Four more days!

I wasn't able to see a student teacher on Thursday morning, and I couldn't see her this coming Tuesday due to the state testing. So I asked a neighbor to watch my kids for a little more than an hour so I can go complete my final observation of the semester on Monday afternoon. I also will be participating via Zoom (from home) in a faculty meeting on Monday afternoon. Tuesday I'll have a conference with one student teacher and teach my three classes on campus. Thursday I'll conference with two different student teachers (in two different districts) and then teach two classes on campus. The following Tuesday (May 7) I'm planning to have conferences with three student teachers and also will be giving two final exams online. This means that May 2nd should be my last day on campus (not counting commencement) and May 7th should be my last day in a public school this semester. May 8th I'm giving one last final exam online. The man who is replacing our deck is planning to start on May 6 or May 7. I am hoping to finish my grading on May 8th. That means just four more days to be on campus or in a public school, and May 8th is only 11 calendar days from now.

Paul has had a zany week at work. He has been leaving for work as early as 3am (more than once) and gotten home as late as 9:15pm. Monday night he was only home for one hour and then spent the rest of the night at the plant. He came home after 7pm this evening, which meant he worked at least 88 hours in six days. If you add in the 12 hours he spends commuting to and from work in six days, that puts him at 100 hours in six days. Oi vey! The downside of his crazy week for me was that two times in the week I went a full 24 hours (or more) without seeing my kids. That is HARD for me. The upside is that the kids got to spend two days at Grandma's house. The other downside was that we had to spend extra time doing schoolwork on the other three days, and actually we've still been getting caught up today, whereas typically they don't do schoolwork on a Saturday. All three kids were also up past their bedtime three nights this week due to Paul's work schedule. They really slept in yesterday morning. This coming week Paul will need to finish removing the deck that was built 20 years ago so the contractor can begin installing the new one on May 6. Today I asked him to give us an estimate on what he would charge to replace the shingles on our shed.

Since we didn't go anywhere today I had time to mow the lawn, spread some grass seed, do a few loads of laundry, clean the guinea pig cage, vacuum, grade some units that my student teachers submitted online on Thursday, etc. Oliver played with a girl his age while I mowed. They jumped on the trampoline, went on the spinning seesaw, used the swings, etc. I remember the days when I mowed the lawn while Ian was strapped to my chest. Nadia and Ian are now old enough that I can leave them in the house unsupervised while I mow the lawn.