Job status

I am happy to report that I still have a job. Unfortunately for a lot of people, they lost their jobs on Friday. If you would like to read an article in a local newspaper, here is the link below:

http://www.sc-democrat.com/news/0003March/26/news.htm


Three administrators are being cut, 35 teachers (with an aditional 11 retiring) and 12 support staff as well as a school is closing. We lost 8 teachers in our building alone I think, about 20 elementary in the district. It has been very stressful for a lot of people at work and it is very sad knowing that great teachers are being lost, and the probability of them finding a job anywhere soon is slim. Next year will be a very interesting year since we will be getting students from another school, and losing students as well. I will keep you posted if anything changes. We still have a buget to pass and that may make even more things change.

A year ago

Isn't the above quote the truth? I just found that and I LOVE it!!!!

For some reason the other day I pulled out the book in which I had made this blog made into. The book went from September '08 until just a few days before Anna was born, so it was about the end of April '09. It was fun to look at. The majority of it was about my pregnancy and I realized a few things. One- I made a lot of grammatical errors so I apologize for that. Two- I am kinda anal. When I was reading over my 'To-Do' list before I had Anna and all the things I wanted to get done and had already done, I was almost annoyed at myself. But anyway, I came across this post which is almost exactly one year ago:

http://farmkids-julie.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-change.html

I decided I wanted to write my thoughts about teaching and the effect it has had on our family and I since I found out that I was getting back into it after being home for four and a half years.

As you have figured out by now by reading my blog or just knowing me for an extended amount of time, I am a planner. I have an idea of how I want my life to go on a larger scale as in years and years. And I also plan what I am going to have for dinner each night and what day I go to the grocery store. I like to be in control of these things and I feel that if I have a plan and make it happen, my life will be less stressful in the long run. Teaching is all about planning. Well, maybe it is for me anyway. People may say that cooking doesn't take any planning either but for me it obviously does. I have to know what I am teaching a week in advance or I feel completely frazzled. I think this is one reason why I like teaching though, I am in control of what I do in my classroom. I call the shots, I plan what we are doing, and it has a constant flow to it. One friend posted on facebook she is never bored when she goes to work, and if that ain't the truth! Teaching is most definitely not boring, and it has sort of a quick pace which I enjoy. Staying home with the kids DEFINITELY does not have a quick pace to it.

I think that as much as I would hate to admit it, I enjoy going to work more than staying home. I also truly believe that God is looking out for me, knows what I can handle and knows what is best for me. I think He knew that having Anna and staying home with all three kids would have put me over the edge. I think He gave me an out before I knew what I was in for. And I think that He knows that I really enjoyed my job and this was a perfect way for me to keep all my family members alive. :)

I do get stressed some days, and I do have bad days at work. I am tired sometimes and I welcome a snow day now and again. But I am genuinely happy at work. There is not another profession I would choose for myself. Sometimes I wish I did things a little differently in my classroom, or my lessons don't go as I had planned but I am striving to do better and I think I will.

My kids don't seem any worse for the wear. They still are here on the farm every day, out in the barn, doing their thing. Chip is home 2-3 days a week. Life is fine. I am a little sad that I can't take Van and Anna to The Little Gym like I did with Adam. And I do sometimes wonder if I 'missing' their baby years. But I work 180 days a year, I am here for half of it.

And with that said, a year after I make the choice of going back to work, I find out, there is a good possibility that I may not have a job next year. I don't know if you have been reading the local papers lately but Monticello Central School District (and I guess other schools in the state as well) are losing A LOT of aid. From the meetings I went to, I guess Monticello is being cut by 4.5 million dollars. We are being told that one of the elementary buildings may be closing. I would like to think that we will know this in about a month or so. Our principal and superintendent said that there will be 30 elementary teachers being cut possibly. Of course this goes by seniority, not buildings so even if another elementary building gets closed in our district, they will let go from the bottom There are about 130 elementary teachers in our district (if I read the seniority list correctly). Someone in our building said that is every fourth grade teacher in our building except for one! I am about 22 up from the bottom. Teachers in our district are in a panic not knowing if they will have a job next year or not. If I don't have a job, I sincerely believe that is God's will. Adam will be in school all day next year, I will be home with my other two kids. Maybe it would be His way of saying, 'Hey, you can handle it now. I'll take care of the rest.' I am not sure. I have a peace about it. I am not going to worry about it until I am really told one way or another. I went to one meeting where there were over 100 people. Residents are upset that a school may be closing and rightfully so. I don't know the answer. Our superintendent also has the reputation for getting everyone in a tizzy, and then miraculously making everything better. So we'll see. What will be will be. And I will be doing another post if anything drastically changes. :)

The incident

So after a long five days of snowstorms, we had a pretty relaxing Sunday. We went to church, I came home and cleaned the house. Van and Anna took their naps and I was pretty tired too because for some reason, Anna took to waking up at 5:30. I thought that was going to be her new wake up time but as soon as I went back to work, it resumed to the 6:15-6:30 routine. Anyway, all was going well, I had just cleaned the house and was looking forward to some down time, I took a little rest on the couch when Anna and Van did too. Then we lost power. Everyone had woken up at that point and I changed Anna's diaper. I went upstairs to call my mom since our phone wasn't working downstairs because we didn't have power. Van asked if he could put the powder away after I changed Anna and I said yes. I took Anna upstairs and called my mom.

Well, I get downstairs after the phone call and you can see above what had happened. Apparently, the powder didn't make it back to it's designated location. I was peeved to say the least. I couldn't vacuum it because we didn't have powder and even so, it wouldn't have been the best choice because fine dust like that shouldn't enter the vacuum. I opened up all the windows in the house because it was in the air, and I didn't want everybody breathing it. But then everybody got cold. I shouldn't have run the water but I did just a little because I had to wipe it up somehow. My now clean house was no more and since it was Sunday around 4ish and we didn't have electric, it wasn't getting really clean again any time soon. The boys were just absolutely covered. I had to wash Van's eyelids. I think they learned their lesson. They went to bed without stories that night and a half hour earlier than normal.