The Crazy Life I'm Leading These Days

I'm almost done with the translation project that I took on this summer. Actually there were two projects for a while, which took quite a bit of juggling. I can't pretend that I wasn't relieved when the other one was finally out the door. Now I can just do one page a day and know that I'll make the deadline with still a couple of days to spare.

Besides the meager-paying translation, I've also been busy volunteering at S's school. I'm helping with their spelling, which takes two mornings a week. Now I've never been known as a morning person, so this is quite a feat for me, going to school with S three times (the other is the chess club, which her dad chairs) a week.

On top of spelling, I'm also going to be doing the class's Art Literacy program. It's a once-a-month enrichment program where we introduce some artist and his/her work to the kids and have them imitate the artist's signature style. There's someone at school that organizes this program, so we're supposed to meet once a month to learn about the artist before going to the classes to teach the kids. I've also signed up at the school district to go to some art classes because of this.

I'm also teaching S's class at the Chinese school (for which I get paid!). At first I was assigned to 5th grade, but later there was some shuffling due to a shortage of teachers. Eventually I was left to teach 1st grade, S's new class. So far we're doing well (knock on wood). Next Sunday we're going to have a midterm. S told me the other day that she couldn't believe it was midterm already. Time passed too fast for the Chinese school, she said. And according to her, I'm the best teacher she's ever had! All I can say is, I'm a lucky mom.

S is on a swim team now. Three times a week they have practice, so we're talking about some major time management here. Plus she still does gymnastics and piano lessons. I've also asked her to get more involved at the TAG program at school. For a 4th grader, that's a lot of homework and extracurricular activities. But she doesn't complain much, because she truly loves to swim, and she's enjoying school, piano, and even gymnastics! Like I said, I'm lucky.