Spring Break (1/2 time)

I am on spring break from my college job this week. Unfortunately, I still have to teach in the mornings at the high school, but I am enjoying the lighter schedule. I have one more batch of papers that I am going to grade today from my college stats class, and then a little planning ahead for next Monday, but then I will put that job to rest for the week. The half-time spring break will happen again in April when the high school has a break, but the college doesn't. I think Mike is going to take the kids down to Texas that week, so I will be by myself at home, with only an afternoon job. It will be a very strange week, as I don't think that I have ever been home by myself for that length of time. Ever. In my whole life.

I haven't been sleeping very well for several days. I keep waking up in the middle of the night with very intense dreams. Usually the first time is between 3:30 and 4:30 am. Then I wake up every 30 to 45 minutes after that until my alarm goes off at 6:08. Grrrr! I have been trying to go to bed at 10:00 to get more sleep, but then I just have more time to dream. I must have some unresolved issue that I'm trying to work out in my sleep, or I'm stressed. Not much has changed in my life in the last few weeks, so I'm stumped as to why now. Last night I tried earplugs, because I have been wondering whether the cats are making noise and waking me up. I don't hear them after I wake up, but I am a light sleeper and maybe I'm hearing them make a noise, which wakes me up. They have been given free roam again at night because they have stopped scratching on our door at 5:00 am. However, the earplugs didn't prevent me from waking up last night, which I did at 3:38am. The earplugs are hard to get used to - they hurt my ears for a few weeks until I acclimate to them. So they came out. I don't think it's something external, but something internal. Strange dreams last night, too. Very strange.

Isaac had his first concert at school last night. He was not happy about dressing up. He hated all the shirts (oxfords) because he said they felt like they were choking his neck. He hated the pattern of the plaid shirt (he said it was too square-ey). He didn't want to wear the sweater because it was boring. He hated the belt because he can't unbuckle it himself. He was having a moody day (lack of sleep, I think, from the time change). He didn't want me to video-tape the performance because he said that the songs were boring and stupid, and singing them made his palms sweat (which he said he knew because it happened during the dress rehearsal earlier that day at school). Wow. That's Isaac at his grumpiest. It was almost so over-the-top that Emily and I were trying not to chuckle. Emily was helping me convince Isaac that plaid is a very common thing for boys to wear (he thought it looked too girl-ley in addition to being too square-ey).

All that after helping Isaac practice addition and subtraction facts (and teach him some multiplication, which he wants to know because Avritt does), help Avritt split a square into eighths 4 different ways for his homework, making sure the boys read 20 and 30 minutes, respectively (it's March, which is reading month), trying to convince Emily she shouldn't have unrestricted access to the new Guitar Hero III game Avritt bought with his own money last week, going through Avritt's piano lesson material with him for his lessons today, shooing the cat off the counter 4 times, cooking breakfast burritos for dinner, and convincing Emily and Avritt that they need to attend a first and second grade concert to support their brother, who didn't want to go, either.

No wonder I'm having bad dreams.