Spring Break Week!

Gotta love teaching....during spring break!  This week is spring break in Oklahoma. I'm so glad.  It worked out wonderfully that this was also spring forward week, I don't do so well losing an hour of sleep.  It seems to take me two weeks to recover!  I never have this problem with the fall back part of the cycle.  My body happily accepts gaining an hour but I really have a hard time springing forward.

Of course, the first part of spring break has been cold and rainy.  Oh well, I needed a chance to recover from my garden overload over the weekend!  My daughter and I cleaned out all the flower beds, remulched and raked leaves.  Most of my plants seemed to have made it through the long, cold, cold, snowy winter we had.  I don't know about blooms yet but I'll give up those if they will just live!

Gardening with someone else makes it much more fun and easier.  You can work as a team, I raked, she blowed with the leaf blower.  I picked up leaves, sticks, etc, she wheeled the wheel-barrow down to the compost pile.  We laughed and took drink breaks, something I never do when I'm working alone.  I am still a little sore but nothing like when I work by myself.  I also hope I'm giving her my love of gardening and some basic knowledge of plants.  She isn't so excited about it now.....maybe when she buys her first place, some of that knowledge will come in handy.

Vegetable gardening is starting for me in earnest this week also.  By the end of the week, it's supposed to be back in the seventy's so I'm starting my lettuce, spinach and potatoes.  I'm planning to put up my wall-o-waters so maybe I'll get my tomatoes in next week.

Since it's still Oklahoma, I'm waiting patiently for that last snowfall we always seem to get sometime in late March or early April.  I can stand it, spring is really starting to take hold so winter has to be on it's way out!  It's time to put away the snow shovel and get out the garden tools!

So I won't be spending my spring break out on a beach somewhere, I'll just spend it on my little Ponderosa readying it for spring.  We're so close to finishing the new building project that I'm getting antsy anyway and next friday night is the big '13' slumber party, we've still got to get everything ready to go.  I just don't have time to lay on a beach!

Glorious Spring Break!

Today is the last day before spring break. My son and I are taking a half day off of school because he needs to pack for his mission trip tomorrow. He has finished his finals for homeschool and is looking forward to some time away from mom, dad and sister to hang with the big kids. I wonder how many texts and phone calls I get this next week!

I have often wondered if students realize just how excited that teachers get over the prospect of spring break week! Most teachers I know don't jump on a plane or get in a car and head out of town, most can't afford to! Teachers don't get paid enough to do that! Most teachers look forward to no lesson plans, no spring fevered students, getting to sleep in and getting to the house cleaning that has been put off since Christmas!

The majority of Americans do not realize just how hectic teaching really is on teachers. I used to say the school year is like running the mile in track. By the last lap, you are so tired but know you have to keep running. Your room is completely dismantled, looking nothing like that happy, clean and ordered classroom of August. Your getting ready to test the students using a test you didn't create. You can see the finish line of May but you have to get through one more nine weeks!

I have a friend who used to listen to me gripe about teaching problems. I could tell she didn't really get it but I needed to gripe anyway. Several years ago, she went back to school and got her teaching degree. Her first day in the classroom, she called me in tears saying, 'how do you do it day after day?' She apoligized to me after her first year because she never really got what I was saying until she did it. She's well on her way to being a great teacher but that first year she wasn't sure she would make it out alive!

I think one reason most teachers feel this way is because they care so much about our children and their futures. I still get emails, texts, letters, phone calls, facebook friends and such from former students. I still care about them and their futures. I will always care about them. I think that is why teachers get so tired, we care so much for so many that sometimes we just need a break. A break to re-energize ourselves, to find ourselves, to be taught instead of teaching and let our caring so much have a break.

Spring break, I think it may be more so the teachers can finish that last lap, just don't tell the students!