Long term sub position posted!

The position for my long term substitute was posted today! To say this makes me nervous is an understatement! I am sure what everyone tells me is true: once Ponyo arrives I won't stress about my job until it is time to go back next August! Right now I am worried that we won't find someone awesome and at the same time I am worried that whoever is hired for the last 5 months of the school year will be better at MY JOB than I am. I can't help it. I want to be wanted. I want to be missed. This job has been a huge (arguably a too huge) part of my life and identity for over 4 years now. I will still have a presence at school as I will continue to serve on the teacher leadership council while on leave. I am taking January off completely and starting in February it will be a commitment that requires me to attend 1 meeting a month and to lead the specialist meeting once a month. Not too bad. I figure it will get me out of the apartment (which will be no small feat in Minnesota in winter with a baby. Ugh to cold and snow) and provide good contact with my coworkers and long term sub without being over the top. I've already had multiple teachers offer to watch Ponyo for that 1 hour a month that I have to be in the meeting with the other teacher leaders and my principal. My team is excited to see her once a month at our meetings :) I hope that attending and leading the meetings will make the transition back to work easier next summer/fall since it will allow me to stay in the loop.

I am glad to be feeling as well as I do for 30 weeks. My sleep is starting to get a little bit funny. I am beat by 8pm or so and usually fall asleep on the couch by 9pm. Then I wake up between 11 and midnight and am wide awake for a couple of hours. Then I go to bed and wake up around 3 or 4 and lay in bed as long as I can stand (I try to stay in bed until my alarm goes off at 5:30 but I start to get stir crazy). The positive to the early wake time is that I have been getting to work before 7am, which gives me about an hour and a half of prep time before my first class starts. Since I am not exhausted from teaching in the morning, I get A LOT done and can leave school a bit earlier in the afternoon. I've been getting home between 4:30 and 5pm, which is so nice!

I am looking forward to this coming weekend. Friday and Saturday is my Art Educators Conference. There will be over 300 art teachers gathered to learn and network. It is always so much fun and refreshes my enthusiasm for my job as the year starts to take a toll on me. Also this weekend (Friday-Sunday) is my henna group's convention! So, by day I will be an art teacher and by night I will be a henna artist! So much fun! I have already had 2 henna artists ask to henna my belly, which will be neat.

Thinking of all of you (and trying to check in and comment on the weekends and weekdays if possible). Hope everyone has a great election day tomorrow!