Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.

It is exactly 2 months until I touch down on American soil woo hoo! It has already reached temperatures up to 106 here in Doha and I am afraid of what it will be like in July. Hello pool and beach days! I will definitely be working on my tan before I come home for the summer. Now if you are wondering why I am coming back in practically the middle of July, it is to avoid all the nonsense with taxes. There is a rule that if you have only been in the US for 35 days out of the year, then you are exempt from taxes! Although I did not owe anything this past year, I would rather just avoid it altogether to make life easier. As of now I will be home for 42 days, but it will be 35 days once I make a trip up north to Canada for a week!

Truth. My kids have started coming in from recess drenched in sweat.
I kindly remind them to drink lots of water because we live in the desert.
At least they aren't smelly teens that are still getting used to the concept of deodorant.

42 days until my last day of teaching and 61 days until I fly home! When it comes to the workplace I just keep chugging right along. This past week for some reason I was ridiculously exhausted. I have been living up to my grandma status and the majority of the days this week I passed out before 9. It is time to start thinking about that 'A' word that all teachers are not a fan of... assessments. Ugh they are so draining and since it is the end of the year, it is a lot. Particularly math. The assessment for each child to complete is about 5 pages long. The key for me has been to break it up into pieces. Assess the teacup humans in counting one day, adding/subtracting another day, etc. There is just no way I could have a 5 or 6 year old sit down and go through every single thing in one day. We would both be absolutely miserable by the end of it. This week actually went by pretty fast. I think because the universe knows I have a lot of assessing I need to get through.

Keep calm and carry on friends!

Next month, June 5 to be exact, Ramadan begins. My happy place AKA the QDC where you can buy booze and bacon will be closed, which means it is time to start stocking up! The QDC actually sent out a text message letting everyone know when they close and open again. When you get a license to go to the QDC, you get a monthly allowance for how much you can buy. Since they are closed during June, they tripled the monthly allowance. I can only imagine how much business they get in May. Our new school schedule becomes 8:30-1:30. Some of the kids will be fasting during this time and the school adjusts to accommodate  their needs. The cafeteria is closed and no eating/drinking is allowed in the hallways or classrooms. My teacup humans will not be fasting during Ramadan. It seems like they start around third or fourth grade. Hence the short days because the kids will already be miserable enough trying to pay attention and ignoring their hunger pangs.

School wise things have been good. I have been keeping the teacup humans busy and getting them all ready for grade one. Last Sunday was Mother's Day (in the US) so I had my kids do a little craft for all the moms. We did a little flower craft and also made a class book "Something Only a Mom Knows" and what they come up with is absolutely adorable. Things like "how to kiss me goodnight, how to make a cake, how to read me a story, how to grow flowers, how to make pancakes" were just a few of them. Actually a lot of them said make a cake or pancakes. I guess cooking is a big requirement for being a mom to these kids! I am a big fan of class books because it is funny to see what they come up with. Plus they love to take the books from our class library and read what all their friends wrote.

I love my mom because... she plays with me.
My mom always gets me chocolate. My mom always
gives me a hug. Too cute! 

I love my mom because... she gives me pancakes
and hugs. Sounds like a pretty good combo to me!

Every Thursday they get extra time with me because that is our day where we have no specials. I am always hunting around on Pinterest for craft ideas to fill that time gap. The other week they made shape foxes and we sang along and listened to What Does the Fox Say while we worked. This week it was number bond kites! They turned out so good I even updated my bulletin board one last time. What they had to do was make a kite. On the kite it said "The Story of" and I told them to pick any number between 10-20. A lot of them picked 10 because they were familiar with it and others picked 12 because that is the number I modeled with them and they love to copy me. Then on the tail part of the kite they write the number sentences that equal that number. So for example if they did "The Story of 10" then they would write 5 + 5 and 4 + 6 and so on. I told them they were writing math sentences. I explained that just like in writing when we write stories we have to have capital letters, periods, and finger spaces, our math sentences have to have a + or - and an = sign. They really liked it and they turned out great!

Let's go fly a kite! Anyone else want to watch Mary Poppins now? Ah ok just me. 

Not school wise in the near future I think I am doing the desert camping and dune bashing again that I did way back in September! I am excited for an overnight camping trip and to do something fun to break up the long school weeks before our summer break. I stayed home all last weekend due to feeling pretty cruddy and I do not plan on doing much this weekend except meet up with our book club group. We are reading The Glass Castle which I have read before, but I read it again to keep it fresh in my head and hopefully have something useful to contribute to the discussion. It is a great book by the way that apparently is being adapted into a movie. I have already started compiling a list for books that I want to read over the summer. Big shocker that a lot of them are Middle Eastern themed like Girls of Riyadh, The Bamboo Stalk, The Arch and the Butterfly... along with my usual end of the world/dystopian novels.

Besides Canada I plan to be spending my break at home. Personally I feel that summer break is home/family time. It will be nice to spend more than 11 days at home. As for the breaks I get throughout the school year? Anything goes! Stay tuned for further stories and updates as I continue to somehow survive through the remaining weeks of my first year teaching!