Joel is enjoying Optimist Basketball...
Joel raced a cool car at his very first Pinewood Derby. He even made it into the local paper
Here are some pics from oh, say, the last 2 months!!! Pretty bad, huh? Everything's going by so fast I guess. Joel is participating in a few extra activities, school is keeping me busy, and I have found myself in the throes of planning a major Cub Scout event at the end of February. Don't expect me to stay on top of things from this point on, either. Family and friends know how busy Feb./March gets with performances.
An additional thorn in my side this year is the gut-wrenching reality that budget cuts may kick me out of a job. Schools all around us are axing their specials teachers right and left. Every single time finances get tight, they go for the fine arts jugular. It's pathetic and cowardly to assume that the related arts aren't an important backbone in the life of every child. And don't get me started on the disparity between our elementary building and all the other schools in our district. We have the lowest SES demographic in the district. Our kids need absolutely every teacher and assistant we can muster. Yet, our building is ignored by the district while everyone else is under new construction and has all the bells and whistles. While our sister school has a full-scale rock-climbing wall in their gym and the board has approved additional bleachers for the space, our kids are having school in a building bathed in darkness with little natural light (due to budget cuts), a boiler that is on the fritz, second-hand playground equipment that sits rotting, and gymnasium bleachers that have threatened to cave in for 2 years. Boy, could I go on and on....!
Thanks for reading all that miserable venting! The sad thing is, that's not even half of the surrounding problems. I am scared for my livelihood. If I get RIF'd, who in their right mind is going to hire me when EVERYONE is cutting the arts? (and a master's degree to boot!) Deep breath in.....deep breath out.... Honestly, I had not intention of unloading in this post. I was simply aiming to catch up on the blog a bit since it's been sitting idle. Guess it just comes out easier when you know there's no one out there talking back to you and telling you to relax and quit worrying, and that there are far greater problems out there than my puny little elementary school job..............................How 'bout I just focus on the beautiful and joyous things in my life through pictures, eh? (I tried uploading a cute video of Hanna, but it never fully processed...I'll try again later.)
