September brought the long-awaited start of preschool for Carma Junie! At long last we could add her 'first day' picture to the line-up with the boys:
Of course, these 'first day' shots more accurately convey her excitement :). After hearing Jack wax poetic about Ms. Cherry back in his day, Carma was pretty psyched to find out for herself all about the magic of Ms. Cherry and her preschool.
Luckily preschool is only two afternoons a week and shouldn't interfere with Carma's busy schedule of chores and cooking around the house... in dress-up shoes... :
Pretty cute little poser!
Carma continued doing speech one day a week - mostly this picture is included because I loved her little shirt and leggings and shoes:
Ahhhh I love early handwriting!
Carma was very happy to tag along with the older boys to a Park Ridge PTA fundraiser at Stella's.
And Jack was more than thrilled that we stayed long enough to overlap with his beloved Miss Overcast. Is there anything better than when your kids love their teachers? The security I feel knowing that my kids have teachers that value them and respect them and genuinely like them? Priceless.
Grandma Pam made it to the annual Grandparent's Day celebration at Park Ridge and found two cute little boys to hang out with:
And Will and Jack both dressed appropriately and jogged their wee hearts out for the Park Ridge fall jogathon! I love that both boys wore t-shirts of teams they don't necessarily personally support... but were the correct colors for their grade level haha. Chuck just pretended that his boys were fans of his teams!
Speaking of jogging, one of my children voluntarily joined a team that does just that - well, actually running, but close enough. Who is this kid?? I'm legit so impressed that Clyde joined cross country; he's so cool about trying new things and giving it his all.
Also, how cute is his official school picture? Cute enough that I actually am a little sad I never order them haha.
OHHHH guess who else started school again? Yeppp, me. In August I had a really clear nudge from Heavenly Father towards substitute teaching. It had been in the back of my mind for a while - you know, something I might do once all four kids were in school full time. But yeah, definitely not yet.
Alas, I've ignored enough divine promptings to (mostly) learn my lesson, so I decided to apply and see what happened. Nampa School District is short enough on subs that they saw me as a pretty great candidate and off I was to new hire orientation! Between Chuck's days off during the week and my amazing mama, I figured I could sub two or maybe three days a week and not leave Carma too traumatized ;)... or me too burned out!
Orientation was pretty chill, and I accepted a job the very next day so nerves wouldn't have too much time to settle in. I subbed in a middle school ELA classroom, and we all survived! I remembered how to take roll, the neighboring teacher showed me how to move something on the screen to project it, and I'm sure it was a coincidence that the regular classroom teacher was absent and thus missed the day his students were on the chapter of 'The Giver' that talks about, um, stirrings. That wasn't at all awkward over and over and over again ;).
The next week I had a half day job at an elementary school. I honestly thought the younger grades would totally be my jam, buuuuut holy moly it was a lot more work. In middle school you can pause to re-read the lesson plan without anything too crazy happening. In elementary school, that fifteen seconds of inattention to the students is.... not a good thing. Overall, good time though. Definitely a good learning experience.
Next sub job was math at the middle school my mama used to teach at! I knew it was spirit week... and I love dressing to match... so I definitely looked it up the night before and wore this shirt just to fit in with 'hippie day'. This was a really excellent day and really cemented that in yet another way I am my mother's daughter - middle school brings me joy! I loved the kids and made it through two different 'evals'- the dean of students and principal both sat in for a few minutes on an afternoon class that has a reputation of being difficult. That wasn't daunting at all, yiiiiikes. I also learned a lesson about keeping one's water bottle close at hand... or clearly marked...
Via instagram: Took three days of subbing, but I finally got my first cute note from a student! 🤩📝🙌🏼 Also, today I accidentally drank out of the principal’s water bottle... as he watched... so basically I’m killin’ it on the administration side too 🚰💦😋😳👀🤦🏻♀️
I have to say, substituting is such a heavy responsibility - keeping the kids safe, on task, following the teacher's lesson plans and keeping their classroom put together, etc, etc... but also making sure that when I erase the board, I get all stray dry erase marks - you always want to do better for the next generation that what you experienced, ya know?
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