Welcome back summer...You've been missed.

Today begins another summer.  Well, technically, school ended last week with the last teacher workday on Friday but I decided to attend a great training this week with a colleague.  In fact, I ended up beginning some great relationships with other colleagues during our four day training stint.  I think that it was such a great group of people because only the most passionate and dedicated of our profession would give up 4 days of the first week of summer to go to any kind of training workshop.  We laughed, we learned, and we had a great time.  Here's to more great friendships and collaborations in the future!


So, now I am on to summer and the ever increasing to do list that has been piling up all year.  Each year for the last 2 years (since I started teaching full-time), I have utilized my summer to attack the never-ending to do list.  The first year went very well with quite a few things getting checked off.  Last summer, the list went out the window as soon as we decided to move and a whole NEW list arrived in it's place.  Now it is summer again and no moving is on the schedule and the to-do list has been growing. 

Since we moved to our new house after the school year began last August, there are many settling in things that were put on the back burner until now.  While this may seem like all work and no fun, I will feel so much more relaxed when some of these things are complete.  For example, deciding where to keep extra tissue boxes so that, when we run out, we will know where to get extras and when we need to buy more.  Right now, there is no designated place to store extra tissue boxes and so, when they run out in one area, I go buy more, only to find that I have 3 boxes in one cabinet and yet another 3 boxes in some other closet.  I think I may have 10 boxes of tissues stored in some random locations in my house, none of which I can remember or locate when I run out of tissues in the living room.  This may seem a little silly but it is an organizational step that has been put aside until now. 

There are also school work items on my list this summer.  There were several school items on the list last summer that never got done once we decided to move.  I spent the whole year regretting not having completed them since I spent much of the year being disorganized.  Again, it is perhaps not the best thing to spend my summer working at a job where I am not getting paid, but the exercise will improve my school year next year so that I can stop working every day from 7:30-5:30 and then some at home as well.  Next year my mantra is to work smarter, not harder. 

For those that think I will spend my whole summer working, never fear, there are some fun items on the list as well including lots of pool trips, ice cream, backyard play, and some time to sit on the couch and read.  Next week Katie starts going to daycare 3 times/week instead of full-time so that we can have some more time together.   Here's to an awesome summer!