My home away from home

As the school year is almost at an end, the traditional cleaning, tidying and purging begins.

I spent more awake hours in my classroom during a weekday than I do anywhere else so it seems only natural that over time, it slowly became my nest... my home away from home.

I am grateful that I don't have to pack up my classroom each June as I know many schools have their teachers do. I am also grateful that I don't have to move rooms.  I helped a colleague move rooms last year. A whole lot of lifting packing and trecking up to the second floor and across the building.

I moved buildings two years ago. I had over 85 boxes AFTER I had purged probably half of my things. Craziness.

Now I just have to move things off the portable shelves so that the furniture can be moved out by maintenance when they wax the floors.

As I look around my room I can see so much of ME there, to make it truly a home away from home.

• Family momentos. I have pics of my boys all over in my room. Pics of my sisters and their kids. Pics of all the next generation of my clan. The kids love looking at them and trying to decide who looks like me
• Wall art - I have the art décor my niece has made for me. Little pieces students have gifted me with over the years. A landscape scene my son made me when he and his GF and MIL went to one of those paint parties
• Stuffed animals. I brought a big teddy bear one year for a pajama day and it never left. It's amazing how it can calm ppl when they are having a bad day. My school mascot and former school mascot hang out on my shelves.
• Coffee. My Keurig. The staffroom is super far and no one makes coffee in it anymore. There are little nooks here and there throughout the building where people have their own maker. The gyms. The library. The main secretary's office. The science dudes. This gives me my cup or two each day and occasional reward treats of hot chocolate for the kids. Sometimes I make a cup of amazing Chai tea. I never get a chance to drink it hot but the smell is amazing.  I have a little basket with my supplies of coffee/tea/hc and a few sugars and stir sticks. I don't do creamer so those wandering by in a desperate caffeine need have to bring their own.
• My scentsy. It's a tiny little cute one with no bulb that sits on a shelf behind my desk. There are no scent allergies in my class so I am good to go. I choose something really really mild. The students' favourite this year is a kind called 'candy dandy' that is no longer made. boo.  A group of 13 year olds with me all but gym class can get really scenty. This just ........helps.
• The pharmacy. Just things a person needs throughout the year. A5/35 and Icy Hot for aches and pains. Some motrin. cough drops. Non drowsy allergy pills. Vicks vapo rub. Lip balm. Hand lotion. Unscented hair spray. A small pouch with base make up (foundation, mascara etc) for those days when things just go wrong. Sanitizer. Pony tail holders. EmergenC tablets. Tums. deodorant. lint roller. dental floss. Qtips. Tide Go pen. OFF, finger nail clippers
• Emergency for kids - contact solution. spare contact cases I get from the optomistrist. sanitizer, plastic utensils, student hand lotion and lint rollers, band aids, baggies, granola bars for those kids you know have no food in the house. Gum/ candies. everybody gets one during an assessment - about 15 min in. Super calms them. Kleenex x 100.
• wardrobe - a t shirt in every colour for spirit days I forget about. slippers. infinity scarves. umbrella. mitts and toque. sweater for those rare days I get cold.

Ok I know there are tons more but wow. That is quite a list

Ohh...charger for my phone

Modifying summer plans

Two more weeks until school is done. Both the students AND myself are ready for a break.

My usual plan (since I started planning for summer spending) is to set aside $1000 for the odds and ends of summer fun, plus the August long weekend with my family.

This summer seems to be taking a different path and it looks as though the traditional August long won't be happening.

DS2's park ranger job has him working every weekend all summer. He gets Monday and Tuesday off instead. So he won't be able to make it.

DS1's gf has a family reunion that weekend so they will be spending it with her side of the family.

DH's brother decided to help organize a family reunion on his mother's side. I know zero of these people and they weren't exactly the warm and fuzzy type so this should be interesting.

The reunion of course is August long so that means that we will not be going to our traditional long weekend.

I am bitter sweet about this. It's the only weekend all of my sisters and their families get together and I suspect this time may be at 'the end of an era'. It's a weekend full of lots of fishing and beach time and campfires and I am sad we won't be  a part of it.

On the flip side, the weekend is costly. Three tanks of gas, the cabin rental (super pricy for around here), groceries, beverages etc. It all adds up fast and that's where the bulk of my summer money went.

The reunion is a short drive 30 min drive from here. If DH wants to tent overnight so he can visit late, we can always take separate vehicles so I can come home when my exhaustion hits. The money for this is negligible so its less expensive option.

As such, I have set aside only $500 instead of the usual $1000 for summer.

Where the money stands

as of June 9th

again a month of very little change.

It will be followed by a big change next month. and not for the better.

DS1's spring/summer classes (2 of them) came to $4500 US. for 2 classes!!

Tomorrow I go to the bank and will have to draw on my LOC and convert to  US$ to get this sent off.

sigh

Debt
Mortgage - $13 048.19
College LOC - $16 843.52

Total Debt - $29 891.71



Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $8200
RRSP -$13 473
Back to School 2017 - $350
XMAS 2017 - $500
Plates 2017 - $500

5 a day

fruits and veggies?  no
minutes of meditation? no
glasses of water? nope


I started this mid May. At the end of the day I plop a little check mark on the calendar and seeing them all on there makes me smile.

It's making DH twitch. This sort of things bugs him in some deep rooted - must have come from his childhood-blame his mother or father - kinda way.

It's not onerous. Not threatening. Doesn't even feel like a commitment.

One day alone doesn't make a visible difference.  Or even a week.

But I know.

and it makes me smile.


Every day I go to wherever is my target and eliminate 5 things from my home.  Maybe a drawer. Maybe a closet.

Could be as small as a pen in the 'drawer of doom' that no longer works or bigger, like three winter jackets that no longer fit the boys.


I have a bag ready to go if it is a clothing donation.

The bin is in the garage for recycling.

Or trash.

The other day DS2 let me throw out 15 pairs of socks that have stretched beyond belief or have more holes than space. He hates getting rid of things. I felt like I had won the lottery.  Earned my little check mark in less than 2 minutes.

Would anyone look around my home and notice a change. Nope

But I do.

Settling in the boys

Now that the boys are both  home for the summer, it's time for them to leave :-)

employment beckons.

DS1 started work in his gf's little town last Wednesday. He is living with her family, who will take amazing care of him. Not that this particular 22 year old needs 24/7 care.  I sent them off with some baking for her family and all the leftovers from our big welcome home DS1 bbq last sunday. It fed gf's family the next night.  He is excited to see all his 'brothers'. They get along very well. Most excited to see him were gf's cat and gf's 3 year old niece who is so excited to not have to see her uncle through a computer screen. She's been glued to his side most evenings.

DS2 heads off today. He is working as a Park Ranger about 3 hours from here. We pulled in some favours and rented a fifth wheel for him to live in as he had no place to stay. It's done in some crazy early 90s colours but is MORE than comfortable for him. We have spent the past few days getting it loaded with what he will need to survive. Today DH is going to pull it down to his new job site. We have borrowed my dad's truck as you need a truck with the fifth wheel hitch.

My house is full of their things. Everywhere. both have agreed to slowly go through their things over the summer and weed out what no longer fits or is desired. Perhaps that will make room in the drawers and closets for everything.

for DS2, this will be his first real summer employment REALLY away from family. Last summer he worked at a provincial park but stayed with my sister so he had a home base. And his first dog :-)  The summers before that he was volunteering at his camp up north and lived in a tent most of the time. It's exciting for his first really real job after finishing college.

I am slowly getting more comfortable with them being gone most of the time. I still mourn their childhood and wish I had used that time better.