Writing Hiatus: Am I Back? Who Knows...

Walter - just because I love him!!
Well, that was a rough week - I had food poisoning last Sunday after eating something I made on both Saturday and Sunday - only got food poisoning on Sunday for some reason. I did not go to work on Monday - it is hard to sing when nauseous - I slept instead. Last week went slowly and culminated with my second-to-last Talent Show. Nothing happened at the show, thank all things good and wholesome, and now we are on the downward slope to next week when all the end of the school year stuff happens. This week has a field trip for one group of students this morning. As far as I know, there is nothing else happening.

Next week is a different story.

We have graduation and then the end of the school carnival. After that, we will be done for a week before coming back and doing things all over again.

Since I work in a psychiatric residential treatment facility school, my students are in school year round. That means that I am working year round. I really don't mind it much, but it would be nice to have a summer off every now and then. As it is, I have three more months of summer school before I retire from this job, so let's go!

I am starting my countdown for retirement. I am getting excited about leaving and going to something new, but I am also conscious that I still have thirteen months of work left at this facility. I don't want to be one of those employees that slacks off because the end is in sight. It is time to get going rather than sit back.

I can do this. At the end of each month, I will take home part of my stuff. I can bring home my die-cuts right now. I haven't used them for a couple of months, so it is time to bring them here. I can go through them and remove all the die-cuts that have been torn or wrinkled beyond recognition. That will wait until after I host my family members and go through my next round of medical procedures. I don't need to bring anything else into this house until after they leave.

I spent yesterday working on clearing my office/craft room. The robot vacuum can wander more freely now. I also started putting the twin bed frame together. I need to do some more rearranging in the library (where the new bed frame is going) before I can continue, but I hope that I can get things finished this afternoon after work. I am chipping away at my chore list slowly but surely.

It is a full moon day. That moon is gorgeous!

I was up early and am trying to keep myself going now that it is my usual time to wake and get going. I have already gone through my entire social media routine, played my game, and am now blogging for the first time in more than a week. I need to take a shower before heading out into the dawn, so that is what I will be doing in the near future.

I have four groups today - my other group is going on a field trip like I mentioned before. Since this is my last full week of sessions, I am trying to figure out what I can do with these groups that will continue to address our overall goals while taking into consideration the fact that we are all burned out with school. I told my students that guitars would be part of this week's sessions, so I need to bring the instruments in. I guess we will do some leisure programming.

My students do not do a good job of finding things to keep them occupied when they are not in structured programming developed and led by others. When faced with open cabinets and choices, they often just sit there. They can't find things to do. It is interesting to watch, but I also feel some responsibility to help them figure things out.

I have tons of stuff in my cabinets. Do you like playing cards? I have them. Fidgets? I've got them, too. I have balls for tossing, catching, feeling. I also have ribbons for dancing, instruments to play, and lots of things that make sounds. It is rare that someone plays with someone else, but that is typical for my students. I am going to offer opportunities to play this week. We will see how people handle it all. I am not sure that they will, but it is good to reassess these things every so often.

It is time to get going on my week. 

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