End of Year Thoughts

Last summer when Ken accepted his current job I was going to scale way, WAY back. Last school year when he unexpectedly started traveling it was super hard, so over last summer I told Ken I would support him and that our boys would be fine not having me so involved in their classroom or school. Okay, so that is not at all what happened this year!

This year I was even more involved then ever (well except for that one year where they were both in school and I hadn't had Rose yet). It was insane. I let myself be talked into being the Workroom Coordinator, it's hard to explain but I actually felt pretty inspired to do it even though it was crazy. Basically I made sure all the weekly flyers were put in each kids Tuesday folder (all 846 students), laminating, major copying, tons of die-cutting, and assembled thousands and thousands of those easy reader books.

Honestly it has been a struggle to support the teachers while taking care of Rose and Ginger's needs. I was torn literally every single week if I was doing the right thing. It's hard to spend 6-14 hours each week at the school with a 2 and 3 year old. It was heaven when Ken wasn't traveling, but then honestly did I want to spend my time doing teachers projects when he was at home.

Anyway, I am usually the type who "closes ranks" when life is hard. I just want to circle around my family and make the whole world go away. And it has been HARD, HARD, HARD this year. But through volunteering at the school and my calling at church I have had to open up and make it all work. I totally changed my attitude to I will do my best, and whatever that is-- is what it is.

It's been freeing on one hand because I don't need to do something perfectly or submit tons of my time to make it as good as I know I could make it if I had all the time in the world. And frustrating because at times I feel like I have had to make choices to settle for adequate instead of AWESOME! And there is the craziness of being busy but that is an environment I thrive on.

Two special things came out of it and I can see now why I was inspired to take the job. First, I met the sweetest lady Melissa. She has become a dear friend and I love her! Visiting with her as we worked on projects was rejuvinating. I don't think I have made a new friend in quite awhile. It just seems hard for me.

Secondly, we had a MAJOR issue come up with one of our sons at school the last few months of school. We've never really had anything ever happen that couldn't just be solved by talking to the teacher for a couple of minutes. So it was HUGE when we needed to approach mutiple teachers, adminstrators, and the counselor for something completely unexpected.

I won't go into any details about it, but at a time when Ken and I felt helpless and vulnerable to help our son we were supported and loved by all the staff that we talked to. I feel so incredibly blessed to have my children go to their school. Our experience over the last two months has been amazing. I hear so many horror stories out there about bad experiences parents have when talking to administrators. And ours has been so very different. I cannot thank them enough for all that they have done for our son.

Frankly, Ken and I have had the attitude that we are there to support the school and we are basically prepared to teach our child everything at home. It's great when we don't need too but if our child is struggling in school we feel like it's our duty as parents to help our children it's not the school's responsibility.

It is a very different thing when we have realized all the support we have drawn upon from their school community. Especially during this very trying time. We feel so blessed to have the school's support and their help in raising our child. Did I just keel over backwards??? That is something I never ever thought I would say, Seriously, we are very much like these are our--like only "our" children. We don't even let sweet ladies at church hold our babies, like that's how bad we are. Even Lola only gets maybe 20-30 minutes and she is their grandma!

I am so thankful that even with this attitude that we both have volunteered quite a bit at school. Ken has always spent quite a bit of time in the boys classes too. Let's be honest, it was volunteering selfishly though, just because we wanted tabs on our kids and their environment. We aren't chatty "shoot the breeze with the principal" types but at least they have recognized us as parents who care enough to come in frequently. And then this year with my position they actually knew my name.

I know it has made a world of difference in our son's school life, he needs to have 15-20 adults supporting him and building him up, it is not something Ken and I can do all on our own. We have some wonderful educators and I think they probably would have tried to help anyways. But not to the extent of going back and forth with me mutiple times to see how our family would prefer to handle things, checking up on us, and building up our son to the extent that they have--I think that came from knowing us and seeing us frequently before there ever was a huge issue to deal with.