Swimming in the Deep End


Do you ever feel that no matter what you do that you are going to sink? I hate that claustraphobic feeling of things closing in on me. As school is coming to an end within the next month I look around my classroom/library and see that we still have a ton of work to complete. There are still so many more things that I want the kids to learn before the end of the year. Robby and Megan are just finishing up Algebra1 & 2 and need to get on to the next level. Andrew is stil tackling his pre-algebra and Nathaniel...is almost done! woo hoo. That's math..Anabelle finished her math curriculum about a month ago. We are really concentrating on continued growth in reading for her. There are so many uncertainties in this world and I am seeing first hand that getting the kids to finish all their work is one of those uncertainties...I want them to complete every last problem, but reality says,"Hey, when you were teaching in the public system the kids NEVER finished all their subjects." How many of you got all the way through your math book? Soooo.... I don't want to be the kind of mom that settles for part done, part taught, part prepared. I want the kids to be completely done, well taught, and best prepared. So...when I feel like I have the weight of five kids and 8 subjects sitting on the middle of my chest and feeling like an elephant is crushing me....I will remember that it's ok to tread water for a bit in order to catch my breath. Who says that school has to only be 179 days out of the year? Why not use each day as an opportunity to teach our kids; not just in the sense of text book knowledge...but real life knowledge. I want them to take out that magnifier and look at the crawling little buggies of the world. I want them to be able to watch the robbins nesting in the nests that they have built at the top of our porch pillars. I want them to do fun kitchen experiments....but clean up after themselves.

Treading water is something that I have not mastered in my life...I need to do it a little more frequently. The world will not come to an end if I step back from all the things that I do in order to catch my breath.

Speaking of water and treading it....Megan had her preliminary Life Guard Test yesterday. They had her swim an 800? (whatever that is). well, in the middle of it, she couldn't catch her breath and she stopped for a minute or so and then kept going til she finished. Then they had her retrieve a big cement block from the deep end of the pool without touching the sides of the pool at all. After the test was over the instructor called off three names and Megan was one of them. Out of a bunch of girls, she thought "Great, I didn't make it" because there were so many girls there. Then the instructor said, "Ok , Girls we want you and come by the pool to fill out your application we have jobs for you." She could not believe her ears. After she came home she told me that she was afraid that she may have just dreamed that he said that they wanted her and that in actuality, they didn't want her. Too funny. This is an incredible blessing...as many of you know, Meg has asthma, but has never let that slow her down. She finished her task at hand and had even forgot to take her inhaler with her. She tells me that she knows it was God because she prayed the whole time that she was swimming. The instructor offered to pay for her certification if she would agree to guard at the outdoor pool this summer. She is so excited. I asked her if she is going to quit her job checking at HyVee and she tells me that she wants to do both jobs.. I think it's too much, so I guess I'll take the whimps way out and have Bob tell her that she can only guard...lol. He should love that! Meg is my determined child, so he's in for a good discussion.

Well, the kids are all up and having their breakfasts so I have to run. Have a great day and remember, it's ok to tread water for a little bit....life isn't an 800.