St. Stephen’s Day

While not as well known to American’s as the English Boxing Day, today the Irish celebrate St. Stephen’s Day. When we’ve been in Ireland this means a quiet day at home with the family – and soccer football on TV. Liverpool played this afternoon so I took the kids to the library so the Irishman could watch in peace. Caitlin put got dressed in her new shoes and headband from Grammy. I tried to get a picture but she was being a ham!



This year marks our eighth Christmas since married, but it is only our third Christmas in Florida. One of the traditions we’ve started on this side of the pond is a trip to the beach on St. Stephen’s Day. The Irishman misses home, but he loves being able to go to the beach in December!



The shirt was a new find this year. He joked about wearing it to the beach today and then chickened out. I talked him into it. It is SO him! He even added our names to the "Nice List" sticking out of the pocket.



The sun was setting while we sat and played



and of course took pictures.



I had a Santa shirt planned for Sean but he needed a bath after his lunch so we went with Elmo instead.

As usual we spotted someone to take a family picture for us using the usual criteria – someone who looks like they would know how to use a camera but would not outrun us if they tried to steal it! ; )

 

Happy times!

 

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As a teacher two weeks off at Christmas is the norm. I really dislike when we do not get the week before Christmas off. Having the first week in January is nice, but it isn’t the same as family time in the build up to Christmas.

This December was hard. Between the cruise, then being in Orlando for almost a week at trainings, and then getting sick I missed a LOT of work. Part of it was work related, but being a classroom teacher time out of the classroom is time out of the classroom.

I have started a teaching blog and my own store on Teachers Pay Teachers. In past years I’ve tutored after school to make a little extra money. I am hoping to spend my time creating quality products for my own classroom that I can sell on TpT. It should be a win-win. I’ve posted several items, but so far I haven’t made much from it. I know what I need to do to make it all work, I just haven’t found the time to do it yet.

The house is a disaster. It has been getting the best of us for a while now. This last week I have been torn between pouring myself into it  for a day or so to get caught up and forgetting it all to relax and spend time together as a family. I’ve come up with a mix of the two that isn’t really working for me. Sigh.

I actually won an award at school last week and my first thoughts were a) when am I going to find the time to complete the application packet and b) how the heck are we going to find a babysitter to go to the award banquet.

We are amazingly blessed. I have a good life and I do appreciate all that we have. I just want to find time to clean the floors, too. Two parents working full time with two kids is a lot of juggling. We both work long days. The Irishman and I are working as hard as we can, but it is still a juggling act.  I have decided that for next year I am going to worry less about blogging daily. I enjoy the blog, but I just can’t keep up right now. It might be daily, it might be once a week. We’ll see how it goes. My goal is to try to stress less if I don't get to it.