Marching Onward!

Out of no where, March appeared.  It's gearing up to be a busy month.  It's the fifth and I've already crammed a lot in.

First, we conquered {Reading Week}.  5 spirit days, 2 assemblies, 1 guest reader, 1 field trip, 3 lunches outside, and lots of reading time.  As a school, we also hosted a book drive to collect books for Spread the Word Nevada, a nonprofit.  We collected almost 2,500 gently used books in a week.  (100 of them are from my class!)

We also received our first box of new books from our {Donors Choose} project.  We made thank you cards for our donors and dived into reading.  Look how cute they are!

Second, fifth grade was in charge of First Friday treats.  Each grade level has an assigned month and we bring in treats for the rest of the teachers.  

I went to Costco for several dozen pastries, but picked up fruit and juice as well.  We put down butcher paper (it makes for easy clean up) and I raided Sunshine's closet for some decor.  (One of the perks of being co-chair is that I can borrow decorations whenever I need as long as I bring them back in a timely manner!)

I bought a little too much food (I went to Costco hungry), but still came out pretty close to our budget.  We split the cost between the five fifth grade teachers, so it was only $12 each.  Considering all the teachers (plus some substitutes) had happy tummies, I call this a win.  We're also off the hook for 11 months.

Third, I'm sick of this being my weekend:

So I made a change. I've stopped working from home and on the weekends. Yes, I'll continue to work on materials for Teachers Pay Teachers (because it doesn't feel like work). But unless it's a special occasion (report card comments), this work stays at work.  

I'm reclaiming my nights and weekends.  If I'm at work from 7-5 each day, that's enough. That's 3 hours unpaid work every day.  It's still not enough time to get everything accomplished, which is beyond frustrating (but also the life of a teacher).  Nights and weekends are for things that fuel my soul: couple time, pet time, friend time, family time, and/or nap time.  A week in, it's going fairly well.

Fourth, I'm making slow and steady progress through Love and Logic.  My goal of a book a month isn't quite on track, but January's book was nearly 500 pages (and this one is 300), and I'm taking copious amounts of notes, so it's okay.  

Up next? A book for Battle of the Books, then perhaps another teacher book.  I've had a few recommended during trainings, so my  Amazon cart keeps getting new additions.  (I'm saving receipts because it's tax deductable.)

This month also brings an in home party for Lularoe and Lipstains (co-hosted with our school's librarian), a quasi-bachelorette party, traveling to Anaheim for a conference, a GATE training, and preparing for two showers at work in April (a wedding shower and a baby shower).  We also have the SBAC (standardized testing) starting soon, and with that means a pep assembly...and assembling 200 green troll headbands.

We'll also be having our new cabinets dropped off.  We had custom built ins assembled, but I'll be staining them myself (so not only will they match the other cabinets I stained, we'll save a little in the process).  Our next home improvement project is replacing the flooring in the bathroom and doing the backyard.  We hope to have both completed by December.