Back to Life

... Back to reality, back to the here and now, oh yeah...

(Ok, if you are not 30+ like me, you probably did not just start singing along with Soul II Soul just then, but I bet a few of you did!)

School started this week, and it's kind of like when you wind up one of those little kiddie toys that walks around, and at first they walk all crazy and in circles and superfastlikethey'regoingtofalldown, then they start to slow down and straighten out. Yeah. The first days of first grade are kind of like that. ;) The kids are awesome, they are so darn cute and excited to be there, and they all want to tell you everything that has ever happened in their entire lives, meanwhile you are trying to teach them where to hang their backpacks while a new child walks in that is not even on your roster and only two children in your entire class speak English at home (although only three of my students don't speak any English). Bus numbers are mixed up, and not one kid has memorized the 85-digit lunch numbers these poor kids are given. But they are sweet and happy and ready to learn, so who can argue with that. :)

Meanwhile, my own children have started third grade and preschool, so the mountains of paperwork and preparation that comes along with those are literally sucking the numbers right off of my clock, sending me packing lunches into the wee hours after I complete my own lesson plans based on what we actually did and did not get to in the first two days.

The mega, mountainous amounts of fun I've had in the past month entering my first two blogfests (with my first two attempts at flash fiction ever) have boosted my confidence, introduced me to the absolute joy of flash fiction, and led me to many new writer blogs that I didn't know about since I slacked all summer. Now that it's Sept and our lives are totally crazy again, it's probably ironically likely that I'll get back to blogging on a much more regular basis, since everything is back to a schedule and blogging is something I try to work in since it's like a little stress reliever. Hopefully I'll hit up another blogfest soon (I know there are a million going on right now) when the windup toy begins to calm down (which, in first grade, is pretty much never, but maybe a smidge by week 2 or 3). Hope everyone is doing great, I've missed all my bloggy friends and can't wait to catch up with you again!

OH, and sidenote: MOCKINGJAY. HOLY CROW. I stayed up till 2am one night to finish it. And I cried. INSANE is that Susanne Collins. I hardly read anything over again and I could have started right back at the beginning of The Hunger Games the next day. I may have to do another whole post because I'm too beat right now to do it justice!