Strange combination of terms there - busy and relaxed - but it's how things are going right now.
We finally got the house into a condition in which it could be appraised. Ok, we hid three garbage bags of laundry in the garage and one full of clean socks in Andrew's room, but hey; it looked good.
There are still some decidedly iffy areas due to the fact that two of the remaining three children in residence are changing bedrooms. Raymond's is almost done and looks great. I give it a week. We stacked all our extra stuff in Andrew's new room, so he can't do much until that's gone and Raymond moves the rest of his junk out. I have a distinct feeling that there is at least as much left in his closet and under his bed as he has downstairs in his new room.
Michael is staying in the room he's shared with Andrew. Michael claims that it will be much neater when he is alone in there because he likes everything just so. Huh? When did that start??
Andrew and Michael have these massive oak dresser/desk/loft bed monstrosities that are space efficient - a good 6.5 feet high - but also about 4 feet wide. To have them both in one bedroom makes it look like a bunker, but with four kids, two parents, and "only" four bedrooms, something had to give. Now they will each have their own room. Andrew and Michael will have to label the inside of their shirts so I know whose goes into which room. (Andrew is going through a "sometimes I forget my deodorant" stage, so Michael is understandably not interested in sharing shirts with him!) 12 years old = deodorant, I don't care how cute he thinks he is!
Leigh is settled into Julia's house (Craig's mom - baby's grandma) and baby will have his/her own room too. Our baby gift to Leigh was to purchase the crib. My idea - kind of a family tradition among the women on my side of the family. She found a piece she really liked and took us to see it. It was $250 for a crib/toddler bed/twin bed combo with an attached three drawer dresser. It was crap. I should've kept my mouth shut :-) but I steered her to the store my boys' cribs came from; actual wood and everything. Thrice the price for a crib and dresser, but well worth it. It wouldn't surprise me - if they were well cared-for - if mine are still in service somewhere. Last I knew they were in my old church's nursery.
I know I'm drifting here, but... I cannot believe that Raymond is going to be a junior in high school. He already has a class ring, and today I was pricing letter jackets. He's already earned two letters - band and choir - and will likely earn an academic one this year. It feels like about a week ago that his father and I were assembling his crib. 6lbs 8oz of baby blue bundle is now 5'5", 165 lbs of intelligent, articulate, compassionate, talented, handsome young man. It just boggles my mind.
Back to topic: so, now that the house nightmare is almost over - Jack and I still have to properly put away all the stuff we scooped into drawers and closets when we were running out of time - it's time to kick some butt on my online class.
The class is on educational technology. It's supposed to be a survey course, and there is no prerequisite, but the 8000 series course number should've been a tip-off. (4000 series are undergrad senior classes, 5000 series begin graduate work, etc.) There are nine modules to complete, each with approximately 6 activities. Of the nine modules, I am confident of four. We (mostly Jack) finished module 1 tonight. It was all techie stuff which I have no idea how any ordinary teacher of my age bracket would know. Aargh.
Because I'm planning to have scar revision surgery later this summer, and because the local university's teacher ed classes were full, I opted for this class. Online seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately, one of the areas in which I do well is classroom participation. I usually have good ideas and fairly insightful "takes" on things. I try hard not to be an ass, but it's against my nature. Plus, these classes are populated by
20-somethings who are taking their first grad classes so they can start to move across the pay schedule. I'm usually closer to the professor's age - hell, my mom was 33 when she got her Ed.D., and my dad was 36!
Anyway, a survey class this thing is not! I have to do a power point, use a database to merge contact lists, and a myriad of other things I haven't done. There are a couple of modules that are more common sense education-related topics that anyone with my years of experience shouldn't have any trouble with. I have 3 weeks and 5 days to complete 8 modules. Yikes. Oh, and if I don't finish, I can't just drop the class, I wouldn't be able to TEACH next year because I need these hours for recertification. Paychecks are good. Eating is good. Lights, heat, water, house, car - all good.
Somewhere over the past 20 years, I have lost my jazz musician internal clock and "gained" that of a teacher. The evil mainstream world has turned me from a happy night owl to a grumpy lark. (Almost typed 'lard.' Funny.) So, time for bed.
Hope all's well in your world!
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