The frog cooker.... Have you ever heard about cooking frogs? If you put them in a pot of hot water, they will hop right out. But if you put them in a pot of room temperature water, and slowly turn the temperature up, they will just stay right there, and eventually, you will have boiled frogs. That is kind of like my work place. I have been in the pot a long time, and I think I'm almost cooked! Other people dip their toe in the pot of our "at risk school" for a couple of days or a few weeks, and they hop right out and go on with their lives.
My room is located among the fifth grade classrooms. The room across the hall had a teacher for a few weeks. Then she moved to another position that was vacated by a teacher moving to another grade which was vacated by one of those folks that hopped out of the pot. So the room across the hall has had a succession of substitutes for the past several weeks...no one caring to stay too long. As far as I can see, about the only hope of restoring sanity and order at this point would be a retired drill sergeant. But then we can't raise our voices or keep them in during PE or make them write their spelling words a zillion times. I think we can still give them "the look", but that is about it. I think they could probably tape a new reality series at our school - Fifth Grade Gone Wild!
We are continuing on our Retrouvaille journey with a few bumps in the road. My dear husband is convinced that we must do all things in common as a couple or that we will be living a "married singles" lifestyle. I think he has misunderstood some of the points, but he is insistent. For me, as a person who has different interests and needs than he does (among them quiet and privacy), my prayer is "Lord, take me now!" I can see cultivating some interests together. That is something we definitely need to do a better job of, but I can not possibly imagine giving up everything that I like and he doesn't. A life of sitting in front of the television. No, thanks. So some good things, but also some thorns at this point in the journey. I have a feeling I will be revisiting the "wives be submissive to your husbands" teaching with my priest sometime in the near future. May God grant him huge helpings of patience!
A few pictures of life....
I think this was on one of our "Hurrication" days. Hurricane Isaac came this way and took f.o.r.e.v.e.r to get out of town. My 2 favorite sons looking at one of their scrapbooks. I don't often see them this close, (and it is even more rare to get photographic evidence) but I am thankful that they like being brothers. Usually.
Our new house came with more of everything. Except the oven. Is this not the most pitiful LITTLE excuse for an oven you have ever seen? Dear husband came home with a BOX of bananas one day last week. Found the best, easy recipe for banana bread. I think this was batch 1 or 2 of 9!
My youngest is running cross country. Today was his first meet. Three miles. 22:43 minutes. This was the sprint for the finish line.
Thyroid Nodules...I found out that I have "several" on Friday. I'm not freaking out at this point. I googled them, to find out that they are common and almost always benign. But I guess I should probably follow up with my doctor.
And that's about all I know for right now! Say a prayer for us...next week we take on "Conflict Management" in Retrouvaille. Should be very interesting!
