Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Winter Blues

This is IU, my alma mater, and a much prettier picture than my backyard.
One thing I love about living in the Midwest is the the change in seasons.  I am usually not one to even complain about cold, dreary winters.  This year is different.  Don't get me wrong, I love snow.  I love the way it looks, I love the crisp fresh air that comes along with it, I love the occasional 2 hour delay, I love one or two snow days, and I love watching my pup frolic through it.  But mother nature, enough is enough.  I have had it.  With each passing week, we get more snow or subzero temperatures and I'm done.  

For starters, we had an extra week of Winter Break which sounded nice at the time but since December, we have had countless delays and snow days and I am dying to have my routine back.  As a third grade teacher, I know the importance of routine, both for my kiddies and myself.  I don't know what it's like to work a "normal/full week" and I am hating it.  All you non-teachers out there can roll your eyes and make comments about how easy I have it, but until you teach a classroom full of 28 kids, you can't even begin to relate to what I'm talking about.

There are two main reasons why I am stressing about this excessive amount of 2-hour delays/snow days.
1. I teach 3rd grade in Indiana aka the year of the standardized tests.  We have both IREAD and ISTEP coming up and I need full days to help my kids prepare! If you are unfamiliar with these tests, they are high-stakes and unfortunately part of my teacher eval/pay can be affected by the performance of my students. NO PRESSURE.

2. As if you didn't already know, I'm getting married in JUNE.  You would think picking the third weekend in June would give you a nice cushion of time between the end of the school year and your wedding to finalize details, relax, and work on your tan.  Well the polar vortex has up and ruined that plan for me.  For now, we are only going into the 1st week of June with our make up days but it's only February and in Indiana, snow into April is possible.  

I guess I just need to take a deep breath and "cross that bridge when I come to it."  Easier said than done.  And yes, as I type this, I am at home and we had another snow day.  Sigh.

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