...With Two Cats in the Yard: It never rains but it snowstorms

It has been an interesting two weeks.

Last Monday, December 5, I had just composed an email explaining to Anne & Melissa that I now accepted that I would be unemployed through the holidays, and was trying to stop worrying and just enjoy the positives of unemployment (such as the ability to knit and watch a Christmas movie in the middle of the day). And then my phone rang. I was basically offered a substitute teaching job on the spot, at the school where I'd interviewed to teach middle school English. It's a charter arts and sciences school, K-8, and the next day I completed my paperwork. I've had three sub gigs since.

The first day was significant; I won't forget it in a hurry. I spent Wednesday waiting to be contacted about the training I was told I'd have to complete. At 8:30 that night, just as I was getting out of choir practice, I got a text: could I sub tomorrow?

I hadn't been expecting to start actually subbing until after Christmas. But this job is going to allow me some important practice in Rolling With It, which is an area of weakness for me. My babysitter has risen to the occasion admirably. Thursday morning, my first day of subbing, we had a snow squall. Conditions on the road were genuinely awful. The 10 minute drive to get to my babysitter's took 25 minutes. I was late. I nearly crashed into a truck. Getting onto the expressway, shaking with adrenaline, my nerves received another shock as I saw that south of route 50 there. was. no. snow. Not a flake. I felt like a lunatic when I arrived at school 15 minutes late for my first day because of "the snowstorm" when the school and the surrounding area had nothing on the ground or in the air. But they were very understanding, and the principal minded the class for 15 minutes while we got me situated.

I have this recurring dream about teaching. In the dream, it's the first day of school and I haven't planned anything, and I have no rosters. It begins as an anxiety dream. But always in this dream I improvise a lesson and enjoy interacting with the students, and by the end I wake up happy, looking forward to planning new lessons and doing it better the next day. This first day of subbing, after having been out of the classroom for 6 and a half years, was like that. My eyes swam trying to read that first sub plan with the students already in front of me, my head lifted off my shoulders trying to find a roster for them, but once I started actually talking to them and going over their morning warm-up? I was completely comfortable. Like Harry Potter on his firebolt. The dragon ain't no thang.

I have been a 7-8th grade science teacher, a 4th grade teacher, and a Spanish teacher and I have loved it each day! Though I do get home rather more exhausted then I did at my last job, I will say. But it's been great to get back in the game and I look forward to a more permanent position for next year I hope I get better about blogging but... honestly... it ain't looking good.

Oh, and the children's nativity pageant, which I am directing, is this weekend! So is Lessons and Carols (big choir event)! Miles' dance recital is tonight! Meanwhile we're trying to get packages in the mail to All & Sundry! I'm crafting like mad! This week is rough. And then all activity will come to a sudden stop on Monday. No more work; county schools are off. No more holiday Events. It neither rains nor pours here, but it either does nothing or it hails.

Anyway, here are some catch-up photos of how things have been in our home, December, 2016.