I took a personal day today to attend Shef's Literacy Feast, which was adorable. The kindergartners dressed up in chef's hats and aprons and recited poetry about food and sang songs about food, including one in French. Then they served the foods mentioned in books that they like.

Don't worry: we're making a video about the Feast which we'll edit and post to this blog. Just as soon as we're done.

After the Feast, I came home for a day of rest and relaxation after the past week, which has been (and I'm not overstating this even one bit) COMPLETELY MISERABLE.

I made a cup of coffee, and then I did this:

Four loads of laundry.

Sorted the mail and made a file for the tax documents.

Mapped out the summer. On the calendar.

Registered for Shef's summer soccer.

Purchased tap shoes for Shef's dance class. Free two-day shipping.

Submitted a proposal to teach a three-week summer school class called "Write for Justice" to middle schoolers.

Booked Shef's birthday party. Rock climbing. 10 kids.

Reviewed application materials for my next graduate program and read an article on plays by American women in the 19th century to prepare to write my personal statement.

Then, I picked up the kids and flung us back into the house. Before I left to get the kids, I felt like I really was having a day off. I think that might be a little sad.

So, what happened this weekend was Shef and I and Claire the babysitter got the stomach flu from Mac.

I graded a total of three papers.

Cupcake came over and babysat for an hour and a half until Shef started ralphing and then she beat a hasty retreat. I don't blame her.

I scoured the fouled bathrooms (which had been professionally cleaned on Friday) to prepare for the showing and open house today.

I took the kids over to my mom's house to accommodate the real estate obligations. My mom beat a hasty retreat. Not that I blame her.

Finally, we're feeling a bit better. Shef insists he'll be able to go back to school tomorrow. We'll see. If he goes back, then I will too. How will I get all the papers graded and the grades recorded by Wednesday and begin two new lit units on Tuesday? I have no idea, but as we know, I'll get it done somehow. Claire probably won't be coming back to help any time soon. The series of text messages I got from her today sounded pretty grim.

Before Winter Break began, I had 200 papers to grade. I've chronicled my progress extensively. I'm sure everyone is tired of hearing about those goddam (That's for you, J.D.) papers.

My total left to grade is now 16. Sixteen! That's not so bad, right?

Except now I've given my final exams.

The exams are flooding my backpack and littering my desk.

And my grades are due next week.

And kids and parents keep emailing me asking if I will round up, if I will accept just this one piece of late work, if there's ANYTHING they can do. And why did they get 21/24 on that assignment, anyway?

And I'm starting new units in both classes.

And Dan is working at his office pretty much every minute from now until Monday morning.

And Mac vomitted all over my car yesterday.

So, I think I might take a nap to prepare myself for the misery that will be this weekend and next week. Mac is napping right now, so I think that might be right thing to do.

So, the treadmill was totally fine. True, I was wearing shorts in front of the students. My legs were definitely showing.

But, I just pretended it was completely normal. "Hi," I said to the kids, cheerfully.

"Hi," they said. I was pleased to note that they did not look horrified.

I ran for 30 minutes, and it was no problem. I'm doing it again tomorrow. This will be the key to my marathoning success. Thank you, High School Weight Room, I preemptively owe it all to you.

This idea is probably a mistake. It'll probably also require a follow-up video blog to talk about the results.


TokBox - Free Video Chat and Video Messaging

Shef has the day off, but Mac has school. When that happens, Shef and I have a tradition of dropping Mac off at his place and heading to a certain coffee shop to have cinnamon rolls while we play a board game. Today, we played SpongeBob Operation. I won once, and Shef won once.

Later, we worked on a literacy project. I read Shef a picture book with important themes, and then I suggested he respond to this book using Comic Life, a cool computer program I bought for Dan for Christmas.

Instead of responding to the picture book with important themes, Shef responded to the trailer for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakwel.

He did a nice job with the drawings, and we had fun playing with fonts. He hit the major plot points of the trailer. You can check out his work here.

Good work, Shef. It's been a fun day.

Untitled from Savvy Mom on Vimeo.