearly 8000 visits to our blog this year so far and from many places all over the world! How crazy would that be to hit 10,000? WOW! To see how many hits we have had, scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see a total there and you can track it as it counts to 10,000.