2 weeks later...

Am I up ridiculously early for a Sunday, or did I just stay up too late?  I did sleep from roughly 10pm to nearly 4am, so that's not too bad.  I just managed to unsettle myself enough that going back to sleep now (or trying to) seems like a colosally stupid idea.

Spring break was productive, but I didn't do everything on my list.  I did see the doctor about my foot, and she gave me a cortisone shot and new insoles for my sneakers. I started doing more exercises for it, too. The foot is definitely improving and there are even some days now when I can walk around without even thinking about it.  It helps that I didn't over-do over break, so no, I didn't go to either the Ren Faire or the botanical garden.

What else didn't get done? I didn't do the closets, nor did we paint DS2's room.  Both will wait.  I did finish all my grading, only to nearly immediately get swamped again on the return to school. But I'm not behind, and if I manage today well, I can stay on top of it.

I started to type, "this is the most stressful time I've had in a while," but it seems to me I'm always in a stressful time.  I have a family and a house and a car and a job, so of course there will be stresses.  They've been coming thick and fast, lately.

A quick run-down: DH was recently diagnosed with an AVM in his neck and has further tests pending. Most of the time these are in the brain and can be quiet serious if they rupture, but his is apparently not in the brain.  We don't really know, and it's discomfiting.  We'll know more after the next test, but the ENT sent an order to the hospital for it that no one there understands, so it had to be rescheduled once already, and may have to be again. It doesn't help that one of his co-workers is off on a 2-week vacation in the middle of a rather intense period at work! 

It also doesn't help that the drain seal on the kids' bathtub failed, so instead of draining down the pipes, it drained into the floor/ceiling below, and subsequently into the first-floor guest room.  That happened on Thursday night about 10pm - fortunately I heard the sound of the water falling and we caught it pretty quickly. Even so, there is significant water damage Workers were here until 8pm Friday inspecting, setting up de-humidifiers and fans, and removing dry wall.  Plumbing and construction repair will be late this week if all works out.  We have no idea how much insurance is going to cover.  This is the fifth (possibly sixth? I can't remember!) major plumbing failure we've had in this house.  Quite frankly, we thought we'd caught them all.  DH is grumbling about moving.

Me? It's so helpful that the foot is better!  My eye twitch is holding steady but no more visual migraines -- and I'm annoyed I forgot to mention them to my doctor last Tuesday.  I'm switching my thyroid cancer scan to a much closer hospital, so most of my appointment was about discussing that, and in the fuss, I forgot to mention it.  I managed to come down with a cold just as my break was ending, but I used Zicam nasal spray religiously and it really did cut down on how long I had to deal with it.  Just as that nonense resolved I noticed this odd tugging sensation in my right breast.  At first I thought, "scar tissue," but my lumpectomy was in my left breast, so that doesn't work. Since it has persisted for about a week now, I'm seeing my doctor about it on Monday after school. 

What else... had the parent meeting for my 7th grade field trip last Wednesday, and managed to pull everything together.  I have been slightly panicked that we will have too many people to fit, but that knot is untangling itself between students who are not eligible because of behavior and students who are not eligible because of academics. I do need to get back to the parents and let them know how many can come as chaperones, though. I can't believe how quickly time is going by!

In other school news, the plan to offer electives for next year has been hammered out and does not (thankfully) involve the core teachers doing anything other than monitoring a 45-minute study hall one day a week.  Yay!  I'm also thrilled to be starting astronomy with my 7th graders and biology with my 8th graders this week.  I adore my chemistry curriculum but it involves a lot of time in the lab, and so therefore a lot of running between the classroom and the lab, and setting up before and then cleaning up after.  Last week about killed me because all that was going on and my students were leading morning prayers so I didn't have as much of my usual time before school to get everything done.

Not enough time to get everything done... that's the theme of my life.  Over break, I took the Odyssey in because there was a weird burning smell after driving it sometimes.  Of course we were just over 30,000 miles and so it needed, seriously, $2100 worth of maintenance, including new tires.  Cars are expensive even if they're not broken!  The burning smell was caused by a loose gasket and was a tiny part of the overall bill, but now I have new transmission fluid and everything else.  One thing I couldn't get done over break was get the windshield repaired, that had to wait until last Thursday afternoon.  It was just bad luck that a rock pinged it hard enough to make a crack about 18 inches long.  I delayed calling a few days and then was shocked when I finally did call, how long I would have to wait for the repair.  Everyone is so busy!

All that business with the van happened because I knew I'd be making 2 round-trips to Flagstaff within the span of a week.  DD's spring break here with her cat was only moderately frustrating. I tease her that she is a bad roommate because she leaves her stuff all over the house.  I notice she does not do that in her own apartment.  It's so much smaller, she has no reason to do that!  When I picked her up, I drove up on Thursday and we came back together on Friday, but yesterday I just made the round-trip, which explains the weird sleeping schedule.  She worries us a lot, but she assures us that she's doing fine and we shouldn't worry.  If only! 

At least it should be easier for me to stay on top of my work now that she is not here, but the noise of the fans is really annoying! The house is topsy-turvy, with the kids' bathroom upstairs and the guestroom downstairs taped off and with noisy equipment in them.  90% of the stuff from the guest room is out in the living room now, and there's paper taped over the hallways to trap the workers' dust, etc.  It's nerve-wracking being here. Spending all day on the road got me out of here yesterday but I have too much to do to escape again today!

So, off I go to execute today's plan: shopping, grading papers, attending the matinee of my students' play, cooking a nice dinner, and driving DS1 back up to ASU for what is almost surely the second-to-last time.  He's graduating in just 6 weeks!

published!

Before I forget, the article based on my master's thesis has been published in this month's Science Scope, the NSTA journal for middle school science teachers: The Science Project Portfolio

This involved so much work.  It's kind of surreal that it's actually out there for other people to read. 

Also, in the nearly 2 years since it was written, I have revised so many of the supporting documents, including creating an entire Google Classroom implementation which is so much (again) better.  I wish I'd had time to update the original, but they didn't ask me, and I didn't have the time, anyway.  I received the proof copy for edits during my science fair week.

I'm on spring break now, and seriously thinking about writing down the things I intend to do this week, so they get done.  I already harvested the lemon tree.  Isn't that enough? No, I still have a huge stack of papers to grade.  What else?

Renew my teaching certificate (it expires in May). 
See my foot doctor about the return of the neuroma in my right foot?  It is getting better...
See not-sure-which doctor about the recurrent eye twitches and visual migraine & headache  (3/7) to see if they have anything to do with my pituitary adenoma (or just wait until my endo appointment later this month...)?
Clean my make up brushes. 
Dust (including the fake plants) & vaccuum.
Purge closets.
Drop off donations from purging closets.
Check supplies for upcoming labs and order materials as necessary. 
Figure out the maximum number of chaperones I'll allow on the upcoming field trip.
Get together with my 2 friends I never see because we have completely incompatible work schedules.
Sleep! 
Pick up DS2 from the airport when he returns from Washington, DC.
Help DS2 paint his room.
Retrieve DD from Flagstaff for her spring break, the week after mine.
Go to the Ren Faire (if the neuroma is better)
Go to the DBG (if the neuroma is better)
Bake
Read a book?

It seems like a long list but I'm not going back to school for eleven days! I can do this.

rollercoaster...

The weather is back to its expected, usual beautiful: mid 70s during the day, pleasantly brisk overnight. No complaints there.

School is extremely busy.  Every week it's something: first it was science fair, then end of trimester and parent-teacher conferences, and now it's chemistry.  I love this curriculum, but I'm in the lab with my 8th graders every day and it's just a lot of running back forth, setting up and putting away, making sure I've got all the supplies, washing dishes... it's just a lot. 

All that running around is time I would use for grading, so of course I'm behind again, even though I caught up over the weekend for this week's round of failure notices. *sigh*

But next week is spring break!  I can surely make it through the rest of this week!

[It would be easier if my heart ache would settle down.  Some days I think everything is going to be all right, other days, not so much.  I read this quote once, and haven't been able to attribute it, but it's so true: being a mother is becoming accustomed to having your heart walk around outside of your body... and that's why it hurts so much. God willing it will all come right in the end.]