i love my jobs...right??

holy hell, is it christmas break yet?!? we're only into the 3rd week of school, and i'm already counting the days until a break.  part of it is just overall business, since i'm working full-time, coaching 3 days/wk, swimming 3-4 days/wk with the master's team, AND have grad school work on top of it all.  the kids at school are actually doing really well so far, not too much drama or misbehavior, there's just a lot of them compared to last year.  we didn't get a ton of IEP's, but we did get a lot of kids who are considered "at-risk," to prevent them from reaching the point of failure.  which means more kids for us.  the last few 2 periods of the day, there's barely enough room for teachers/paras to slide in and work alongside kids; it's like musical chairs. 

what's draining me more than anything is coaching. so far i'm a big fan of our new coach and the changes he's making to the team, but the kids he gave me for the pre-competitive squad i'm in charge of are...challenging. most of them are pretty good, just need to learn the rules & routines, but i have one kid in particular who is going to drive me to insanity. at 7 yrs old, he is a straigh-faced little bugger who doesn't listen to directions and rolls his eyes at me when i try to talk seriously with him.  he was having a particularly bad day today since he forgot his swim gear and had to borrow trunks from the pool, but he basically refused to swim. he walked away from me when i tried to talk with him. he played with the equipment on the side of the pool when i  repeatedly told him not to. he doesn't put his hand in with the group when we do a team cheer at the end of practice. O.M.G.!!!  i talked to mom after practice and she said he's a jekyll/hyde type of kid, and either loves you or hates you. and she felt bad for not forewarning me about him being a little shit today (her words, not mine! although if you call your own kid a shit, seems like you should do something to change that pattern of behavior...). needless to say, i have my hands full this season.

so to prevent burn-out, i'm thinking spring break, birthday bash, in oregon/washington?? at the very least, a few mental health days might be in order!