I scalded myself with hot water.

I'm ok, no blistering yet. But it hurt, and it was scary, and I didn't want to be dealing with it at 8:05 as I tried to get out of the house, to Starbucks to pick up their hot water thermos for my class party, to my sister's house to drop off Rose, to David's school to drop off David, and to my school and in my classroom by 9:00. I got to class at 9:03.

I rattled around the house for 3 hours without going crazy

I like to have a plan--make muffins, go to the library, do an art project, scrub the toilets, whatever. And when we aren't doing an activity of my choice, I often try to do my thing while pretending I'm doing his thing which leads to a lot of: I'll be there in a second. Mommy! Mommy! I just need to . . . When I have the dishwasher unloaded, when I've taken out the garbage, when I've swept the floor, when I've . . .

I do better when I commit to paying attention to David. So, he's playing with his new marble game, and my job is to find him new marbles, take turns running the marbles down the ramp, and exclaim with wonder at the marbles that go wild and crazy places. Or he's careening off the yoga ball onto the sofa, and I sit far back and watch. I don't try to call my sister. I don't try to pick up the cars, dvd cases, print-outs of menorahs, and random bits of food strewn all over the floor. I just exclaim with wonder at David and the wild and crazy places his body lands.

I do even better when I commit to ignoring David when he obviously wants to be ignored. (How do I know? Mommy, don't look at this!) So, David is in the bathroom squirting pink toothpaste and some bizarre white gel into the sink, and I'm in my room, two feet away, tidying and reading the NPR website. I did end up washing some pink toothpaste off the walls this evening. We both appreciated the time alone.

I taught my last class.

What this experience has shown me is I still love teaching. I am not burned out, and, in fact, I am truest to myself and my values when I am teaching. I believe in living in an economically and culturally diverse world. I believe in service and social justice and making the world a better place. I get to do all that when I teach. Plus, I get to talk about semi-colons. Semi-colons are way cool.