Reprieve and Breathing Space

Whoa! It's time to stop and take a breath. The last two weeks were hectic!

First the good news. For reasons totally out of my control, I am no longer getting a 25th student. God answered the prayers of my colleagues (I confess I was too angry to pray), and I finally got work on Monday or Tuesday of last week that I wouldn't be getting the extra student. Thanks Lord. I mean that!

Second piece of good news. Report cards are finished and sent home! I eventually finished them at 8pm on Thursday night (only 20 hours late), and despite two power outages on the Friday, the Elementary Principal managed to read them, and the office managed to get them printed. Thanks so much ladies!

Third piece of good news. Our first Scholastic Book Club orders for the year have been placed and paid for! As a school, we have gained a lot of resources from our students' purchases from the Scholastic Book Clubs. This year I'm coordinating it for the first time, and that is going well. We are also looking forward to our first ever Book Fair. For those of you who aren't familiar with this, we purchase a range of books at a decent discount, and then hold a fun Book Fair, where parents and students can look at the books before they buy them. This can be a great fund raiser, so we're hoping that it goes well.

On a personal note, my social life was very busy during the last week. On Friday night it was a "girls only" movie night for teachers with six of us enjoying "Away From Her". Then on Saturday I had two couples and one toddler over for dinner. I even cooked - and even Allie liked my spaghetti sauce. Finally on Tuesday night I was invited to (and even attended) a 35th birthday party. I really enjoyed that evening, especially chatting with other Aussies.

I also recently started hosting a "home group" in my house here in Phnom Penh. We're a mixed group, and I've been enjoying getting to know some new people, and also the studies we've been doing. We meet on Wednesday evenings, so that means I have to be home by soon after 6pm that night. Fortunately Wednesday is my lightest day at school, so it's possible, although I am often still eating dinner as folk arrive.

Tomorrow I have more parent-teacher conferences, so I guess I should sign off for now, and head for bed. No kids, so in between conferences I have a chance to get ahead with grading papers and planning for next week's lessons. More holidays coming up, so that means some short weeks, and a teacher work day next Thursday.

That's all folks!

Karen