I've always slept long and hard - as a uni student I was often in bed by nine. And I don't toss and turn. The position I go to sleep in is nearly always the same one I wake up in. It means I have uneven wrinkles, as the right side of my face gets a lot more smooshing into the pillow than the left.
But this year and for the end of the last year I seem to be getting to bed well after 10. I am waking at six, and feeling fine generally. If I do try to get an early night I just lie in bed till elevenish.
Yesterday Al asked if it was stress, and I don't think it is. It might be, but I tend to keep my stress underground and don't do my worrying on the top layers of my brain. So I can be quite tense and stressed without noticing. Eventually the penny drops. So perhaps the job and the semi solo mothering and Nigel's suicide are stressing me. Last time I got overstressed I got very thin, which was a clue for the clueless. The scales and the waistbands of my clothes reckon I'm suitably relaxed.
Dunno. I'm enjoying the extra hours at night to do mucking around and explore the internet, tidying the house and running. The only thing is that R is going to bed so much earlier than me that we are not getting those rondevous that married couples ought to have regularly. Good luck with your day - I'm picking mine to be very long and exhausting.
Today this morning I thought I would go totally crazy with the huge number of house flies. They are hungry little buggers too, who have been invading my cups of tea all week and this morning were attempting to drown in weet-bix and porridge. So the first port of call and vital trip out of the house was to purchase a refill for the rabocan and get some more death in the house. And tonight, you can feel the difference as we have lost the Sydney wave. Or wherever it is that they wave at the never ending flies...
H went with dad to get a haircut. Haircuts for the two year old set are often about speed. Its not style that counts, and the evenness and skill of the hairdresser are totally irrelevant. The only thing is the ability to trim all of the hairs on the head of the child before they leave. Or start screaming or what ever that particular child does when they have had enough of what is happening to them.
While they did that I bought U2 18 Singles, DVD. C thought it was totally disgusting that I had not bought a movie, but then this is the first music DVD I have bought so he didn't know what it was about. We played a few songs at lunch; he was in love. By the time we saw the rest tonight he is dressing up so he can look like the band and sing along. All is good.
We spend the afternoon at the Big Digger Day. They had articulated trucks to ride in - that was really fun doing four wheel driving and gratuitous sliding around a track in a 31 tonne truck. Air conditioned too.
And we also got to drive a digger. That was definitely cool, and surprisingly simple to do digging with. more complicated tasks would take a great deal more practice, but scooping sand and putting it next to the hole I had dug - achievable.
While out this morning we bought a new and fancy compost thingy www.earthmaker.co.nz . I was really very keen to put something into this new toy, so we ended up pulling out a whole lot of weeds and emptying our two old compost bins tonight to tidy up the area behind the dog kennel. Five rubbish sacks of weeds is a good haul. I've always fancied one of these composters because there is so much less digging involved. Here's hoping I produce better compost - mine has never had enough air in it.
Today just seemed like a discipline chaos. One kid suspended, three on internal suspensions for trashing a bike, things being stolen out of lockers. I lost nearly both free periods covering for other deans, and then I had a science fair afternoon, and I'm not sure how successful that was! It seemed a bit messy too...
I went running last night - I had to go early because R was going out. I went before tea and I usually go around 8.30 when the kids are in bed and any necessary housework has been sorted. Man, I ran like an old woman last night. One of my legs felt stiff, and the rest of me felt without life. So when a friend stopped me to talk, I stopped. I only went about half the usual distance. But I want to cut three minutes of my time for my usual track, so I need to find out how to do that. There's a book in the library.
Ash Wednesday today and I didn't get ashes even though I teach at a Catholic school because I have to teach intermediate kids during assembly time.
Was talking to another teacher today who is known as a die-hard supported of the school and he is getting really disheartened by the disorder, and the poor caliber of the students. Interesting to know who is feeling that way.
It is so hot, and my eyes don't feel normal. They feel hot and dry, so I have applied lubricating drops to them. They are starting to feel better.
We had a couple of guys come tonight and try to sell us one of those home ventilation systems that suck hot air out of the roof cavity and push it into the house. It is supposed to make the house warmer and less moldy (not that this place gets much mold) and drier. It would be nice but we are trying to reduce debt this year. It is not a very exciting aim, and we don't have anything to show for it like a new computer or couch, but it will be a good thing.
There was a rather cool couch for sale at Freedom Furniture in the weekend for half price. Did I mention how hard it is to stay focussed on debt reduction?
So we had Mass today, and I was playing the keyboard. Looks like there is a lot of playing that could be done. Lots of people commented on how the music was pretty lame. Not the musicians, you should note, but the music that was chosen. So there may be some changes. That would be great if we were playing some stuff that the kids would actually sing. Some of the stuff we have for Mass, not just at school, would sound great sung by people that have rehearsed, and who have some musical talent and/or training. Like a choir. But most of the population doesn't rehearse, nor do they have training or talent. So the music sounds lame.
It will be really interesting to see how it goes with this new chaplin. He has a heap of enthusiasm, and experience. And he doesn't let the present reality change or neuter the reality that is possible in the future.
I'm going to be watching the chaplin and RE space at this here Catholic school very closely.
I had my first deans job last night and had to ring a parent which I did straight after school. I find it quite hard to ring people I know, so ringing people I don't know I find really scarey. Technique that works for me is to follow the nike mantra, and just do it. Putting things that scare me off just gives me more time to get more scared.
So I had this long phone call where this parent explained all her difficulties with various government agencies and the school, and by the time I got to the end of it I completely forgot that I had a pastoral meeting after school to go to. The first pastoral meeting I nearly missed because I locked the keys in the car, and now I missed the second one altogether. I seriously need to get my shit together! I figure on missing or stuffing up one more thing before I get in the swing of things.
I imagine other teachers turning up to school with proper plans, and lessons prepared and generally organized. I turn up. Thats about it! And I have some good classes and some familiar classes and some not so flash collections of miscreants. So it seems the year will be a lot of a crap shoot. As usual. I have lots to do with R away in Waiouru, and a unit to prepare and also to make the lunches.
So that's it.
I didn't go running last night until quite late, about 8.30 but that was really good because it was still light and a bit cooler than the rest of the day. But I have decided that it is really important to have my asthma medicine before I run. Last night I was a smooth and fairly quick for me machine. Without drugs I struggle a bit.
The kids are back at school now, which is good. The place feels more cheerful!
At the end of the Incredibles, another baddie turns up - a mole, called the Underminer, who says "I am beneath you, but nothing is beneath me!" or something very similar. Its one of my favorite movie lines, but I don't think I can really explain why except for the obvious cleverness of it. Today we had a professional development day and at the end we had to pick one word that described what we had got out of the day. My word in truth was disruptive and it reminds me of the Underminer. I had another nice word which had some truth to trot out if I got picked on...
It was good to see the staff again, and we got some really good results from NCEA compared to previous years. Some very disappointing news that our Deputy Head Boy is changing schools - I was looking forward to teaching him this year.
One of our neighbor's mother has died, so I am off to do some baking for them. They belong to a large family and a very enthusiastic church community and something to hand out with cups of tea might be handy.
So here I am at home again, on my own due to the kids being in care. I have a couple of tests to decorate with clip art, and I should write another one.
Fridays are a favorite day of mine, because the rubbish truck comes and takes away the trash. This week I had two full bags of garden rubbish as well as the household crap. I would like to compost the garden rubbish but there are too many perennial weeds in the garden. Composting oxalis is a recipe for disaster, as it means you actually help the plant spread. And I also have couch . So I would have to do a lot of sorting of my weeds to compost them, and put the worst in the bin and the others on the pile. Call me lazy, cos its true, but I just send the lot off to the tip. Its a warm and wet summer so the weeds are going totally ballistic and there are always more to pull out. I like weeding, and the garden isn't a bad place for hiding from the kids too. Some wind reduction would be nice though...
Better get on with my tests...