This Week in My Life . . .

Today’s post will be all sorts of randomness. Hang onto your hat.

First up . . .

After getting a three day weekend, and feeling fully rested, I promptly went to school on Tuesday and sent homework folders home WITHOUT our homework menus inside. This means that my kids got a friendly newsletter, a “graded” writing assignment, their Show and Tell rubric, AND THAT IS ALL.

In other words, it wasn’t until the FIFTH parent email asking if there was no homework this week that I realized the homework menus were copied, paper clipped, and resting neatly inside the drawer that I have labeled just so in my classroom decor colors which says FILE IN HW FOLDERS. All safe and sound IN THE DRAWER. Just sitting there.

I can honestly say that I have never done that ever before in my entire career and I believe I AM TOO OLD FOR THESE SHENANIGANS.

I got a couple of other emails from parents who were OVERJOYED that there was no homework. Those are my people.

I then wrote a group email in which I apologized profusely, made fun of myself, and offered some suggestions for homework such as READ WITH YOUR CHILD and maybe do SUDOKU so as to strengthen memory and brain activity.

That last one was for me.

Well. I just thought I should share that little story with you so that you know I am human. And an idiot. An idiotic human.

Next up . . .

I *finally* got a wireless doorbell for my classroom. TOOK ME LONG ENOUGH! You guys, it is AMAZING! I read Elizabeth’s post from the Kinderhearted Classroom and that was it. I HAD to get one!

The receiver has over 50 chimes. I found one I liked (by the way, there are Christmas tunes, too, and now I’m so excited to have this next year during the month of December), programmed it (easy!) and then plugged the receiver into the outlet in my ceiling next to my projector. I liked that it was centrally located AND that no one could accidentally (or on purpose) unplug it. I’m a thinker. Not necessarily a remember-er (see above) but definitely a thinker.

The first time I pressed the clicker, my kids were SO confused. They said who did that and what and wait and did you hear that? I totally did it to build excitement because you know . . . I set the stage to engage and all that all the time. It wasn’t like I hit the clicker on accident or anything.

I pretty much just copied Elizabeth’s way of introducing this new signal and we’ve been rocking and rolling ever since. I AM OBSESSED. It is an INSTANT attention getter. I am currently using one of these magnetic ten frame with counters as a classroom management tool. It was time to say goodbye to the music box because my class talked so much and so loudly no one could hear the darn thing anyway.

Well, we have to work AS A TEAM to earn five counters throughout the day in order to earn a starburst. If we earn ten, then the kids get to CHOOSE the color/flavor of their starburst. I’m telling you, it’s high stakes.

Using the wireless doorbell has INSTANTLY insured everyone is going to get a starburst. As soon as I click it, my kids freeze, turn to me, and wait for whatever I’m about to say. The peer pressure is crazy. The dirty looks that have been given because someone is still talking or walking or cutting or gluing could kill. Talk about TEACHER JOY! 😉

Speaking of wireless doorbells, Steve installed a Ring Doorbell at our house a few months ago. It is ALSO amazing, especially when you’re too short to see out the peephole.

Yes. I’m talking about myself and it has been a problem for the nineteen (almost twenty) years we’ve lived in this house. And it is the entire reason behind the whole you better call or text me before you come over because I don’t answer the door for fear it is the boogey man on the other side!!

And, this is a true story, but the first year we lived here, and I was all young and innocent and stupid, someone rang the doorbell the day after Halloween. And I answered it. Because I wasn’t old enough to have any fear inside of me about the boogey man.

Well, guess what? The day AFTER Halloween, two punk teenagers were standing on my doorstep in their SCREAM costumes with those long white scary droopy face masks and just about gave me a heart attack.

Then they ran off.

I am proud to say I didn’t make a sound, but I’ve learned over the years that I don’t scream out when I should, and that this could become a problem in the future. Shoulder shrug.

Needless to say, I love our Ring Doorbell.

Steve and I BOTH love our Ring Doorbell. When I get home in the afternoons, Steve will text me and say Welcome Home because Ring lets him know there was movement in front of our house. And when he looks to see who’s on our porch, it’s almost always me collecting all of my Amazon packages.

😉

Well.

The other day, Steve was working from home when Ring alerted him about activity in front of the house. When he looked on his phone, this strange guy was moving around on our driveway by Steve’s car. Steve said the guy was going back and forth, and looked super suspicious, and WAS UP TO NO GOOD.

So Steve ran downstairs as fast as lightning, and threw open the door in a rush of adrenaline, and was so ready to confront this guy (which you know I yelled at him for because it’s the number one thing the police say you should never do!) when he realized HE WAS LOOKING AT HIMSELF on his app.

THERE WAS A BIG OLE DELAY FOR SOME REASON, and he was getting the live footage thirty minutes late. It was no longer live or even close to being live. It was RECORDED.

Steve said he needs to call Ring and tell them what’s up because he almost kicked his own a$$.

I. DIED. LAUGHING.

🙂

Last of all . . .

I have been a teacher mom for part of the week!! Not really, but sort of. Our friends, Jason and Stacie, went to Cabo for Stacie’s 50th birthday. I’m not sure how I have a friend turning 50 but there you go, I am nothing if not inclusive, and love having older friends because they are even more forgetful than me. 😉

We are watching their son, Cole, who is basically our nephew, and who we have known his entire life. I’ve talked about their family countless times on here because we travel together, celebrate holidays together, etc.

So this kid, Cole, is twelve years old, in the sixth grade, and taller than me. All of that is to say he is GROWN. It’s not like we are taking care of a baby or a toddler. BUT. I’m just here to tell you that I’ve always said teacher moms are my heroes and I absolutely still think that.

I’ve had to get up earlier than normal and make him breakfast (just toast or a bagel, but still), and pack his snacks (he does it mostly, but I make sure he does it), get him up in the morning, sign his planner, make sure he brushes his teeth . . . you know, the usual stuff that one does when they have a human being other than themselves to care for.

By the way, fun fact: twelve year old boys are NEVER IN A HURRY ABOUT ANYTHING.

Steve has done all the heavy lifting stuff, meaning he has been working from home so that he can take him to school and pick him up. Cole’s school and my school are on two different schedules so I couldn’t help in that area without taking time off. Steve has also cooked delicious meals for dinner every night.

Stacie wrote down some basic instructions and the first one was lights out at 9:30 on school nights.

Er, staying up until then to tell Cole that it’s time for bed just about killed me.

I was SO TIRED.

And then, the next night, Steve and I were both struggling around 8:30 to stay awake on the couch. Why are short weeks so exhausting?

Around 9:00, we heard something upstairs. That’s where Cole spends a lot of his time playing video games and watching You Tube which Kerry has assured me is a totally normal thing for kids his age to be doing.

As Steve and I struggled to stay awake, COLE GOT ON THE TREADMILL.

At 9:00 at night.

PM.

When we headed up there to say something along the lines of what in the world are you doing, this is not normal, why aren’t you tired, Cole was just running away, the treadmill was set to an incline of 10.0 (I didn’t even know that was possible, it looked like a slide at that point), and he was as happy as could be. Oh, and he was running in his socks. No sneakers.

Did I mention it was 9:00 AT NIGHT?

I mean.

WHAT IN THE WORLD?!

Anyways . . . there you go. That was my week in a nutshell.

How was yours???