Settling In

Tomorrow will mark the third week of the school year, and I am still settling in to my new position. I'm not going to lie... at first I HATED it, but as the days go by, I am enjoying it more. I think once my class size levels off, I will be okay - I do have an assistant starting tomorrow to help me with grading!

The first week was overwhelming with phone calls and questions and learning, but it has settled and I have developed a system that I think will serve me well throughout the year. I am also feeling more comfortable with the school's system - rules, learning management system, curriculum, etc. Not being "in charge" is a little unsettling for me, so I am adapting and becoming okay with not knowing all of the answers.

So, while all of this settling has been occurring, I have basically had no other "web presence" - little Tweets, not as much time on Facebook,no blogging and 1000+ in my Google Reader. And it has been fine... the Interwebs have survived without me. I am hoping to have the time and acclimation to begin my "normal" participation levels again this week.

And although, I have not been updating, I have still been decluttering. I have no idea what "day" I am on in "Operation Declutter", but I know I have gotten rid of WAY more than my goal which was one thing a day for 30 days.

The following have been cut over the last couple of weeks:

• We delivered another 30-40 books to Half-Price in exchange for a few bucks. Now all of our books fit on the floating bookshelves in our bedroom, the shelf in the living room, and the shelf in the office (and Dylan has his books in his room.)
• I cleaned out my closet and delivered 4 lawn size garbage bags of clothes and shoes to the DAV. I read somewhere that people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time and that is definitely the case for me, so I got rid of the clothes I never wear or that no longer fit well.
• Today Kyle hung the ceiling fan that has been sitting in Dylan's closet since we bought the house a year ago. The box is gone and the old (hideously ugly) fan is up for grabs on Freecycle. The new fan looks SO MUCH better!
•  And I threw away and Freecycled some other stuff that I can't seem to recall at the moment.

I haven't been very good about the decluttering update or actually getting rid of one thing per day, but overall I have met my goal and then some. I am not, however, done. I still have LOTS of cleaning to do... hopefully I will be able to focus on cleaning and decluttering a little more  as the process of settling in continues.