working, walking and a sick kid

Why is it that I have grand plans and then life gets in the way?

Work started up and every day night comes before I run out of things to do.  I usually go to bed at 9pm to make sure I get enough beauty rest so as not to scare the children the next day.  But, sure enough I still have way too many things on my to do list and writing something that would interest anyone but me doesn't seem to make the list.

a view from the path I take

I am working on my teacher of the year essays.  There are a lot of them and the problem isn't that I don't have something to say about each topic, the problem is I have too much to say.  On the first set of essays that I wrote to win teacher of the year for my district, I could manipulate things and adjust the margins and shrink the font.  My daughter showed me a trick where I could squish the letters together and squeeze a couple of extra sentences onto the page so that the page limit of 2 pages really meant almost 3 pages of writing if it was standard 2 inch margins.  Now, the new format is a PDF where the margins are set and it is double spaced.  When I tried to copy and paste what I had already written, it expanded into 4 1/2 pages.  I have so much to cut out that the original essay doesn't make any sense.  I'm a teacher after all and have a lot of stories to tell!  I know I get that from my dad who has written volumes and that's only about what he had for lunch yesterday.

This area drains the subdivision I live in

I have a goal to lose 12 pounds in 12 weeks and while that seems like a very achievable accomplishment, just putting my mind to something isn't really working well.  I'm cutting out donuts and sweets that are everywhere at work.  Almost on a daily basis someone brings something yummy to work and it is rude to not eat what is offered.  I've been trying on and buying dresses for when I eventually win the National Teacher of the Year and get to go to the White House and meet the President.  I've found several dresses that I love but which are a bit too tight.  Have a dream and knowing that if I lost just a few pounds the dress would look much better is a great motivation.  However, I do have to win the title of National TOTY first.  There are quite a few steps to take to get there and only one teacher out of the 3 million will get that honor.  Even if I don't win, I still need to get healthier and eating a donut every day isn't the best option for optimum health. 

Because it is a drainage area, no houses will ever be built here.  Several houses in my area have gates to allow access to this path so very few people walk back here.

 

I keep bugging my dad to watch what he eats.  He has heart failure and diabetes and his doctor has been bugging him to cut out the sweets and salt and sometimes it's the good food that make life worth living.  It's a Catch 22.  You enjoy living because of the food, but it's the food that is killing you.

So, I'm trying to cook healthy food that also tastes great.

I bought an Instant Pot and have found that I enjoy trying new recipes that cook quickly and also taste great.  My family isn't really into trying new things and my husband would be happy eating a tuna fish sandwich every day.  He has the same turkey sandwich, banana and cup of Raisin Bran every day for lunch 7 days a week.

I'm also trying to exercise every day, mixing things up with a 10 minute app I have on my phone that takes me through different whole body workouts and then walking.  I've been getting 5,000 steps in every day this year so far.  That's a big improvement over last year where I was lucky to get in 2,000 most days.  I'm trying to be more active in the classroom and instead of having the kids come up to me while I sit at my desk, I will go over to the students and move around the room more.  I am more tired at the end of the day but try to resist the urge to plop myself down on the couch and take a nap.  I will have a cup of coffee with hot chocolate in the afternoon.  The caffeine doesn't keep me awake at night.  I can sleep through anything.  As soon as my head hits the pillow, I'm out.

I had grand plans this weekend to get a lot of stuff done and then yesterday when I got home from the grocery store, my youngest was complaining that his hips hurt.  He's 13 so I figured he just didn't want to help carry in the groceries.  Then, he said his head hurt and he had a cough.  Sure enough, he has the flu.  Today was Binky Sunday and I still had plans to go, but then he started throwing up and said he was too weak to get up off the bathroom floor.

A phone call to the doctor and he is now on Tamiflu.  She said it should shorten the flu by about 1/2.  I've had students out all week with this one, so maybe he will only be sick for 3-4 more days.  He says the cough is the worst part.  He has a fever and headache too.  Poor little guy.  He's almost as big as me, but when he gets sick he's still my little guy.

So, my friend Carla saved the day for Binky Patrol and watched over the ladies as they sewed quilt tops and I cancelled the students who were going to come and cut fabric.  I will have them work another day after school.  Or, maybe next weekend.

We changed our insurance this year and are now using a Health Savings Account so we have to pay for everything up front until we reach our deductible which is $5200 for the family.  The Tamiflu cost $166.00.  The poor pharmacy assistant couldn't believe how expensive it was.  She thought something was wrong and tried running it again.  Then I explained how we had to pay for it up front.  I think it will still be cheaper than what we were on before because we were paying $1600 a month for insurance.  Crazy!  Now we pay $1300 but our school and union just settled our contract for this year and we are going to get a 3.25% raise and get an extra $100 added onto our medical insurance.  Good thing it's only numbers on paper that don't really have real meaning or value.  Imagine if you had to carry around that many pennies!  Or sea shells, or gold bars.

I guess I should go sterilize the bathroom and try to keep the germs isolated to just my son.  Or perhaps it is hopeless and I should just accept my fate.