thankful...

Today I'm thankful for a break, a day of catching-up, of being able to greet my kids when they come home from school, for peaceful evenings (most of the times :), and for all the little things that I take for granted. 

This morning I woke up to way too much daylight and as soon as I saw it I knew - we overslept!  I hit my phone and phew, it's only 7:25 :)  As I rushed out of bed and got the kids up there zoomed the bus by our house.  I was thinking to myself how thankful I was for not having to sub today because I'm pretty sure I'd be late.  But the kids had breakfast, got dressed and off we went, right on time. :)  That is a lesson to me to not rely on Ehren's alarm clock.  He wasn't feeling good last night and didn't go to sleep until around 3am so he didn't have his alarm on.  And I thought I'll just hear his and get up soon after he's out of bed. :)  So the morning was off to a bit of a rushed start and I'm not feeling so well either.  Lots of colds and flus are going around in town.

After I dropped the kids off, I got the oil change on the van before we take it to the Cities next week.  Then I came home and had my breakfast.  It is funny how quickly the kitchen and other rooms get all messy when I have stuff going on few days in a row.  I subbed at the Middle school on Tuesday and at preschool yesterday.  Both evenings were so busy that we were barely home for an hour to eat and do homework and then just go to bed.  So I am really thankful for a break today and for being able to catch up on the house work.  Every time it happens, I keep thinking about the women who have small children and work full time and have sports/activities to do in the evening.  How do they get anything done at home?  How do they have time for their kids?  I know when you're in a situation you just do what you have to to make it work but from my experience, it really affects the mom, the family and the kids.  So this year I am making very little money and yes, we don't have much left over and have to be careful with what we buy but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.  I am here when the kids get home from school, I can give them my whole attention and focus and we are not so rushed every week night.  So really, there are big trade offs when a mom stays at home.  They are not materialistic or tangible, but they are so important especially for the kids.  And when I talk to my mom friends who have a bit older kids they all say the kids really need moms home even when they're in middle school.  Their whole life changes, everything is awkward, they're trying to figure out who they are and the one safe place they have is home.  So I know that is where I need to be no matter the cost.

Tuesday was the first time I subbed for a "para".  That is an educational assistant that helps a group of kids in higher grades or an individual student in Elementary school.  It works great from what I see but I just can't believe how many fulltime assistants the schools need because there are so many students with behavioral/mental/physical issues.  Being around the schools more this year, I talked to some women I know and a lot of them started like me, subbing for teachers.  But a lot of times the newer people get put on a back burner while the retired teachers get called in to sub every day of the week.  And so a lot of the younger people that are subbing quit if they can get a job as an educational assistant because even though it pays less, at least they get a job for every day and don't have to wonder if they are getting calls or not.

So I was excited to sub for one of them because I've been thinking about how I would like it and if it's something for me.  At least in Middle school you follow your 4-5 students around all day and pretty much make sure they're doing the work they're supposed to or help them if they don't understand.  At the same time, it was a bit weird to stand by someone and work with him on the Math assignment as the teacher is going over it with the class.  Some of the kids get a little self conscious that they have a person next to them and so they refuse help even though they can't do a simple assignment.  And some I had were just plain lazy and did not want to work at all.  It would take them 5 minutes to copy a sentence into their notebook.  I know this job really varies depending on who the kids are, what classes they take and how their behavior is.  But at least in Middle school the teachers didn't give them any slack and if they misbehave or refuse to do their work, they get a lunch detention or after school detention where they have to work on it.  I liked just being able to meet more teachers and see how they teach and stuff.  One of the Math classes I went to, the teacher was my old teacher from High School when I was an exchange student here so that was weird and she looked exactly the same.  I had flashbacks to the Trigonometry class and just remembered how much I liked it because it was so much easier than in Slovakia. :)