What to do?

I've worked very hard this weekend. I've had a lot of fun with my family but I have gotten a lot of work done. I've corrected every paper that I brought home with me. I recorded the grades in my grade book. I even have my report grades for math, science, social studies and writing complete now.

I don't mind working this hard when I know that it's going somewhere. If I know that the work will be used, I'm happy to do it. (At least most of the time.) This weekend I was able to map out my math instruction from tomorrow until the end of December. I know that it may have to change a little because life doesn't always happen according to plans but I have even tried to allow for some extra time. I am so much more relaxed about my planning for the next few months now because of this.

I attempted to do the same thing in reading. I've gotten a rough outline in place for the same time frame but there is so much more wiggle room and so much more planning involved that I'm not sure how much more I could do with it now and not get to far ahead of myself.

The children seem to learn Math in more of a linear pattern and reading acquisition can be so sporadic. One day I child can not read, the next they can. Some kids struggle everyday but through there hard work they learn just a little bit more until it all adds up. It is so much more personal then the way that Math seems to be in the classroom.

There are some things that I can plan out. I have that part planned now but there is so much that could be totally meaningless if I did it now.

I will be doing this for science and writing as well. I just did not have enough time to do it this weekend and grade papers and see my family and sleep.

I got so much done at home as well. I took a nap both days. We went shopping together as a family. Mr. Husband and I did a lot of cleaning and even more organizing. The place is starting to really come together and it's feeling more like our place and less like a really nice hotel.

Probably the most fun this weekend was taking out the garbage. I know that sounds so wrong. I hate to take out the garbage. I really leave that job to Mr. Husband as much as possible. We just had gone through so much stuff around the house, that there was a bit of it.

We have a trash compactor by the gates of the condo. It's neat and it's easy and because it's a compactor and not a dumpster, there is always room to throw things away. Usually we end up driving the garbage to the compactor on the way out. Today we walked it out.

Each member of the family was in charge of some box, bag or container. I started walking with the kids as Mr. Husband walked around the apartment one last time to see if there was something that we had missed. The kids had decided that we would beat Daddy to the compactor. The whole thing turned into a race with my little garbage gnomes running all over.

We returned to a clean apartment and much laughter. The end of a perfect working weekend.