Yehah!

I am sitting here in my dressing gown writing this.  It is Wednesday and I ache.  I think my body is complaining that I have not been kind to it and need to give it a bit of attention.  So what have I been doing??  Nothing much except teaching and working non-stop which is probably a dreadful comment on my fitness levels really.

 

The big news in the family is that Tom is back from his officer initial briefing - the first part of the selection process and I am pleased to report that he is going to go forward to the next part in about April.  Dates yt to be booked.  He really enjoyed the experience and found he did extremely well in certain parts of it but the real push for Army fitness begins today.  He needs to up his training and is really looking forward to it.  He has a training partner now (used to be a professional cyclist) and a trainer so he has every reason to succeed.  I am so pleased for him though.  He has focussed on this for quite a while now and I am just thrilled that he is working his way through the process and enjoying it all.

I've had a good couple of days.  I can see definite improvement in the the way my class are responding and behaving.  So all the hard work has paid off.  I had a blissful morning with them yesterday and my TA and I together just smiled and smiled as we enjoyed the buzz of happy. engaged children.  Phew!  And there was me beginning to wonder if I had lost my touch.

Today is my day for recuperating.  I am booked for tennis and hope to get some scrapping done.  Not huge amounts but making a start on the project I have in hand.  More of that later.  I am not totally convinced that the recipient might not by chance pop on to here and it would be a pity if my cover was blown!

So the promise of some creativity .............let's hope the wait has been worth it all.

Just as I thought!

It's been a weekend of planning, organising and getting myself sorted out for next week.  Whatever happened to my ideas of being able to quilt and sew??  The closest I came to that this weekend was taking up a pair of suit trousers for Tom!  Not my idea of creativity!  Still, better done now than struggling during this week when I am working 4 days!

But the nightmare of the weekend was my new computer crashing and having to do 2 system recoveries before the techieguys eventually decided that it was a no-hoper and now I am without a PC and awaiting an engineer to come and replace bits.  The only good thing about it all is that I had done a back-up yesterday afternoon on the external hard-drive.  Grrrrr!

Ben has applied for a flexi-PGCE which is good, more news on that later.  Tom is off for his initial briefing session (still selection but not the final one!)  So the weekend has moved forward in a positive way.

Thanks for all the reading suggestions.  I shall think about them all.  Having finished "Shakespeare" by Bill Bryson, I think I am heading towards reading "The Return" by Victoria Hislop.  Just for a chilling out gentle read.

So now I am off to have my dinner.  Dieting is going well.  I am enjoying eating a decent meal every evening but hopefully I shall get the weight off quickly and be ready to set off on my holiday, trim and fit.

It's nice to dream!!!!

That was the week that was!

Hmm the title alone show my age!

It's been an easy return to work in many ways.  Today was an INSET day - so no children.  In effect just 1 whole day's teaching and 1/2 a day teaching and 1/2 day planning plus of course today.  And yes, Thursday was much easier than Monday so that was good!

But I have decided that teaching is like a warm quagmire - it sucks you in, surrounds you gently and then finally smothers you totally.  I like to be prepared and if I am not careful I shall be expanding this job to be more than it really is.  I want - and need - to have 2 days for myself in the middle of the week and I would prefer to have my weekend free.  I think it is possible but I have to have good systems, I need to be very disciplined, (no taking marking home - stay until it is finished at school) and no being drawn into extra things I should not be giving time to.  Let's see how it goes.  I don't have that much confidence that it will be as I want it to be!!

But the news of the week is that I have booked a skiing holiday..............on my own!  I have decided after 20 years and carrying far too much weight for too many of those years, that I am going to try skiing again.  In my younger years I loved skiing and was a reasonable, if not that adventurous skier.  But I have seized the moment, booked the holiday in the Dolomites in Italy for the half-term holiday and paid my money.  I have also booked some skiing lessons on the dry-ski slope in Southampton on my days off so that I can get back into it a bit and hopefully might even manage a trip to the Snow-dome in Milton Keynes before I go.

I think it is probably one of the better types of holiday to try to do on your own.  The morning is ski school and so we are busy and occupied and able to get to know one another.  The afternoon is our own.  I hope Dick would be pleased that I was giving it a go.  I just hope I come back in one piece!! 

I have started on the diet - no not the full Lighter Life Diet, the gentler version - to try and shift a few pounds before I go, I have treated myself to a very beautiful ski jacket and salopettes from that doyenne of the shopping malls - TK Maxx - and I have started to visit the gym regularly.  Aerobics on Wednesday, tennis last night and Legs, Bums and tums tomorrow!  I must be mad!

So I shall love and leave you.  It is bloomin' freezing here.  I had to do a lot of scraping of the windscreen this morning and I am aiming for an early night with hot chocolate and a good book.  I'm working 4 days next week - I have to do an extra day as my colleague is on a course - so I need to build up my energy!!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Phew! That's the first day over...

Someone sent me a text today and said "It's like riding a bike........bloody knackering!"  (Excuse the language!) and they are quite right.  I got into school and got the first day going and suddenly I realised that things I did without thinking about 6 years ago need a bit more thought now.  It's not just the going back to the chalkface but doing it in a school with systems I don't know or understand and children whose backgrounds are unknown to me!  But I hit the ground running and we got through the day more or less unscathed.

There will be a bit more discussion about my expectations - simple really:  I talk, you listen.  You talk, I listen!  And we need to realise the lines are for writing on but we got through the Maths, Literacy, Science and Spellings and even had time for a story.  (I plumped for Charlotte's Web as they didn't know that one.)  I shall need to fine tune the work so it meets their needs better but at least we have got started.

Thanks for the suggestions for books.  I shall definitely do "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" (the book I remember most as the one when I knew I was a reader, heart and soul - I still remember the sore elbows from lying on the carpet on my tummy, reading for hours on end) but Stig of the Dump was a book I did with Year 3 about 16 years ago and they loved it too.

A day off tomorrow!  Hooray!  Time to get the housework done and then sort myself out for Thursday - I only teach for 1/2 the day - and Friday is an INSET day.  Yehah! 

I'm off to the Panto tomorrow - Oh Yes I am!  Some kids never grown up!

Clearing away

Isn't it amazing how we all get fed up with Christmas and its paraphernalia??  We spend weeks planning for it and decorating the house and then we suddenly want it all gone.  I can't be accused of overdoing the decorations this year but I have reached the point where I want less clutter around the house and a bit of semblence of normality again.  I suspect a good dose of sorting out is in order.

I am busy ploughing my way through Bill Bryson's "Shakespeare" in preparation for my book club meeting in a week's time.  I wasn't keen but it is very readable.  I shall reserve judgement until it is finished but it is not a chore as I thought it would be.

I have several books to read:

• The Return by Victoria Hislop
• The Nazi Officers Wife by Edith Hahn Beer
• That's Another Story by Julie Walters
• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Anyone read any of them?  It would be good to hear what you think.  I'm so grateful that I have got back into reading again.  For a long time it was very difficult to settle to a book but I do so love reading and even if I have disturbed sleep, a book is a great comfort.  One of the favourite parts of being a teacher for me is to encourage a love of reading in children.  So this term it is going to be a children's classic "Charlotte's Web".  Just hope that not many of them will have seen the video.  I'll do a quick check before I begin.  "Matilda" by Roald Dahl is the back-up choice.  That one was done as a film about 13 years ago so might not be so well known.  Both are great so it will be a special time every day when we enjoy a book together.

Any suggestions for "good reads" for either me or the children at school are gratefully received!