Mom and Dad left about 10:00 this morning to head home. They should get in earlier then they arrived because as far as I know they don't have any stops to make on the way home. Hopefully the roads won't be too bad - we've had rain mixed with snow and possibly some sleet again this morning. By noon yesterday we had close to an inch of slushy sleet/snow on the deck. Son1's track meet was cancelled due to the weather. I rejoiced as I wasn't looking forward to standing out in the weather to watch it. No matter how many blankets, etc we packed we wouldn't have been able to stay warm and dry. However I know Son1 was very disappointed.
My tulips are still trying to survive - they bravely lift their heads up in the afternoon after a very cold morning. It's impressive to watch - how often do I not want to lift my head and continue on after a trial?
We have 5 surviving baby kittens - 3 were born Easter Sunday, the other 2 on Tuesday. All are well hidden - though I had to help one of the mama's protect hers from the cold and wet yesterday. (We lost one of hers due to the cold) Eventually I'll get pictures of them and maybe even figure out how to post them. Speaking of pictures - I haven't heard anything back yet on the ones I sent in for my course - am hoping that will be soon. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a chance to work on the next lessons. I'm too exhausted today (mainly due to emotions).
Just made a fresh batch of peach jam - it's cooling on the kitchen counter now. Would love to have some fresh homemade bread with it. However that won't happen just yet. Today's an early release day for the students so the teachers can have a in-service in the afternoon. On the one hand that's nice because we all get done earlier. On the other hand, one doesn't accomplish much around the house those days. Tonight Son2 and I will go to Grief Group. Son1 has an Academic Team competition to go to - it's always on a Thursday evening that we have Grief Group but it's only once a year. He just wants us to get directly home afterwards so that we can be home in time to get him picked up.
Better scoot - I have to leave on the bus in just under a half hour.
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Today
Today did not turn out the way I expected at all. Emotionally I was somewhat better than I was last night - but still not good. Son1 left today for the next two days - at his retreat through school. It was really cool to have him come up to me before he left while the buses were loading and give me a k*** and get one from me. At his age that's not something expected or typical. Son2 is already missing him - saying he's bored. I'm glad that we have grief group tomorrow night. It was nice to be able to be home most of the evening tonight though.
Probably the biggest stress/frustration from today is that I had a parent of a child on my bus route call and completely chew me out verbally. Long story short - I had told my students to turn off any portable music devices as we were at a blind RR crossing. This student informed me "that's as quiet as mine will go" so I repeated my instructions to turn it off. He started cussing, I had him move....he continued cussing after he moved. He was going to get a conduct report for the cussing and the noise at the RR tracks. Apparently he went home and called dad who called the school to get my #. Then dad called me - said there's no way I could have heard his son's music, that it was my fault the son started cussing because I "made him angry enough to cuss - he's not like that" and then said I "needed to learn to get along with son". I ended up telling the dad that I was finished discussing this and hanging up on him. By that time I was pretty upset myself. Any other misbehavior this week likely would have gotten off with little to no action - simply because I didn't want the fact that I'm grieving extra to influence my decisions. However because this incident occurred at a RR crossing the son endangered the entire busload of students - that simply cannot be ignored. There's a possiblity that I'm going to have to say no personal music players - whether that be a phone, cd player or anything else involving headphones simply because this is becoming such an issue. I already absolutely don't allow cell phones to be used on the bus (which as it turned out this student was listening to music on - I didn't realize that at first). So...I have paperwork to fill out - I've already written this all down on regular paper - that I will then take into the office tomorrow morning to hopefully get the situation dealt with. I talked to another driver this afternoon - she said that everyone is having issues right now - all need a break.
On a different note....the other afternoon Son1 got on the bus and said "Mom I've lost my work ethic." I was like "what?" He explained that he was finding it hard to concentrate and focus on stuff. I was relieved to realize that it wasn't his work ethic that was at issue - it was simply the fact that he was distracted and grieving the loss of his dad this week - and very happy to reassure him that he hadn't lost his "work ethic". (I had to smile at his description though.) This afternoon I bumped into his math teacher at the school - she commented that she'd noticed that he wasn't himself - more easily frustrated, distracted, dreamy. I'm rather glad that she was able to validate that he was struggling a bit this week - though at the same time I hate for that to happen. One wonders when and if the grief will become less.
Probably the biggest stress/frustration from today is that I had a parent of a child on my bus route call and completely chew me out verbally. Long story short - I had told my students to turn off any portable music devices as we were at a blind RR crossing. This student informed me "that's as quiet as mine will go" so I repeated my instructions to turn it off. He started cussing, I had him move....he continued cussing after he moved. He was going to get a conduct report for the cussing and the noise at the RR tracks. Apparently he went home and called dad who called the school to get my #. Then dad called me - said there's no way I could have heard his son's music, that it was my fault the son started cussing because I "made him angry enough to cuss - he's not like that" and then said I "needed to learn to get along with son". I ended up telling the dad that I was finished discussing this and hanging up on him. By that time I was pretty upset myself. Any other misbehavior this week likely would have gotten off with little to no action - simply because I didn't want the fact that I'm grieving extra to influence my decisions. However because this incident occurred at a RR crossing the son endangered the entire busload of students - that simply cannot be ignored. There's a possiblity that I'm going to have to say no personal music players - whether that be a phone, cd player or anything else involving headphones simply because this is becoming such an issue. I already absolutely don't allow cell phones to be used on the bus (which as it turned out this student was listening to music on - I didn't realize that at first). So...I have paperwork to fill out - I've already written this all down on regular paper - that I will then take into the office tomorrow morning to hopefully get the situation dealt with. I talked to another driver this afternoon - she said that everyone is having issues right now - all need a break.
On a different note....the other afternoon Son1 got on the bus and said "Mom I've lost my work ethic." I was like "what?" He explained that he was finding it hard to concentrate and focus on stuff. I was relieved to realize that it wasn't his work ethic that was at issue - it was simply the fact that he was distracted and grieving the loss of his dad this week - and very happy to reassure him that he hadn't lost his "work ethic". (I had to smile at his description though.) This afternoon I bumped into his math teacher at the school - she commented that she'd noticed that he wasn't himself - more easily frustrated, distracted, dreamy. I'm rather glad that she was able to validate that he was struggling a bit this week - though at the same time I hate for that to happen. One wonders when and if the grief will become less.
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