Turning Point

I'm in the final day of a month-long break between school years, which means my 30-day stint as a full-time stay at home mom is coming to an end. It's been a fun month: we went to the aquarium, the beach, and the movies; we spent lots of time at grandparents' houses; we had barbeques and watched fireworks; the girls played in the water and with cousins and friends; and Bear and I even got a few dates in. Woohoo!

For whatever reason, I've also continued my transformation into Monica from "Friends" and gone on an organization binge, which means it's been a productive month, too: I've organized the pantry, the playroom, and the garage; cleaned and vacuumed out both cars (there's such a simple joy found in driving a car that's not full of fruit snacks, cracker crumbs, and dog hair for once!); finally dropped off our clothes and cans to be donated and recycled; cleaned out kitchen cabinets; put outgrown baby clothes into those vacuum-seal Space Bags; and become obsessed enough with said Space Bags ("I could use them for this! And THESE! When I get more, I'm going to Space Bag all of THAT!") that Bear may need to have an intervention soon. My dry-erase board's to-do list, which might as well have been engraved in stone for all the erasing/accomplishing I'd done on it in the past several months, has been wiped almost completely clean.

Plus, to Bittle's shock and delight, I finally set aside the Dodgers games and "Friends" reruns long enough to dive into two of the many things she's been campaigning for me to watch:


As expected, I totally love it and cannot wait to watch the second half of Season One (hurry up, reruns!).



Who knew high school debates had turned into a speed-reading contest? Or that a documentary about them could be so fascinating?

In a word, ta-da! Now THAT is what I call a vacation well spent.

Tomorrow starts a new school year--my third year job-sharing in kindergarten, and my first year teaching kindergarten without my friend Elizabeth. I had always taught upper grades before this, and was clueless about what goes on in a classroom filled with 5-year-olds, so I started out literally copying everything she did and said in our shared classroom. After watching her, and reflecting together about teaching, parenting, and everything else under the sun, I've learned more from her than in all the combined years of education I've paid (er, am still paying) for.

This year, she's been moved to second grade, and I feel a little like a baby bird being set free for the first time. I've slooooooowly become more confident and started taking more initiative in the classroom, but I guess this year is all about seeing whether I'll be able to take what I've learned from her and fly solo...or whether there'll be a resounding THUD when I hit the ground! I feel nervous about it, but excited, too, at what this new year will bring.

Staying home for the past month has been awesome, but getting back into my other favorite place--the classroom--and resuming the perfect balance that jobsharing allows is going to feel good, too.

Here we go....