June Currently

Summer vacation is here! Woohoo! Technically, I'm not quite done. I have to finish packing up my classroom, and I still have a few things to finish for mailing out report cards, but the hard part -- managing 27 excited fourth graders before summer break -- is over. I'm on my own schedule now.

And still waking up at 5:30am sans alarm clock every morning... sigh...

Listening - I just sent my final report cards and test scores to the printer. Now I just have to stuff them into envelopes, but oh -- it's good to be done!

Loving - I was supposed to be taking two classes this summer, but the first one (a prerequisite for the second) was cancelled due to low enrollment. I took that as a sign (excuse?) that I'm supposed to take a break this summer, and I'm loving that. I have a huge "to do" list of things I want to accomplish, and it's a huge stress relief to know that I won't have to write any papers or travel to classes throughout the week.

Thinking - Many of my favorite people at work are moving on to new adventures next year, so it will be a very different place when I return at the end of July. I'm going to miss them a ton! Since I'm also moving classrooms, I'll have a very different environment with new neighbors. I like fresh starts and new opportunities, but I'm still sad to say goodbye to my current friends and neighbors who I'll hardly get to see next year. At least there's Facebook to keep in touch!

Wanting - My parents live in Michigan, and I haven't seen them since Christmas. The long distance thing didn't bother me so much before I had my daughter, but now I really want them around more and more. They're coming to visit next week and staying for 10 days. If I had my way, they'd move to Atlanta permanently. I'm so excited that they're visiting!

Needing - My newest obsession is the FX show "The Americans." If you haven't seen it, you really should. It's set in the 1980s, and it's about two KGB agents who are posing as Americans to spy for the Soviet Union. It's a really good drama with very interesting characters, and my husband and I have jammed through all of season 1 and most of season 2. Of course, because my eyes automatically close at 10pm, I fell asleep through an episode last night, and I have to catch up today so we can finish the season together tonight. Summer vacation can be so rough!

Summer Bucket List - I have lots of goals for the summer, but no "must do" tasks. So here are my three:
1. Read fiction - I'm terrible with this throughout the year, especially now that I'm back in grad school, too. I'd really love to read a couple books each week just for the fun of it. I miss doing that!
2. Finish projects - this is broad and includes a lot of areas -- school projects, home projects, knitting projects, organizing projects, etc. I love starting projects, but I'm not always the best at finishing them in a timely manner. I'd like to wrap up a few of those this summer so I'm starting fresh in the fall.
3. Relax! Juggling full-time teaching and part-time PhD work was really intense. I don't think I appreciated how hard I'd been working until the semester ended, and I realized how much more free time I had. Since everything starts up again in the fall, I'd like to just relax and take it easy this summer. No pressure to tackle everything on my possible to do list or anything like that. Less school work and more manicures, I say! That sounds like a great summer plan to me.

Of course, while the summer will be full of relaxation, I'm also planning to blog a lot more. I've had a big pile of posts banked up for a while now, and since I finally have my own schedule, I'll be back here pretty regularly. I hope that you'll stick around and leave me comments! I'm also going to be starting my summer book clubs tomorrow, so stay tuned for the first post about When Writing with Technology Matters!