So, you failed.

I am so unbelievably tired of working.  Yes, I have had a full on working weekend.  Things are just getting so busy towards the second half of the semester.  My classes this year are just a semester long so it is officially crunch time.

Here is a play by play of my weekend just to give you an idea of what it looked like:

Friday: I stayed after school until approximately 4:30pm for a student to make up some work.  Meanwhile I attempted to do some work of my own.  When I came home I made a large cup of coffee and I sat on my front porch as the cold front came in.  It was wonderful to just sit in the cold on my rocking chair breathing in fall.  Around 6:30pm it quickly became too much to bear and I went inside and attempted to focus on my graduate school essays.  I did not allow myself to eat dinner until I had finished writing.  That turned into seven pages too long and a pizza order at 8pm.  I felt quite productive and put on my happy hat (literally).

Saturday: I went to school and worked on my lesson plans for the week up until about 4pm.  When I got home I showered and prepared for a little fall party we hosted for our lovely neighbors.  The chilly weather called for some corn bread and chili (leftovers for dinner tonight), pumpkin pie, and pumpkin carving.  We were ever so festive and I had a pumpkin beer to go with it all.

Happy Halloween!
From left to right: a witch, a fleur de lis, a skull and cross bones, a jack-o-lantern

A hearty bowl of vegetarian slow-cooked chili with cornbread mmmm

The ladies working hard on the pumpkins.

Today: I have literally been grading tests (the same tests I might add) since 12pm and am not finished.  I decided to stop because of how unsuccessful I currently feel.  Most of my students completely bombed their unit three exam and I feel like I have failed them as a teacher.  I started thinking about what I did wrong and why most of them failed this exam.  It is a downward spiral from there and I need to think positive thoughts so I have decided to finish my last bundle of tests in an hour and/or tomorrow.  I cannot tell you just how disappointing it is see results like this when you feel like you have been working as hard as you have at your job.  I can also tell you that his is not uncommon for those working in schools like mine.  Rather than looking at all of the circumstances I immediately begin blaming myself.  I hate to make excuses and by looking at other factors I feel like that is exactly what I am doing.  

I'm just trying to find a balance between my job, which seems to take over my life sometimes, and talking to my friends and family.  If you fall into one of those two categories and you feel neglected lately I apologize deeply.  I am going to attempt and do better about that within the next two weeks.  I also really need to attempt and meet my personal deadline for the UW-Grad School application.  I know I still have time, but I'd like to have it taken care of a good three weeks before it is actually due.  This essay needs to be perfected before anything else can happen.

Here's to hoping this last week of October is not as crazy as my weekend was.  Expect a Halloween post if our internet is up and running. Happy Halloween Week! 

I'll leave y'all with a little something to cheer up this post. I'm sure y'all have seen this already, but it's such a feel-good thing to watch.