Wisdom Teeth, Transition Time, and Golf: It'sAll Related

Today was my first day back at work. We had an assignment for our staff meeting, which was as follows (I'm cutting and pasting from my principal's e-mail): I am worried that the habits our students build here in doing minimal work will follow them out into the real world. I was excited to hear about the 7 Mindsets program and believe that will help us push students to engage further and boost the amount of effort they put forth. 

Assignment for Wednesday:

“What do happy and successful people have in common? Well, it’s not whether they grew up in a loving home or a broken home, or whether they were rich or poor. It doesn’t have anything to do with how far they went in school or even their skill sets. Simply put, what they have in common is their mindsets. It’s how they think.” The 7 Mindsets To Live Your Ultimate Life - Scott Shickler & ; Jeff Waller

1.       Everything is Possible

2.       Passion First

3.       We Are Connected

4.       100% Accountable

5.       Attitude of Gratitude

6.       Live to Give

7.       The Time is Now

During the Introduction portion of our Staff Meeting on Wednesday I would like you to come prepared with a description of how one of the 7 Mindsets fits your skill set or is an area of strength. I also want you to consider one of the Mindsets that you consider to be a growth area. I would like you to put this in a poster format which could then be displayed on your classroom door this year including your name and the content area that you teach. I think that students will adopt and become engaged faster in this program when they see that we have all considered our own individual strengths and growth areas.  

I went to school this morning with my poster made. I decided to use "Attitude of Gratitude" for my strength, not because I'm perfectly grateful in every situation, but because I  want to be. I recognize the importance of gratitude and I want to encourage students to look beyond themselves and be thankful and to express that thanks. (I even got to include a quote from Dieter F. Uchtdorf on my poster. He's an LDS church leader.)  

I'm glad I was in that frame of mind, because I had the most amazing, crazy, weird, could've been really awful first day back. The only reason it worked out was because of my great support team (Taylor, Jared, my friend Holly). 

The first 3 hours were fine. I reconnected with co workers (I am blessed to have really great co workers!), had breakfast, etc. Then I received a text from Caleb: "call me right away". 

This would be a good time to explain that Caleb has been having mouth pain. He first mentioned it 2 weeks ago as we were coming home from Kansas. Being a loving (but sometimes forgetful) mom who doesn't over react but believes in  a little bit of "wait and see", I forgot about it. Sunday night he mentioned it again. Yesterday I called the dentist to ask about wisdom teeth removal. I got the number for the wisdom teeth guy. I talked with Holly to get more details, since her daughter just had them removed. 

Last night Caleb came home and said his mouth was killing him. I looked in it, and he seemed swollen. Jared and I talked and decided we'd schedule his appointment today. 

This morning Caleb got up, got ready for work, said his teeth really hurt, took some ibuprofen, and went to work. I left for work and got on the phone with Jared to talk about things and see which parent was doing what. (Normally I would handle all of this, but since Jared is so amazing, he just jumped in to help. He understands that it's hard to make calls from staff meetings.) 

Fast forward to three hours later. Jared had made an emergency dental appointment for Caleb. Caleb drove to Sterling and was told his wisdom teeth were infected. He was given a prescription, which was called in to the Holyoke pharmacy. The dentist called Dr. Boedecker  and told him to expedite Caleb's tooth removal. During my 10 min break, I called Jared, called the dentist and got advice from the receptionist, called Caleb, and called the pharmacy. I explained the situation to my principal. Thirty minutes later I was using my lunch break to take Caleb's meds to him in Haxtun. I also picked up some soda and crackers for McKenna as she had an upset stomach. 

When I arrived at home, I was "greeted" by Isaac, Corbin and Isaac's friends, Jacob and Dusty. They were on the lawn with golf clubs in hand. They had made plans to go golfing today. Taylor had told them Corbin could to with them (they had told her--wrongly-- that one of their parents was staying at the golf course with them). I was upset: Yesterday these same boys had come home from football practice with Ike, which was great. I catered to them, let them play, made sandwiches, and explained that I was going back to work and they shouldn't be at the house when I'm not there . At lunchtime today, I could see that that speech hadn't worked. I laid down the law to them, told Corbin he couldn't golf, gave Caleb his meds, jumped in the car to take Kenna to practice (because Andersens don't quit even if they should), and left Corb at home with Caleb for a moment, since he was raging and throwing a fit about not being able to golf. 

I dropped Kenna off and came home. What I'd thought would be a 60-minute errand was growing longer. I texted my friend Holly to see if Corbin could stay with her for a bit, only to have him tell me that he wanted to stay with Taylor, who was here in town babysitting for the day. (She took the day off from her normal job to help out a mom in a pinch. She really just wanted an excuse to hold a baby all day.)

I ended up letting Caleb deliver Corbin to Taylor. I left for work, satisfied that at least the basic needs were covered. 

Four hours later I was home. No one had died. My kids had helped one another. And I was a few hours farther along this crazy road we call the Working Mom. 

That, my friends, was my First Day Back. If you've ever wondered how wisdom teeth, golf, and transitions are connected, you now know.