Regrets, I've Had a Few

School is starting next week for students, this week for teachers.  It always seems to sneak up on me, and this year it definitely did!  I'm usually in this strange mind-set of disbelief, and can't believe I'll really have to go to work every day for the next nine and a half months!  As always, I spend the days before I return mourning all that I'll miss, and thinking of all that I'm looking forward to.  Here's my list of things I'll miss this year:

• Sweet, kissable baby cheeks available for kissing whenever I want.
• Games and "play doe-dough" with Sweetie Pie several times throughout the day.
• Leisurely mornings in my pajamas with no worries about having to get two young children anywhere by any certain time.
• The mental vacation summer gives me to let my mind wander to whatever I want, which usually leads to some great sewing projects and artwork of my own.
• The ability to go into my backyard and enjoy my garden (weeds and all) whenever I feel the tiniest amount of stress (which happens when you're home alone with two under three).
• The state of my classroom that awaits me: I was NINE MONTHS PREGNANT when I was packing up, and didn't really care what went where or how it looked.  I've got the energy to regret it now.

And the things I'm looking forward to:

• The camaraderie of my co-workers, being around adults for at least some part of my day (in my world right now, anyone over age 9 or so practically qualifies--imagine the stimulating conversations, not revolving around poop or pacifiers!)
• The structure of the school day (and I've got a pretty good schedule for this year!)  I'll get to eat lunch most days, which didn't happen most of this summer.
• New ideas and lessons for third, sixth and maybe second grades.  So much comes up throughout the school year that's new to me and exciting--this year I don't plan on being pregnant, so I'll have the energy to enjoy and try more new things. Oh, and I have two or three things I wanted to do with fifth grade last year but ran out of time, so I want to start their year with them this year.
• Upcoming events at my local art museum and art teacher conferences, (never a bad one), I always learn something.
• Being a professional.  It's fun. I worked hard for it, I intend to enjoy it!

The aforementioned garden is in a bit of a shambles this year (again, the nine-months-pregnant-in-June thing got in the way of timely planting).  I was out there watering this morning and planning all that I'll change for next year.  That's exactly what we do as teachers--as soon as something doesn't turn out, we re-examine and make changes in our strategy for next time.  I love that.  Especially as art teachers, we get the chance daily for do-overs. ("Painting didn't go so well with Mrs. Smith's class yesterday, so for Mrs. Brown's class, I'm going to __________________ today.")  We're the queens (or kings) of our little classroom domains, and we can make them as magical as we want.  What other job is as great as this one?