First week done

On Tuesday a few students who were not enrolled in my class but rather were on the waiting list showed up for class anyhow in the hopes they would get into the class. I went down and told the secretary, and she called the department chair. The chair added another section of the course so starting yesterday I am teaching from 2:00-4:45 on Tuesdays and Thursdays as I'm teaching two sections of the same class. I am now on overload (the academic term for overtime). It means I'll make a little more money which helps to balance out for the

fact I probably won't be able to teach this summer. It also makes me feel like I have pretty good job security even though I'm an adjunct at the moment, especially in light of the fact that three professors in our department are supposedly retiring this summer. Now to get back to being permanent instead of temporary. The soonest that might happen is August 2019. I'm praying to that end!

The first week back is usually more tiring than usual, but this week was particularly taxing. Waiting until the last minute to get my contract (first day of the semester) was stressful, and it meant that I wasn't able to have access to some things until Wednesday so my students didn't have their syllabus, etc. on the first day of class. The projector also wasn't working in the classroom on either day. I didn't think to use the Smartboard instead on Tuesday, but a student gave me that excellent suggestion on Thursday. Although I placed my textbook order with the university bookstore in October, the textbooks also hadn't arrived yet for my students. Hopefully the projector will be fixed

soon, and the textbooks are supposed to arrive next week. Yesterday was a hectic day. I homeschooled the kids (most of the subjects anyhow), met with five student teachers, proctored a final exam for a student who took any incomplete last semester, taught for 2.5 hours, and then met our babysitter and the kids at the church where Ian was in the middle of his basketball practice. I had packed the kids' lunches. They ate lunch and dinner with the babysitter. Until basketball season is over they're going to eat dinner with her family on Thursday nights. They'll have dinner with me on Tuesday nights when we get home around 5:30. I had packed my lunch and dinner. I intended to eat dinner at the church during Ian's basketball practice, but the church kitchen was locked, and I couldn't find a microwave anywhere else in the building. Usually we don't go home during Oliver's basketball practice, but we did yesterday because I was really hungry. It meant we drove for 30 minutes round trip to be home for 30 minutes, but I didn't regret my decision. Once I got home I caught up with emails from university personnel, cooperating teaches, students, and student teachers, and then I went straight to bed.

Today was thankfully not as exhausting of a day. I had purposefully gotten all of our Bible, science, and spelling work done for the week in four days as I knew there wouldn't be time today. I finished reading the last book from the Crispin trilogy to them this morning, and they did most of their math. We have to be out the door at 8:40 on Fridays for art and gym class so that doesn't allow for much time for schoolwork in addition to getting dressed, eating breakfast, packing lunches, feeding the guinea pigs, etc. I had brought their piano

books, AWANA books, and books for them to read while at the babysitter's house after gym class, but today my observations took less time than anticipated. I arrived at her house and the church 15 minutes late on both Tuesday and Thursday, but today I showed up at her house an hour earlier than planned. When we got home they finished their math and practiced the piano. We'll be heading back out this evening for Nadia's basketball practice. Next week shouldn't be as hectic because I'm only planning to be on campus or in a school building two days of

the week whereas I did that four days this week. I think I will be visiting schools three days a week on average.

I was too tired to write a post last night, but here are some things I'm thankful for at the moment.

1. Paul and his Dad made it safely to Las Vegas. They were tired as it was 3AM EST when they checked into their hotel on Monday night. Now we're praying they'll make it back safely to PA tomorrow.

2. I got access to all my courses in BOLT Wednesday (the learning management system). This is where students post their assignments, where I post documents they need, where grades are posted, etc. It is rather frustrating for both the students and myself when this isn't in place before the semester begins.

3. I will receive an overload payment this semester because I am teaching 15 credits, whereas 12 credits is full-time.

4. The kids and I enjoyed using a gift card for Friendly's that we received as a Christmas gift. We had dinner at Friendly's on Tuesday night.

5. As we begin a new semester, I am again grateful for the assistance of our babysitter.

6. We are all healthy!

7. Now that I am employed again, it means I am able to borrow money from my retirement account. I am planning to borrow enough that I can pay off the mortgage. It's better to pay interest to myself (my retirement account) than to pay it to the bank that holds our mortgage. It means that in hindsight it wasn't the right decision to refinance the mortgage a little over a year ago, but at the time it was the right decision as we cut the interest rate in half. I had no way of knowing then that I would be reemployed in August 2017. We took out a 15 year mortgage, and it will technically have been paid off within 15 months instead of 15 years. The retirement loan will need to be paid off in five years, but we plan on paying it off sooner than that. It will be a wonderful feeling to be debt free!