Volunteering

Today was my turn to volunteer in T's classroom. While I was really excited about doing this, it presented its own set of issues - namely, who could I find to take care of S? R's got a lot going on at work, and while he was willing to take the morning off to help, I really felt like I should be able to figure all this out on my own. I mean, after all, he'll be up for deployment sooner rather than later and I'll have to handle things like this by myself so I might as well dive right in. Plus, I did this all the time in Germany, so really, why am I being such a pansy?

After a bunch of phone calls and the mountain of FCC provider paperwork later, I had daycare lined up for S. Only problem? She needed the flu shot. Why was this a problem? She's under 3, the immunization clinic was closed yesterday for training, and there wasn't a single Walgreens in a 25 mile radius that had the under three shot in stock. I know this because we went to most of them. We could take her to the base clinic this morning, but they didn't open until 8, I had no idea where it was, T catches the bus at 7:50 and since this was going to be his last day on the bus, I couldn't bear to make him miss it. Plus, as I realized at 11:30 pm last night, the parent volunteer is supposed to bring the class snack, which meant a trip to Walmart was in my very near future. And since it was the Friday before Valentine's day, I didn't feel right tossing out a packet of graham crackers and calling it a day. To top it off, I needed to be at the school at 8 am. No pressure.

Luckily, all this came to light pretty early yesterday and as R and I exchanged a ton of emails discussing all our options, this was our compromise. R would go into work a little late. I would leave to be at the school by 8 with appropriate snack in hand, R would get T on the bus, then take S to get her flu shot, and then drop her off at the sitters. I would pick up S after I finished helping in T's class, and we'd be home in plenty of time to meet T's bus. Amazingly, it all worked according to plan - and that rarely, ever, ever happens with us. I guess not having a lot of time to try and plan works better for us than being informed in advance, because we had to put all this together in well under a week. I'm so lucky that I've got a husband who is so actively involved and willing to help and that he now has a job (even though the last one was pretty flexible) that allows us to work this stuff out. It sure as heck wouldn't have happened like this if he was still in the Airborne. I just don't know how single parents do this - and my hat is off to all of them!

The volunteer part of my day was awesome! I loved being in T's class and seeing the schedule and routine of his day. I have an enormous respect for his teachers who have a class full of kids (20!) and somehow manage to keep a calm, respectful, productive classroom. I learned so much today about how to talk to kids. I know that must sound strange, because lord knows I'm talking to my kids all. day. long. about everything, but there's just a big difference in talking AT them versus talking TO them. And as proof that I actually learned something myself today, when we all got home and after we had lunch, I got the kids (without arguing mind you) to go upstairs and have quiet time. I swear, it really happened.

Further proof that I learned something today: after R got home we decided that for pizza night we'd go grab a pizza at Sam's. I wanted to pick up some items we actually use in bulk (dryer sheets, detergent, hand soap, and batteries) so why not order a huge pizza for under $10 and make a night out of it? I'm not sure what it says about us that Sam's Club falls under the category of 'restaurant' or 'night out' but hey, whatever works, right? When T and S started acting up a little, I used my new skills and managed to get them to calm themselves down rather than ordering them to do it. Calming kids down without conflict? This is MasterCard commercial priceless!