Spring Break

 My spring break began on Good Friday. My students spent the half day presenting the Living Stations of the Cross to their schoolmates in three different grade bands. It was our entire day on Friday. I came home afterwards, ate lunch, and took a three-hour nap. I'm not sure why I was so tired, but I was. I slept another solid nine hours that night.

As I usually do when I am not traveling or receiving visitors during a break from school, I made myself lists of things to accomplish. This year's list was particularly long because I was out of town for the two weekends leading up to the break. My husband and I attended a board game convention in Oregon and followed it up with a weekend trip to Disneyland.

Since I got my playing done in advance of spring break, I was content to spend a lot of time over the break working on managing household chores and getting caught up on work. But I was also able to spend time with my friends and co-workers, filling up my calendar with brunch, happy hour, wine tasting, and a manicure.

I also took a peek at my very busy schedule between now and the end of the school year - possibly between now and August. I am heading to environmental education camp with the sixth and seventh graders in mid-May and to Washington D.C. with most of the eighth graders the first week of June. When school is out, I may or may not be going on a 12 day professional development experience from Canada to Oregon exploring the Columbia River Basin before heading back to Washington D.C. to attend a George Washington Teacher Institute summer residential program in July. I have also applied for a conservation science PD at the San Diego Zoo with the middle school science teacher in my building. If I get into both of the professional development opportunities I am waiting to hear back from, mid-May through early August is going to be quite busy for me!

The trip with students to D.C. has me a bit concerned since my knee is still giving me trouble from my fall on the ice the first Friday in December. I asked my physical therapist about it during my first appointment over my break. She suggested I ask my doctor's office for a medical grade brace to take with me on the trip. I did, and got a brace from my doctor and a referral to an orthopedic doctor for early May. I hope I get some imaging from them. Disneyland in a wheelchair was kind of fun for me, even though it was rough on my husband who had to push me around the park. But a wheelchair in D.C. with students seems like an impossibility.

The week both crept and sped by. I'm not sure how that's possible, but I feel like it's a common experience during any break from school. I accomplished a lot, but still left six items on my list incomplete. There's still a bit of time left tonight, but I left the board game convention three weeks ago ready to try to create my own board game. That seems like a more fun Sunday evening activity than cleaning out the fridge or picking up the dog poop from the back yard.