It is impossible to think I started this blog so long ago and do so little writing in it. I am a self-confessed 'starter but non finisher' of tasks, especially tasks like writing journals or blogging. I have two blogs. I had been planning to start a third to chronicle my teaching career and may still do that (my teaching career is still new - only 6 months old) so it may still be salvagable, but as a first year teacher I *know* that it's been so hectic I probably wouldn't have kept that up either.
My last post was in Jan, when life was pretty normal...I had just received notice of a job and was waiting for my teacher registration to come in...then I spent a relatively normal month hanging out with my kids on the school holidays.
On 4 Feb I started my new job...it was a Friday. I came home from work exhilerated but exhausted, looking forward to movie night with my kids. The weather was wet, the rain was falling sideways and N (9) and G (11) and I went outside to play in it, but it was cold too so we came indoors, made some hot chocolate and got warm. I ordered pizza, picked up O (4), picked up the pizza arrived home to find Doug had brought me flowers to celebrate my first day in my new career. We are watching our movie as a family, munching on some pizza and the rain becomes torrential, smashing against the windows.
The power went out (this happens in storms, no biggie) so Doug goes outside and flips off the transformer cause that's the kind of man he is (worried that a surge when it comes back on will fry the electrics.) We are just talking about finding the candles, because it's not yet dark, when the light fixtures start dripping water onto the wedding photos on the coffee table. I go to get a towel from the bathroom while Doug goes to get a pot and as I walk by N's room am shocked to see his light downlights are not dripping, they are pouring water onto the floor and bed like a tap. Oh hell!
Run around like a maniac, pick up the bed, pots under drips, then note our bedroom light is also dripping, though slowly. I say to N, "it looks like you'll be sleeping in G's room tonight, head over to S&S's house and ask to borrow their air mattress. I take a minute to light a candle and go to the loo and while I am sitting there I hear this *pwoofing* sound...sort of like the sound you hear if you drop a big paperback book (big as in wide and long pages but not thick so that it bangs) and as it hits the carpet you hear this whooshing sound as the air escapes from underneath, but louder...I go to see what the kids have done now in the dark, only to find the whooshing sound of air was not from a book, but from the plasterboard of N's ceiling hitting the carpet...his entire ceiling collapsed.
Cue panic...actually cue "get the kids safely out of the house". I ring Steve and tell him to keep N there, I go with G and O to pack up a bag and sleeping bags to take to Soph and Steve's (our best friends who luckily last year bought the house 4 doors down from us. As we are walking through the dining area (open plan living), the entire loungeroom ceiling collapses, taking part of the kitchen ceiling with it...as we were under it when it collapsed and barely got out of the way in time I was in survival mode...passed both kids over the kitchen bench to Doug and got out of there. I can' t remember who I was on the phone with at which times, but we spent the night at Neisha's, then moved in with Soph and Steve until insurance could sort us out...which took 4 months. By some miracle, Doug thought to move the car out of the garage, because low and behold, when we came back to the house later the garage ceiling had also collapsed.
Most of our other friends and colleagues, and most of Sophie's and Steve's friends and colleagues did the "I don't know how you can bear living with friends, (or having friends live with you, depending on which side of the friendship you are on) it must be so hard." And it was hard, for both families, but we got through it, we don't hate each other (though I have noticed we've kept a healthy distance from each other since we moved back into our place a few weeks ago, just to recover and readjust and because we love each other and are closer in some ways because of the situation.
My own personal experience was hard for me to live with. I am not used to having to look out for me and to not have time or energy to help others when they need it. But with trying to keep body and soul together living in someone else's home, dealing with what had happened to our own house, starting a new job different to anything I had ever done before, the kids starting back at school etc I just didn't have any energy for that...almost 5 months later I still don't feel that I have that energy for self-recovery let alone supporting others around me, but the eternal optimist in me says I do and I will...someday soon.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The end of an era (otherwise known as finally giving formal study the boot)
I submitted the final assignment in my Masters of Teaching (Primary) degree a few weeks ago. Funnily enough, I didn't feel elation or pride, I didn't feel "what now?" and didn't collapse in a tired heap (well I sort of did, but that wasn't the first thing I did.)
My very first thought upon completion of my degree was "You are so bloody lazy, you should have finished this in 3 years, not six (or maybe it was seven) and there's no real GOOD reason you didn't." I struggled with myself. Most of my friends say "I don't know how you did it in 6 years? Holding down a full time job, three kids, one of them born in the midst of the study, managing Nathan, a husband who let's face it, isn't that supportive when it comes down to the wire and volunteering at school for parent help." So on one hand I have achieved something amazing, it's a master's degree for Pete's sake, and in one camp you have the pom pom brigade waving me through, on the other side you have me.
Regardless, upon marking of said final assignment, I will have a degree which enables me to teach, and teach I shall. After 10 applications and 3 interviews, Caroline Springs College has done me the honour of offering me a job. Grade Five classroom of 24 students. I was a bit surprised as I hadn't done any teaching rounds in a senior primary classroom. I am elated, excited, scared shitless. People laugh and say "you'll manage" but I am really at a loss as to what I am supposed to do after I say "Hello Class, My name is Mrs Jackson..." *can you hear the extended silence too???*
So now to wait for my temporary Victorian Teachers Registration number, wait for my University to finish my marking and send my transcripts to VIT, wait for MSVU to send my transcripts from my first degree to VIT and then pray VIT processes it all by 31 Jan so that I can actually start teaching and don't lost my position.
Watch this space...though I may just have to start a teachers blog...submissions of friends for names for the blog that will feature "exploits of a graduate teacher, namely me" are now being considered
(PS: I love it when the word "shitless" comes up on the spell checker as incorrect. Makes me giggle.)
My very first thought upon completion of my degree was "You are so bloody lazy, you should have finished this in 3 years, not six (or maybe it was seven) and there's no real GOOD reason you didn't." I struggled with myself. Most of my friends say "I don't know how you did it in 6 years? Holding down a full time job, three kids, one of them born in the midst of the study, managing Nathan, a husband who let's face it, isn't that supportive when it comes down to the wire and volunteering at school for parent help." So on one hand I have achieved something amazing, it's a master's degree for Pete's sake, and in one camp you have the pom pom brigade waving me through, on the other side you have me.
Regardless, upon marking of said final assignment, I will have a degree which enables me to teach, and teach I shall. After 10 applications and 3 interviews, Caroline Springs College has done me the honour of offering me a job. Grade Five classroom of 24 students. I was a bit surprised as I hadn't done any teaching rounds in a senior primary classroom. I am elated, excited, scared shitless. People laugh and say "you'll manage" but I am really at a loss as to what I am supposed to do after I say "Hello Class, My name is Mrs Jackson..." *can you hear the extended silence too???*
So now to wait for my temporary Victorian Teachers Registration number, wait for my University to finish my marking and send my transcripts to VIT, wait for MSVU to send my transcripts from my first degree to VIT and then pray VIT processes it all by 31 Jan so that I can actually start teaching and don't lost my position.
Watch this space...though I may just have to start a teachers blog...submissions of friends for names for the blog that will feature "exploits of a graduate teacher, namely me" are now being considered
(PS: I love it when the word "shitless" comes up on the spell checker as incorrect. Makes me giggle.)
Being Sick duing the Christmas School Holidays
I am currently sick. I have been sick since 28 December. The chronology is something like:
28 December: go to bed with sore throat
29 December: wake up with sore throat, fever, chills, headache and swollen glands
30 December: I feel sick, nausea and body aches have joined the party, sleep on and of all day, do not get up other than to have a hot shower to steam the shit of of my head or to go pee.
31 December: Screw getting up out of bed at all...though I did rise for an hour to say farewell to Meg and Ted and I did step out to the park on the corner to watch the illegal fireworks at 11.58 and was back in bed at 12.10
1 January: you guessed it, stayed in bed all day but fever seems to be waning.
2 January: on the mend but my face is on FIRE, so much pain, bad headache and hyper sensitive to touch
3 January: panadeine forte (Tylenol 3) and Nurofen are not even touching the pain
4 January: go to dentist to see if pain is being caused by a filled tooth that really probably needs a root canal. Doc says NOPE TOOTH MUST COME OUT but it appears as if infection has set into the jaw, so course of antibiotics and an appointment for extraction next week...the good news is the meds used to freeze the tooth give me a few hours relief from the headache, not to mention for the first time in 12 months I don't have the 'cold' sensation so I splurge on a Vanilla Milkshake, swish it lavishly around my mouth, just because I can...and promptly throw it up in the bin outside Safeway.
5 January: managed to get out of bed by 1pm, make a loaf of banana bread and then entertain coffee guests (who were so wonderfully simple and easy) for a couple of hours, then back to bed.
Now if you managed to get through all of that you should know that I am spectacularly pissed off about being sick. I have better things to do. I promised my kids that seeing as I had to study through every one of the school holiday periods in 2010 that THIS school holiday would be special, that THIS school holiday would see my gorgeous kids spending time with their gorgeous mother in the throws of mother-child spending time together ecstasy, just like you see in all of those stupid-assed commercials designed to make you feel that if you aren't spending every single second of your day laughing and frolicking with your kids you are somehow lacking as a mother.
Harumph - I didn't see the kids in those commercials laying smack down on the sibling because they accidentally got sand in water play tub, or her gorgeous toddler wandering away while you are mashalling said fight because something caught his eye, like a butterfly, spending a frantic half hour searching and wondering and worrying, while trying not to lose the other two kids who frankly don't give a damn that their little brother has wandered off and would rather just go home without him.
OK I am tired just thinking about a blissful day out to the park with a picnic lunch and think being sick may just be a reasonable excuse not to do it. I should have thought about that before I got out of bed today after almost a week of seeing nothing but the four walls of my bedroom. A loaf of homemade banana bread was met by a chorus of "Yah! Mom is out of bed...can we go to the pool tomorrow?"
I think I prefer the flu!
28 December: go to bed with sore throat
29 December: wake up with sore throat, fever, chills, headache and swollen glands
30 December: I feel sick, nausea and body aches have joined the party, sleep on and of all day, do not get up other than to have a hot shower to steam the shit of of my head or to go pee.
31 December: Screw getting up out of bed at all...though I did rise for an hour to say farewell to Meg and Ted and I did step out to the park on the corner to watch the illegal fireworks at 11.58 and was back in bed at 12.10
1 January: you guessed it, stayed in bed all day but fever seems to be waning.
2 January: on the mend but my face is on FIRE, so much pain, bad headache and hyper sensitive to touch
3 January: panadeine forte (Tylenol 3) and Nurofen are not even touching the pain
4 January: go to dentist to see if pain is being caused by a filled tooth that really probably needs a root canal. Doc says NOPE TOOTH MUST COME OUT but it appears as if infection has set into the jaw, so course of antibiotics and an appointment for extraction next week...the good news is the meds used to freeze the tooth give me a few hours relief from the headache, not to mention for the first time in 12 months I don't have the 'cold' sensation so I splurge on a Vanilla Milkshake, swish it lavishly around my mouth, just because I can...and promptly throw it up in the bin outside Safeway.
5 January: managed to get out of bed by 1pm, make a loaf of banana bread and then entertain coffee guests (who were so wonderfully simple and easy) for a couple of hours, then back to bed.
Now if you managed to get through all of that you should know that I am spectacularly pissed off about being sick. I have better things to do. I promised my kids that seeing as I had to study through every one of the school holiday periods in 2010 that THIS school holiday would be special, that THIS school holiday would see my gorgeous kids spending time with their gorgeous mother in the throws of mother-child spending time together ecstasy, just like you see in all of those stupid-assed commercials designed to make you feel that if you aren't spending every single second of your day laughing and frolicking with your kids you are somehow lacking as a mother.
Harumph - I didn't see the kids in those commercials laying smack down on the sibling because they accidentally got sand in water play tub, or her gorgeous toddler wandering away while you are mashalling said fight because something caught his eye, like a butterfly, spending a frantic half hour searching and wondering and worrying, while trying not to lose the other two kids who frankly don't give a damn that their little brother has wandered off and would rather just go home without him.
OK I am tired just thinking about a blissful day out to the park with a picnic lunch and think being sick may just be a reasonable excuse not to do it. I should have thought about that before I got out of bed today after almost a week of seeing nothing but the four walls of my bedroom. A loaf of homemade banana bread was met by a chorus of "Yah! Mom is out of bed...can we go to the pool tomorrow?"
I think I prefer the flu!
God I suck at Blog Writing
I decided to write a blog, I wrote the introductory post and then promptly, in true Aries style, forgot all about it. Something on Facebook today prompted me to start a blog and in the corner of my mind I remembered I considered blogging, did I actually do it...and yes "SMS - Shaken Mother Syndrome" came up in my computer's memory when I typed in blogspot.com (don't ask me how I remembered this as a blog name)
OK, so I probably have a heap of things to correct, like the comment in my previous post about "our 10 year old sons" has changed to "my 11 year old son and my friend's about to turn 11 in a few weeks year old son." Other than that most things are the same. Gonna post a few posts, on different subjects and holding my random thoughts on each to those subjects, just to keep my mind organised.
My mind flitters from thing to thing. I am terrible at remembering birthdays, I can never tell you if one event happened before a different event, and as i can never remember when either event occurred it really doesn't matter, I continually run 10 - 15 mins late and yet my friends still love me...let's see if any of them bother to read this.
OK, so I probably have a heap of things to correct, like the comment in my previous post about "our 10 year old sons" has changed to "my 11 year old son and my friend's about to turn 11 in a few weeks year old son." Other than that most things are the same. Gonna post a few posts, on different subjects and holding my random thoughts on each to those subjects, just to keep my mind organised.
My mind flitters from thing to thing. I am terrible at remembering birthdays, I can never tell you if one event happened before a different event, and as i can never remember when either event occurred it really doesn't matter, I continually run 10 - 15 mins late and yet my friends still love me...let's see if any of them bother to read this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)