"But it's not wet Ms. Castro!"

Today felt like Monday to me. Yesterday felt like Tuesday to me. And I sit here and I can barely type I'm so tired.

Today was "one of those days."

It all started with L.W. came in pouting (I'll put initals to protect identity) because her shirt was "way too tight" and her hair was all in her face. Trama time! So I had to console her. A few minutes later, Z.R. walks in pouting about something too. Who knows with these kids? And then within 5 minutes, P.F. has a scratch on his arm from where C.B. has "accidently" scratched him. Then I have my lil J.V. saying, "Do I do this?" in her broken accent. Bless them all. And my soul.

With in 15 minutes I have gotten Z.R. to drop whatever attitude he has and get started on his work, L.W. talking to the guidance counselor, and J.V. started on something more of her level. And I have 5 minutes to myself to check e-mails.

At the last minute before getting started, we rearrange desks. Boy, this took 30 minutes. My kids were at each other's throats because they had been in the same seats for so long so they needed a change, and so did I. So we move about and getting situated. I came up with an arragement, but it's no the best--it'll do.

Next, SCIENCE! I am not really liking this whole Soil unit. As Gail said, we should write a letter to the idiot who came up with the idea to do all these "soil tests" with our kids (wetting soil, clay, and humus; smearing soil, clay, humus on paper; making balls with soil, clay, and humus). Well today, we put them in TEST TUBES. That's right. Test tubes. With water to see how they "settle." Well, before I know it, a test tube had exploded on J.C. which ended with clay all of her pants. Z.R. and Q.L. had added water to the cups instead of the test tubes so they had cups of wet clay all over their desk and hands. H.S. is hitting B.W. because he's not doing the experiment correctly. And then H.L. and K.G. have an overload of water in their test tubes which has drowned out their desks. And I had no paper towels. CRISIS. A classroom without paper towels is like not having toilet paper to wipe your butt--it's difficult to function without it!

After a few crazy moments, we get our test tubes in the cups, our desks cleaned up, and we're writing in our journals. For now at least.

Math was fine. Nothing too difficult about making a picture of a garden with different plane figures. But this whole concept of "parallelograms" blew their mind. We'll do more practice tomorrow.

YAY FOR MUSIC TIME! I had a 40 minute break to rest my body.

Then, we head to lunch which always holds the most excitement.

It was pretty calm (after breaking up a few disputes over who sits where) until I was finishing my lunch and talking to sweet J.V. who was telling me about her brother "betraying" her father. Then, poor C.J. comes up to me with a spit ball in her hair. I only needed one guess: Z.R. This is not the first time he has done spit balls. I call him over and he instantly has this, "Crap, I'm in trouble face." I ask him what he has been doing with this straw. This is our conversation.

Me: "Z. What were you doing with your straw?"
Z: "Shooting spit balls across the table."
Me: "why?"
Z: "Because I was bored because you wouldn't let me use the bathroom."
Me: "Well, do we spit spit balls at lunch?"
Z: "No, but it's not wet Ms. Castro! They were dry!"
Me: "Who cares if it was wet or dry!! The point is you don't do that!"
Z: "Yes ma'am."

I walk over there and there are at least 15 spit balls on the floor and one in K.G. hair. Sick. He lost his whole recess for that.

Honestly, my kids are a bunch of crazies. But I love them most days.

We're just the crazies in the small classroom at the end of the 3rd grade hall. Chances are you can hear us all the way from first grade (Which I've been told has been done before).

Goodnight.

Aggrivation to the extreme

Goodness. Talk about aggrivation to the extreme. And frustration. And anger. And hope at the same time.

It has been DRAMA central here at the Castro household. But you know, what's new with that? I have just been so frustrated with dad. It's ridiculous. He's REDONKULOUS (I only use that word when it's horrific). He's taking things where it hurts. I know they are only materialistic things but it's not right.

I honestly have a good piece of mind to show up at his office and just punch the snot of out of him? Can I do that?

I could but I'm not.

I hurt so bad for my mom. I hurt to see her like this. And I hurt for my dad because he's a looney bin!

But I have hope because I know that each day is one day closer to God's peace and grace.

But come Wednesday, it's going to a face to face interaction. Just wait and see.