#sol18 Retired Morning

Stretching slowly, I squint to see what time it is. Although, by the light in the room, it's shortly after 7:00am. One of the joys of retirement is sleeping 'til I wake up.

"Time to get up!" my body says, so I head downstairs to start my day.


In the kitchen, Chloe greets me as she stretches and yawns her way out of her kennel. She wags her fluffy butt for her morning hug and I put her outside for a few minutes while I make the coffee.

The floor chills my feet and I wish I had slippers handy. Or at least a pair of socks.

Chloe gets a treat when she comes in and I pour my first cup of coffee before heading to the living room. I don't turn up the heat, but instead,  grab my blanket to wrap myself in while I enjoy this first cup.

I open my computer to check Facebook, although I don't know why. Not much has been posted overnight. Then Twitter. Email next. Then a bit of news online.

Today is Tuesday, so there are slices to brighten my morning. I read and comment for a while and they remind me--

It's time to write.

Today's writing quote: "Start writing, no matter what. The water does not start flowing until the faucet is turned on."  Louis L'Amour

Also, check out this slice https://litbitsandpieces.com/2018/02/05/beautiful-lady/  

It's wonderful and one of the best I've ever read. If I was still teaching I'd use it as a mentor text.

#SOL18 . #DWHabit . Cranky

I should be
CRANKY

when my phone rings shortly after 6:00am

I should be 

CRANKY

and pull the covers over my head 

I should be

CRANKY

about not crossing things off my to-do list

I should be

CRANKY

because I stayed up way too late on a school night

But I'm not.

My clothes are ready.

My attitude's ready.

And I get to sub in Art, which is fun and

CREATIVE.

Added bonus. I don't have to go in 'til

9:00am

So there is plenty of time for an

extra cup of coffee and

Snuggles with Chloe.

Celebrate: The Graduates (and a few of the Almost Graduates)

Retirement.

It could have been a lot harder to adjust to this if not for one special group of people.

My former students.

At times these past few months, I've felt a little lost. What to do with myself? I'm finding projects, purging closets, filling time. But about once a month, I'll get a text or a Facebook message from one of "my kids" and it seems to right my world again.

It started right away in August (which was a great time to hear from someone)

We had a great conversation about The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and our school district.

My first visit back to school was to see a student who just needed to talk to me again. For a while, I went back every couple of weeks just to visit with her and make sure she was OK. Now that I'm subbing, I see her more frequently, but she is handling her issues and doesn't need me as much as she did. And that's a good thing :)

A text I received the other day began with "Hey Mom". One of my speech kids--and I was school mom to him--was just checking with me about a book we read in College Prep Lit. Another former student wanted to quote it in a paper he was writing and couldn't remember the name of the book (It was Night by Elie Weisel).

Last week a favorite student tagged me in her Facebook post because she decided to use a One Little Word this year. She and I are going to have lunch next week. I can't wait to catch up on her world.

And, of course, there are my kids still at the high school

• A, who squeals with delight every time she realizes I'm subbing in one of her classes
• L, who pretends he hates it, but just followed me on Instagram
• B and R who give me the best hugs whenever I'm in school
• K, C, and J who asked if I would still write letters of recommendation for them, even though I'm retired
• And all my formers who are still writing. They send me links or share them on Facebook. I love that they keep their blogs up.

A special shout-out to my colleagues who ask for me to be their sub when they have to be gone.

I'm learning to APPRECIATE this time in my life. I think I'm going to refer to them as my Rock Star Years.

2018: A Year to Appreciate

I started a list this morning of the things I am looking forward to in the coming year:

• Traveling: I don't know where we'll go, but I know we will start planning some trips soon
• The Eagles concert in March. Although we've seen them before, this is a group I could see a million times.
• Lake time, of course (Only 100 more days until we can open the cabin)
• I don't have to worry about snow/cold days anymore!
• Which means I don't have to worry about making up snow and cold days anymore!
• A midwinter trip somewhere

And then I realized that what I'm really looking forward to is the 

that being retired brings me. I now have the freedom to:

• sleep in or get up early
• work or not work
• read all day or be productive
• scrapbook or write
• travel or enjoy my home
• clean my house or close my eyes

I'm loving this life of no schedules--the ability to take off on vacation or a shopping day in the middle of the week is awesome. I love choosing when and if and how much I work. Subbing in our little district is great because no matter what classroom I am in, I feel at home because those are still my kids. 

I guess you could say I have eased into retirement well. I'm learning to APPRECIATE this new time in my life.

Just Write

Write.

Just put some words on to the blank screen.

Write.

Words.

But the words haven't been there.

I really and truly planned on filling up my blog with words about teaching, my students, retirement.

But

The words aren't there. At times, I feel bereft.  Empty.  I don't know who I am.

Oh. I hide it. I laugh. I joke. I play.

But just underneath the surface,

Tears form, unwanted, at the oddest times, and I think of the kids I will miss.

My babies.

A Not-So-Inspiring Post

I was going to write a really super sappy blog post about teaching, how much I love it and the students I teach. I was going to create this beautiful ode to teaching that would inspire everyone and share my love of this career I chose.

And then my 3rd hour College Prep Lit class walked in the door.

And I was reminded that teaching is not always perfect and inspiring. Sometimes it resembles a Welcome Back, Kotter episode....

In the space of ten minutes today, I:

• Listened to complaints about how hot my room is and explained they could sit in the hall and work
• Repeated the directions for the day 19 times (Once for each student. Because you know it only counts if you say it directly to them)
• Explained 19 times that the assignment for the day was also on Schoology---our LMS (This is besides the fact that I also handed out a a calendar with the work for each day)
• Reminded one he needs this class to graduate and to get to work
• Again, listened to complaints about the heat. Again, suggested the hallway
• Explained that the work for this assignment needed to be worthy of the 20 points (a point for each word, right?)
• Regretted telling a student she could use the "B" word in her letter when describing a character. That opened the door for negotiations with the others. 
• Again, reminded senior he needed to get some work done
• More complaints about the heat
• Told students I was rewriting my blog post. 
• Explained that John Travolta was hot--- in 1975---when I was 18.  They just shook their heads and had no clue who I was talking about until a bright girl in the corner reminded us he was in the movie Old Dogs.

Finally, class ended. 15 of 19 turned in their work. 

Here comes 4th hour...

"Geez. It's like a sauna in here."

The lesson? Some days--heck, most days--are more like Kotter than any of us want to admit. This group I have 3rd hour are smart, they discuss and argue and back themselves up with facts. Most of them read a lot. 

And somedays, they like to push my buttons. 

{solsc} 4/31 #sol17 Celebrate

My favorite part of the week. Celebrations.

I've been celebrating my week for a long time, almost as long as I've written my blog.  It helps keep me positive and focused on the right things in my life. I keep track of them through the week on a post-it in my bullet journal. And Twitter. If something makes me smile during the school day, I often tweet it out.

Waiting for the bus

I've done quite a bit of tweeting this week (you know that if you follow me at @mrsday75). On Saturday, my Speech kids performed at district competition. They did great. We've sixteen events moving on to state next weekend. My favorite part of individual speech competition is giving my phone to the kids and telling them to take a selfie.  Then, as they perform and receive ratings, I can share out the results using our school hashtag. People follow along all day and congratulate the kids.

I turned in my Early Retirement papers this week. It still doesn't seem real---in my head I keep thinking, "Next year I'll..." and then remember, there won't be a next year in teaching or in speech (although I'll sub and volunteer with speech). Weird. But I'm looking forward to this new chapter.

Other good things this week:

• I received copies of Passenger and Wayfarer from Alexandra Bracken this week. She had tweeted out she would send copies to classrooms if teachers tweeted her, so I did.  I have several kids who will love this series
• Our girls basketball team played in the state tournament on Tuesday. They didn't win, but a smaller school from a few miles away did. They ended up runner-up. I loved how many of our kids went to their games and cheered them on. When you live in a small rural area, everyone is friends.
• Last practices with my speech kids. These last two weeks of rehearsal time is precious to me. I just love hanging out with these guys.
• A friend started a new food blog. This woman is a great cook and she decided to start a blog and share the recipes she trying. You can check her out at The Pinterest Foodie

Well, that's about it this week. Hope your week was wonderful!

Celebrate and Discover

Sometimes as teachers, we really don't know if we have made a difference. Students leave us, and we may never hear from them again. But some we stay in touch with, and it is those students--my "forever kids", that gave me so much to celebrate this week.

As I wrote on Tuesday, I've decided to take the district's early retirement package this year. It's a bittersweet decision.  But it's what happened after I shared my news that I celebrate. The outpouring of love was amazing. Former students, parents, colleagues, all with words of love.  I'll admit to screenshotting my Facebook post, so I will have all that love to wrap myself in when I'm feeling blue.

Just a few of many (Teacher confession--it feels like bragging to share these. I'm not, really. I am actually so humbled by all the comments...)

But it was the comment by a former colleague that made this all OK and connects right with Ruth's post about giving love away. He said to me, "Could you think of it as giving another person a chance to have all the great experiences you had? It makes it easier, in a way."

And, you know what? It does.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This week's DISCOVER

Love comes back to you if you put it out in the world 

#sol17 Last and Best

I'll admit to a few tears in my eyes as the school board voted 5-0 to approve an early retirement package for our district. Greg and I have talked about it for months. If it was offered, I would take it.

And now, it's real.

So why the tears? I really don't know. I told Greg when I got home that they were happy and sad tears.

Can you have both?

My wonderful husband told me I didn't have to take it if I didn't want to. If I wanted to stay a couple of more years, I could.

But I don't. I am ready to retire. I am ready to be done with lesson plans and grading papers. I am ready to be done with the politics and defending summer "vacation".

But I am not done with kids. And that's where the sad tears came from, I know.

This will be a semester of lasts. But it will also be a semester of BESTS. I am determined not to be a short timer and be my best as I count down the lasts.

Stay tuned as I DISCOVER how to do this and find the future.