That Week

Do you ever have that week? Where it just doesn't stop sucking, no matter what? That was my week last week. It started with Luke misbehaving at home on Sunday and not stopping. Luke is our kid who usually behaves, so this was confusing. Granted, he's become more of a handful in his fifth year in terms of defiance, but he's been getting better as we're nearing six and I really thought we were about to turn a corner. I guess I jinxed myself with those thoughts because, wow. He proved us wrong. After promising us he'd behave better after poor behavior over the weekend, he got in trouble in school on Monday. When your parents are teachers, this is not a good move. Thankfully, his classroom behavior is still excellent, but he and a friend decided it might be cool to synchronize flushing of the urinals in the bathroom. Oh, Luke. Now, as a teacher, I know that we have to step up bathroom supervision because even 8th grade boys will do ridiculous things while unsupervised in a bathroom, but this is no excuse. As a result of his misbehavior, we took away TV for the week. The next day, he and two friends got in trouble for lifting each other up in the bathroom. Sigh. THE BATHROOM IS NOT A JUNGLE GYM. At this point, he'd lost pretty much everything and I lost my sanity because he continued to misbehave at home. Fortunately, he stopped misbehaving at school and learned to leave the bathroom once he was done going to the bathroom. On Wednesday, Luke behaved at school but his teacher emailed me that he had an itchy spot on his arm that was making it difficult for him to concentrate while doing his work. When I got home, we put cream on it throughout the night and that seemed to calm it, but he was pretty frantic. Do you ever get a really itchy patch of dry skin in the winter? It was like that and he just couldn't focus or do anything but itch his arm, until it got to the point where he was itching so much that it was red and swollen. Thursday morning, I was once again late to school and crying because of misbehavior, but fortunately, again... something seemed to click Thursday morning and although we still have our usual five year old defiance, it's nothing over the top like it was earlier in the week.

In the midst of all this, my normally calm and well-behaved students decided that this week they weren't going to do their work. They were going to argue constantly and whine and not want to do anything. They were going to make me want to tear out my hair. Friday, I went to school with too much of a spring in my step over Luke's good behavior Thursday afternoon and Friday morning and slipped and fell hard on the ice in the parking lot at work after getting out of my car. I fell hard on my left knee and foot and now sport a very colorful full-knee bruise. Friday afternoon, my students were in the Media Center taking an online standardized test that we have to do three times a year when a sixth grader was near us being loud. I said, "Can you be quiet? We're testing." and he walked away and mimicked me UNDER HIS BREATH, only I very clearly heard and rocketed out of my seat (which killed my poor swollen knee and already sore feet). Sixth graders usually aren't so rude, but this gave me a fearful glimpse of what I get to teach two years from now. My students all said, "I can't believe that kid just did that!" I can, kids, because this is the kind of week I've had.

I'm sure there are a million or more people out there who had worse weeks, but it was definitely one of those weeks that just kept on going and would not quit. Finally, Saturday morning was good. I ran four miles with a 9:39 pace. My longest, steadiest run since being diagnosed with sesamoiditis. After my run, we went to the grocery store, then to the library, where Tommy played with puzzles while Luke browsed the books. Now that he's reading, the library is even more fun. For dinner, we had bacon wrapped filet and Dairy Queen for dessert. It was a really good day. I hope it continues. I suppose we have really bad days (or weeks) to make the good seem even better, but if maybe the universe could not give me a whole series of them like that anytime soon? I'd appreciate it.