#7DaysOutEdu – Day 2

Day 2…we all came back.

Unveiled a commitment to build a culture of reading, witnessed my Superintendent scooter it up,  visited by one heck of a guy, laughed together with our new principal. (dang I list lots of things).

But one thing happened that keeps knocking on my brain.

During the start of our as our keynote speaker shared his story out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone who had been missing from our community for a bit and is going through somethings. This person stood there in the doorway and watched from afar. Thinking nothing of it until I witnessed 8 folks stand up to greet him. One after the other they hugged him. And these were the types of hugs that talked…

I felt like I shouldn’t be watching as if I was intruding on an intimacy of which I was not a part but I couldn’t stop.

Big moments are needed and planned and celebrated but those small moments like that which will always change how I see the world.

#7DaysOutEdu – Day 3

Day 3…I spoke to one teacher friend…she told me she was in denial. I’m not anymore as calculate what time I have to wake up in the morning to get everything I need to get done…done.

Alarm: 5:00 AM
Shower: 5:05 AM (who am I kidding) 5:15
Quick Dog Walk: 5:45
Put on Clothes that Button: 6:15
In Car: 6:30

I’ll let you know how that all works out.

Today was all about family, we celebrated my dad’s 70th and my niece’s 6th birthdays. It was also the official end of Summer Break.

But more than anything today I started to prep myself for my daughter heading off to college. Granted she is not moving across the country just across the City. The change is more about her growing into the most incredible adult. I never knew that my husband and I could create something so beautiful, so smart, so opinionated (ok..I had that one coming), all rolled up into my Lily.

If she knew I was writing this and then putting this on Twitter and crying as I wrote it…you might hear the world shake…but it is my day 3.

All of us will have parts of us that we bring to the first day of school that play hide and seek as we say “Welcome Back.”

#7DaysOutEdu – Day 4

Well…I knew it had to come…this….

Making sure I washed and folded every T-shirt, stripped every bed, and found the match to any rogue sock. Bound & determined to make some vain attempt to “get ahead” as I head back on Monday.

For me, it has always been a battle of living up to the expectations I put on myself or the expectations of the routines and structures of my childhood. Whatever it is…my mom duties and my work always conflict. I do believe I am a better mom for having worked but that doesn’t lessen the burden of feeling bad if I have a laundry room like that or dishes overnight in the sink.

I have gotten better…much better…it used to be worse until my husband once said to me “I am not living in a museum” when I would ask him to take his shoes off…yeah…that request ended 19 years ago.

The pressure is still there to get it all done…before school starts again.

#7DaysOutEdu – Day 5

Day 5. Saying goodbye to some of my summer routines.

Dog walks first thing in the morning. Shopping for dinner the morning of and prepping with the most delicious fresh fruits & vegetables. Napping. Yoga pants.

I’ll miss it but I am grateful for the joy it brings me. Time to readjust the routines to match the school year.

Watch out, school year. I am comin’ fer ya.

#7DaysOutEdu – Day 6

Day 6…always has a certain buzz.

It would be my last day in the building before the chaos of when everyone ascends on OQMS. Along with joining the new SD113A Cohort of 19-20 (now known as the Energizers…a very fitting name based on their excitement these past 3 days), I got to peek into lots of classrooms.

Teachers work so differently as they design their learning environments. Some folks work silently and alone envisioning their day to day, others bring in a brigade of students who swoop down and bust a move like a well-oiled machine, others do it all in one day, others do little bits for weeks. Regardless of the style, they all transform empty spaces into backdrops for a year-long adventure for students they have yet to meet.

And after all that effort…we gather as folks who share stories of our families and our pets and our friends. And we eat. There is never a shortage of laughs when I gather with these peeps.

My work would be only a job if it were not for these people.