Pearce Pastures: Where did I go?

[bonbean01]

Wow...that's fast! When we've taken a lamb in for processing it takes around 10 days before they call...they are killed right then and begin the whole thing...but this place hangs all meat in a cooler room for a long time? We pick it up wrapped and frozen...will yours not be hung for several days, and will yours be frozen when you get it?

Guess all processors do it their own way.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Wow...that's fast! When we've taken a lamb in for processing it takes around 10 days before they call...they are killed right then and begin the whole thing...but this place hangs all meat in a cooler room for a long time? We pick it up wrapped and frozen...will yours not be hung for several days, and will yours be frozen when you get it?

Guess all processors do it their own way.

Yep it was ready today but will be picked up in the morning.

Will be wrapped and in freezer bags and all. idk if it will be frozen or not.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

This was one heck of a week and I was so ready for the weekend, and it just feels like even a weekend is not going to be enough right now. I am upset right now about some things here but I have to just get this out somewhere and while this might just be a forum to some, the people here are the closest friends I have right now in the crazy season of my life. I really need to just put this in words and maybe that will help somehow.

Work is a nightmare. I love teaching. I just don't know if I can keep doing this. One of the administrators has it in his head that meetings will make our already top rated school even better. Nothing is getting accomplished through these meetings, but somehow, hours and hours of them is going to make things amazing. I have been pulled out of my classroom for a total of three weeks of class just this year, and have to use my planning time to attend to things that are have been dropped onto my plate from these committee meetings. My students are joking that I should really just call myself a sub. I smiled of course, but on the inside, I am furious. Then there are the after school meetings. While teachers may be salaried, there are stipulations that come with any salary, including mandatory hours (and of course, I work WELL beyond those hours). Now, I am attending 3-4 additional meetings after the time that I should be allowed to leave and go take care of my family. We have filed complaints and thought there was some resolution in sight, but not so much. My student are being cheated, my family is being cheated, and I am not sure what I am going to do yet.

Then there are my boys.

I had a meeting with my older son's teachers, whom have been working so hard with him and us on keeping him up to speed. He is just having such a hard time and he wants to do well so badly. We have been treating for ADHD since his repeat year of first grade, and the medication has helped tremendously. But that can only go so far and I have been at a loss this year for how to help him. Seeing him cry over tests he thought he did well on just makes me ill. So his teachers and I talked---and we are having him placed with the special education program. Mostly, to get him extra help on his math, and they will be categorizing him as OHI (other health impaired). He tests in the gifted range but he is so unfocused and impulsive that he is getting some very bad grades and it just keeps getting worse. I don't know how I feel. I was kind of numb until conference number two.

I had a sit down with my younger son's principal and teacher (whom I do not care for but have tried very hard to work with and be polite to). We have decided to retain him a year, not because he isn't learning or growing academically but because his maturity is lacking compared to the other kids. He is definitely a tough child, always had been. But there might be something more now. Because I work there, and the principal knows me quite well, he talked to me a bit more about some behaviors I did not know where going on. We are having him screened for Autism.

My silly boy has always had some quirks and a stubborn streak a mile long. When he was a baby, he would not look at us unless he felt like it, and he had bouts of tantrums that made no sense. He loathed being cuddled, which broke my heart. We chalked a lot of that up to his sleep apnea and hearing issues, which were resolved by having his tonsils/ adenoids removed and speech therapy. He will hug me now and make eye contact and talks nonstop---but then there are still things that he does that do not seem entirely normal. Like at school, he freaked out over his hands getting sticky from a glue stick, and then even after it was all cleaned off, he was still upset. Or how he is so matter-of-fact about things and has a very hard time seeing another side to things. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I am a wreck. I know that even if it is true, he would be high on the spectrum and we could get him into a program to help. But it just... I don't know.

 

[autumnprairie]

WOW, you need a break from meetings and stress. I am here for you know matter what. My oldest grandson has Autism and I can understand where you are coming from. I hope things get better soon for you. I hope you know I count you as one of my friends.

 

[bonbean01]

X 2!!!! Hang in there...this will get better

Still remember a bumper sticker I saw once at a red light on a car in front of me...Motherhood is not for Wimps....so true....read that on a day I was beside myself with my son's antics!!!!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

I feel like a train wreck. I have been trying to tell myself that I should be so grateful that I have job, that I have my boys, and keep reminding myself that things could be worse and that this is not THAT bad. But it is just so much at once and I guess I am not very strong when it comes to this kind of thing, where I am not really in control of what is going on. If it were something I had done, that would somehow be better you know what I mean.

 

[Southern by choice]

So sorry pearce.

 

[alsea1]

I don't know what to say. But I sure hope it gets better for you.
I'm sure some solutions will come.
And hopefully your boss will be transferred and the new person will not want to do a bunch of meetings.

 

[autumnprairie]

Yeah, I know exactly how you mean this week has been one of the worst week's of my life. Lost my best friend to a car accident this week. Feeling a little bit or rather a lot overwhelmed and having no control sucks

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Sorry Pearce