Lunch at Home

Today is a half day for students in our school district.  Actually, Friday and Monday are too.  We hold parent-teacher conferences for the next three days.  Today they happen to be in the evening to try to accommodate working parents.  I will meet with 12 sets of parents tonight.  The rest are spread out over Friday and Monday afternoon.

The students got out of school at 12:45.  Most days, I’d stay at school, get some work done, run home for a quick dinner and head back to school.  Today, I had to get my laptop fixed so I had to leave the building.  I assumed it was going to be a long process, but since I had to leave it there, it took less than five minutes.  I debated going back to school but decided to head home for lunch – something I never get the chance to do.  Even though I live less than a mile from my school, I never feel like there is enough time so I eat at school with the rest of the Kindergarten teachers.  I like having lunch at school.  I have even written before , that lunch time is a favorite part of my day!

I got home, cooked up a nice, big hot lunch, tossed a salad together and now I am enjoying a delicious lunch as I sit at the computer writing this blog.  I figured I’d be writing it late this evening when I got done with conferences.   Now, not only will I get this done, but I can finish editing the photos from Doreen and Julia’s wedding and drop them off before heading back over to school.

I know it seems like such a small thing, but being able to eat lunch at a relaxed pace, with nowhere to run to right away seems almost like a luxury.  I have to savor every minute. Ahhhh, the little things….

Voicemails From Mom

I think I have a little bit of a hoarding problem.  My coworkers and I  joke that as teachers, we feel the need to save everything, “just in case.”  Every once in awhile, I get inspired to purge and throw things away but I still find myself with way too much paper work and “stuff.”  This even carries over to technology.  I am always getting notifications that my email and voicemail boxes are full and I have to go through and pick and choose what needs to be deleted.  Today, I noticed that I had A LOT of voicemails.  Old ones, new ones, important ones, insignificant ones, too many to count.  Among them, I found several from my mom!  I hadn’t remembered that they were there.  I listened to them today.  None of them were more than fifteen seconds, and they all began the same way all of her messages did, “Hello, its only me…”  None of them were about anything too important either.  Just her checking in, or saying hello.

She and I spoke every single day.  Usually more than once.  Our conversations were rarely of importance, just, “how was your day,” or “what are you making for dinner?”  I’d call for a recipe or she’d call to check in on the kids.  It didn’t matter what we were talking about.  I guess it was just hearing each others voice that brought both of us comfort.  As I have written so many times before, I wish so much that  if only I could still just pick up the phone to say hi.  I wonder what I’d say to her if I had that chance?!?

As I listened to the messages today, I realized that there is a void – a sound missing in my life.  Her voice.  I have to find a way to save those messages.  Knowing that they are there, and that I can listen to her anytime I need to hear her voice is comforting to me.  It is a part of her that can’t leave me now because, now, I have her voice!!