November....

November is here! Hardly feels like it, since the weather has been in the 70's for the last 3-4 days. Seriously?!! Thanks God:-) The kids didn't even need coats - and I'm careful since many of them have either been out sick or have caught something in the last couple weeks.

Oh my goodness, the kids are adorable! Okay, nearly every day there are (and will be) moments that make me want to pull out hair - mine or theirs, it doesn't matter. However, they are some sweet individuals! From having one of the most obnoxious coming up to me and saying "Miss Rebecca, I want to give you a hug" to having one of the littlest ones coming up to me while he's upset and say "I want to stick by you now" because he's having a rough morning, they're all precious!! Things have been stressful trying to do so many activities with them (they're all preplanned in the curriculum, but it's still a bit rough trying to do all of them every day!) on top of prepping for parent teacher conferences. Hopefully by this time next week, conferences will be over and we'll have a plan of action for the kids to excel :-)

Sean and I are doing well. Actually he's currently in Tampa, lucky duck, on a business trip. It's actually hard to spend time apart after living within 10 minutes of each other for the last 3 months and seeing each other daily! I think God has really blessed us with this relationship. Neither of us were expecting a 2nd chance - both of us had boulders to push aside in order to find the other - but God granted us forgiveness and encouragement to continue onward. I'm so excited for whatever God has in store for us next!!!

Most of my life is consumed by work, which is really hard. I work 40ish hours per week. Since I'm a closer (we close at 6:30), I have to clean up as the kids are being picked up AND keep track of them:-P It's been challenging finding the right way to do things while still doing a good job with the kids. Thankfully the kids become realllll understanding around 6pm when I'm starting to clean up and everything. Tonight I had 3-4 kids left, 2 of which are actually "mine" (in my specific PreK room). I convinced them all to put all the toys back in their rightful centers and then come sit on the carpet so that we could dance to music:-P They did that while I bagged up the trash and cleaned off the tables - exxxxcellent! I'm praying that I'm actually helping at work daily - sometimes I feel like I'm dragging when I come in and the kids don't give me a chance to catch up! One of the downsides of not being in work until 9:30....

Christmas is coming soon! I'm still keeping my eye out for gifts - I've found a few things that I like, but I'm trying to be careful with my income, since there's possible future factors, as well as the idea that I'm living *completely* on my own and paying out of pocket for everything. I am definitely praising God for the opportunity that He's given me with this job to earn income and pay off stuff!

Alright, on to some more planning time. And this time, I have more of an idea what I'd like :-)

KinderCare Week 1

So I didn't post this past weekend because I was recovering from a very long week, but I'd love to share some of that with you now!

My first week at KinderCare was awesome:) I am really enjoying the teacher I work with, who has been in KC for 2 years now! There are a possible total of 20 kids in our PreK room, but the greatest we've had is 19. It's similar to the daycares I've been in before, but this time, the staff actually adheres to rules! Example, they make sure that the ratio is always right in the room. If you don't have the right amount of staff per children (depending on the age) in the room, it's against daycare regulations. These people have been so very careful to make sure that I'm never alone with more than 10 kids - yay!!

There are, as always, a few "trouble" children that I haven't quite figured out yet. Some kids are acting the way their parents do; others have a bit of spoiling in them that the other teacher and I are trying to curb:) Some of the kids do not respect me yet, which is hard to accept, but is the truth. The other teacher is trying to explain to them that I will be in this room and that they need to listen to and respect me just like they would her:) Hard stuff for 4 year olds!

The hours are a little hard too - I've got the 9:30-6:30 shift, which is closing. (Thankfully there's an hour for lunch!) I have something after nearly every day of work, so I've been trying to sleep in til 8:30 or so to get my sleep on before tackling the day. Wednesdays and now Mondays, I'll be babysitting from 7ish to 9:30 or so. Tuesdays and Thursdays I am up at Truro church either in my own Bible Study or helping prepare for their Saturday Young Adults worship service. So far, Fridays are my only free evenings, which leaves an opening for a date night:) Please keep this in your prayers - it's very difficult to run from one thing to the other and be able to focus on both:)

Alright, time to get going. Thank goodness for work being so close by, but I still try to be a bit early! Hopefully the next post I can explain some of the stuff we're teaching in the class:)