SOLSC #2 Is that the way the wind blows?

I am participating in the
March 2018 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOLSC).
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, every day for thirty-one days.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

4:17am. The howling wind wakes me up, much too early for the school day, much too late to get back to sleep, just right for writing and reflecting. Just write.

Sad.

This wild burst of a windstorm has cancelled my evening flight; we got the text from the airline late last night. Tony and I were headed to Maine to see my parents. They are 88 and increasingly frail, my Mom with dementia, my Dad with Parkinson's. We try to visit them every couple of months, to check in, to smile, to absorb. We keep our eyes peeled for affordable flights and we grab an available weekend and we make it happen. I am blessed that my brother Mark lives only one mile from their retirement community, and is able to check in on them all the time; we love to visit Mark and Sue, too. 

This wind, this wild, relentless wind has cancelled our flight. So weird. I don't remember ever having this experience before. I don't remember having a wind storm. No snow. I don't hear rain; they say there may be some rain, minimal rain. Just wind, wind that roars like ocean waves. Wind that wakes me and makes me wonder, where am I?

Exhausted.

This has been yet another windy blur of a week. It's end of second trimester, a crescendo of 

data, to be both collected and entered, 

report cards, to be drafted, written, edited, proofed, 

children's projects, to be finalized,

our Learning Showcase, to be readied and executed,

Teaching Residents, to be coached through all of the above, 

and

daily teaching, to be somehow done in the midst of it all.

Whew.

Is that me, toppling over?

Joy.

I can't let the joyful moments just blow by.

1 - My preschoolers were beaming about their projects last evening, showing their treasures to their families, telling them how their (quite whimsical) engineering devices worked, taking their families on a wild imaginative ride, and, literally, dancing through the classroom all evening, like mini windbursts.

2 - My Teaching Residents (I have two this year...that's a topic for another slice!) were so energized and motivated this past week, they were like mini windstorms of their very own...making sure every preschooler's work was completed, adding beautiful touches to our classroom, creating a delightful video montage for the Showcase, juggling all the different professional demands, and keeping light spirits throughout the storm and bluster of this week.

3 - Today will be simply a half day at school with children and a half day of work time, to tie up those loose ends on report cards and data. Whew. We'll be able to take a deep cleansing breath.

Bonus: We will fly out tomorrow to see my parents...losing one day, but perhaps, perhaps, perhaps gaining another? I may take Monday off ... to add just one more wind metaphor, I guess that means I'll be blowing off Monday ;-) 

And now this slice is 

gone with the wind.