Random Thoughts

1. Stalling out on weight loss is no fun. I had really hoped to be under 190 lbs by the end of the school year in 6 weeks, but I most definitely have not been losing a lb a week, which is about what I'd have to do in order to achieve that goal. I've been stalled out in about the same place for several weeks now. I need something to kick the weight loss back into gear. Really need to review what I've been eating and make adjustments. What seems to work best is eggs and bacon or sausage for dinner...weird, right?

2. Today was kind of a wasted day, on several levels. 3-year-old has a bad cold and was pretty woeful this morning, so I decided to stay home. I haven't managed to accomplish much of anything today. That isn't to say that I haven't gotten anything at all done; I did drop off the rental skis we had for the boys, bought some birthday presents for my hubby's birthday tomorrow, and ordered a birth certificate for the 5-year-old who needs to be registered for kindergarten. But there's a ton more I could have done, and instead I've mostly sat on my butt. It was also a wasted day for my students; thanks to the last-minute absence and some kind of snafu on the side of the program that arranges our substitutes, I didn't get a sub for today, which means that my classes spent their time sitting in the commons at school, probably doing nothing. They could have been reading their books, I suppose, but I doubt it. They were supposed to be working on their rough drafts, but since I wasn't there, that didn't happen either. Bummer. It means we are behind schedule. That's nothing new, but the pressure is on because we are so close to the end of the school year. With the sophomores it isn't that big a deal; they have an extra week of school, and I have a little extra time to play with as far as planning is concerned. But the seniors are under the gun. They have to finish this paper, finish a novel and take a test over it, and a presentation to prepare and give, and only five more weeks to do it. Whew!

3. Some progress has been made on the potty training front, although today hasn't been great. The 3-year-old has finally started saying "I need to potty", but he doesn't just go back there on his own, and he still often needs prompting, cajoling, or downright forcing to do his business. He's pooping in the potty now as well as peeing, which is great, but he's had a few times that he hasn't caught himself in time. He still wears a diaper at night; I really hope we'll get past that soon as well. But today, for some reason, he wanted to wear a diaper (I put him in a pull-up, hoping that he'd associate it with underpants, but he's peed in it several times today). I keep trying to convince him that he has to use the potty in order to go to school in the fall, but he doesn't seem super excited about it. Oh well.

4. I'm really excited and honored by an invitation I received. Last summer I attended a scoring conference for the National Writing Project's College-Ready Writer Program in Chicago. There were seven of us from Montana who went, and we had a great time. When I received another invitation for this year's conference, I applied and was accepted. There are only three of us going this time; some of the others didn't apply and others weren't accepted. It will be in Chicago again, and I'm excited to go back. Now that we have some idea of what's available to us in the city as far as activities and sight-seeing, we'll be a little more prepared. But then, I received ANOTHER invitation to a different conference. This is the same program, NWP's CRWP, but it's a hybrid conference, meaning participants are in a variety of locations, and I was invited to a be a table leader. That means I will be in charge of a group of scoring teachers. The location I will be in is St. Joseph, MO, just north of Kansas City. Not sure what other locations are involved in the event, but I know the leaders of the conference will be in Berkeley. I was the only one of the group I went with to last year's conference to receive this invitation. I'm assuming it has something to do with my scoring ability from last year's conference; I'm guessing invited people had to have some level of reliability and consistency to get selected. Whatever it is, I'm really excited about the opportunity. There's some training involved, and unfortunately it also means I'm going to be out of town on the last weekend of my summer vacation, which also happens to be my 17th anniversary. That's a bit of a downer. But between the two conferences, I'll make $1500 this summer, when I usually would be without an income. Not too shabby.

5. I need to start getting a list together of the things I'd like to accomplish this summer. Some of them are fitness-related, like continuing the weight loss (I'd love to be under 180 lbs by the time school starts up again) and paddling a couple times a week (even if it's just on the nearby lake); some of them are school-related, like organizing all my teaching units, constructing some new assignments for some of our texts, and getting my classroom library under control; and some of them are home-related, like getting the boys' bedrooms and bathroom redone in some fashion, getting all our closets reorganized, and reorganizing the kitchen cabinets. I want to get some kind of schedule together where I tackle one project each week. I also want to get my Magic cards sorted and put away; that's going to be a beastly task. :)

6. Today is the anniversary of my mother's death. I can't believe it has been 9 years. In some ways, it seems like it's been much longer than that, and yet at the same time it seems like hardly any time has passed. Daily I find myself wishing that I could talk to Mom about some problem, run some idea past her, or ask her some question about something going on in my life. It really doesn't ever get easier, does it?