What a Week!

I realize that I haven't gotten a post up all week. This past week was...challenging; both at work and at home. It wasn't bad, it just maxed me out. A coworker who was exceedingly difficult to work with recently quit. While I'm actually pretty glad that she's gone because I think it will lessen the drama that we've had to deal with at work, the first week without her there was a bit stressful. I'm absorbing a big part of what she did, and her training was rushed, and the notes are full of holes, so taking care of those tasks was basically trial and error. The bigger problem is the things that I'm not taking on, which I've also had to figure out so I could train the people who are taking them on. The other issue was the three major errors that I discovered last week that had to be cleaned up; such a fabulous parting gift! In the meantime I also had all of my own work to do. This past week at work flew by though, and I was never bored.

Then at home we've been dealing with school issues. For my daughter she's just incredibly busy in advanced classes and with marching band, but is still doing really well. I feel bad that she's always got so much on her plate though. I had actually planned on getting a post up yesterday afternoon because I thought I'd have time. My daughter's school band does really well in parade marching because they're really good at the technical marching and playing. But the competitions are different and seem to be more about art, which I guess isn't her school's strong suit. They hadn't made finals in the competitions since anyone who is currently in the band has been there. So we figured we'd go watch the show (which was hosted by my high school alma mater) in the morning and then head home for the afternoon. But lo and behold, they made finals yesterday. It was really exciting for the kids, and derailed our Saturday evening plans. I did manage a walk in the foothills where the stadium is located in between times because it was such a nice, cool day.

Marching around their heart in their "Story of the Heart" show.

Low clouds over the foothills near the stadium.

The path up the back side of the hill.

My son is having a different experience at school. I returned to my desk from a meeting Friday morning to find a message from the school that my son's teachers would be meeting with him in the afternoon. Luckily both my husband and I were able to attend so we could try to figure out how we can help. One of his teachers said that if she could grade him on his contributions to discussions he'd be doing wonderfully because he really contributes and sees things differently than the other students. The problem is that she has to grade him on the work he turns in, which he's not putting any effort into at the moment. Another teacher showed us a paper where my son had actually written "idk" as the answer. My head just about exploded on that one. So now we're doing research on how to help kids internalize motivation. I'm definitely earning my parental stripes with this kiddo.

We're finally having some sustained cool weather here, and I'm loving it. It feels like autumn and the nights are finally becoming more conducive to sleeping. I'm hoping this coming week will be a little calmer. Work is still going to be busy, but hopefully it will start to level off soon. My daughter still has several evening events and another marching band competition next Saturday, though now I feel like we have a better idea what to expect. My son did his homework this weekend, and promised his favorite teacher that he would just do his work this coming week whether he felt like it or not to see how much smoother things will go for him. So maybe I'll have some time this week to get a couple of posts up, and maybe I won't be quite so maxed out. But I guess only time will tell.

The red leaves in one of my neighbor's trees.