Time Flies

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. So much has happened it's hard to figure out where to start....

The CLAD exam is OVER!!!! Thank God for that. Why the California Teachers of English Learners (CTEL) would use a multiple choice test to determine the ability to teach English Learners is beyond me. That's exactly the kind of assessment we learned was not appropriate for determining a student's grasp of material. 60 hours of test prep for a 6 hour exam - how brutal! And to think that this is sanctioned by teachers - why do we do this to ourselves?

Once the exam was over it was on to the next hurdle of the summer - moving my mom from a 1 bedroom apartment to one room at an assisted living facility. Thankfully, this was her choice and the move was to what the facility calls a "cluster home" afiliated with the Jewish Home for the Aging. So my mom is in a 4 bedroom home that she will eventually share with 3 other women. She has her own bedroom and bathroom sharing the kitchen, living room and dining room. As I helped my mom go through her lifetime of "stuff", I'd send my sister updates. She found the humor in them and thought I should write a book - maybe once some time passes. We have decided that our inheritance rests in the box of paper goods stored in my mom's new garage - yes, she still drives at the age of 85. The number of boxes of ziplock bags, aluminum foil, wax paper and baggies she has rivals the papergoods aisle at the market - box after box after box. She'll have to live another 50 years to use it all up. It must be that generation - I think I've just finished using up the foil that my mother-in-law left when she died - and that was over 20 years ago! And shoes, in plastic boxes - cardboard shoeboxes weren't good enough. I think we "paired" down over 60 pairs to about 12. Each pair of shoes had to be tried on and of course there was a story to match. I think my favorite though had to be the plastic hangers, stored in plastic bags, waiting for clothes - 4 market sized bags!

So, she's moved and adjusting quite nicely. She was able to take her bedroom furniture and a good deal of kitchen gear - not that she cooks anymore. She'll finally have someone to clean the house weekly and help with laundering the sheets & towels. She can choose to eat her meals at "home" or in the dining room at the main facility. It's all about choices - thankfully, these were her's to make.

While going through all of her things, I was struck by how much we accumulate in our lives and that the responsibility to disperse those "things" will be left to someone else. I've already started to "weed" closets, drawers, and anything that isn't nailed down. I've also made the commitment to give those things I no longer use to others who will enjoy them now - they do no good to anyone stored in a closet or drawer.