 welcome back to the vlog so today is Monday and I am getting ready to leave to go Christmas shopping and get a couple of errands done. I was planning on taking cash with me but we've been sick for the last two days. Nothing too serious. Cash had a fever of 99 and we're both like super stuffy. I'm not as sick anymore but he still is like full of boogers but I don't want to take him out so my mom's actually gonna watch him and then hopefully I can get everything done within two hours. I did pump this morning so that he does have a meal in a bottle. He's pretty good at taking a bottle and then he's fine getting back on breastfeeding so I'm gonna try and get out of here. My mom's getting dressed, finishing up getting dressed. I'm dressed and this guy is hanging out in here for now. As soon as grandma's dressed she's gonna grab him. Hi handsome. So yeah that's what's happening today. Super stressful. This Christmas is just gonna be like gift cards and like last-minute stuff because honestly I just don't have the time so I'm planning on doing gift cards with really cute wrapping and like candy or something. Like a little trinket gifts to go with the gift cards. Honestly I think gift cards are the best because then people can do whatever they want with them. I personally love gift cards so that's what I'm gonna do and I don't think anyone's gonna care because I just had a baby and I don't have time. So that's what we're gonna do today. Hope you're along for the ride. Also I need to read these when I went to visit my kids last week. I got a bunch of cards and I need to read them so I was thinking maybe I could read them on camera. I think that would be really fun and then I got a ornament from one of them. It's so cute. Thanks Presley if you're watching guys just so you know my students did find my YouTube channel and they do watch it. So and not just my kids but like kids at school they watch me and they watch Jennifer so if any of my students are watching get off of YouTube do your homework and read a book. Hey guys okay so I was gonna save this for a different vlog but since I'm driving and feeling talkative I'm just gonna go ahead and talk about it now. So a couple of days ago well no like last week sometime I get a text from my sub and just a prerequisite. I have no hard feelings towards anyone in this situation. I am not mad at anybody. I don't think ill will of anyone. I'm just really frustrated so just have that in mind before you hear what I'm about to say. So last week my sub texted me telling me that she was planning on resigning after Christmas break and to me I was in shock and I wanted to know why because most of the time a substitute won't resign unless they're miserable teaching the kids and the kids are monsters and you know it's just a miserable time. She assured me that it wasn't my students that they had nothing to do with it that they were wonderful and that it was mostly just a health issue. She has four kids of her own and she hasn't taught in a long time because she took a lot of time off to raise her children and so she feels like she is extremely overwhelmed with the amount of work that she's doing. Not that she's like that I did that to her that I gave her too much work but because she's spending all day every day with them and the grading and the planning which is what and a long-term sub is supposed to do. I'm only supposed to provide her with a certain number of plans and then she's supposed to move forward from that and that is our district policy so I did everything I was supposed to do and so it's not like I gave her too much you know what I mean she just was feeling overwhelmed having four kids and having this full time job. In addition her thyroid I guess is having problems and I don't know if people know about thyroid problems I don't really know a whole lot about it I know my sister has it and that it makes it difficult to manage her weight but Andrea is having a difficult time with her energy level so it makes her really dizzy it makes her really tired and so having a full-time job with four kids and this issue is making it really hard to do the job so she assured me she's like it's nothing that the kids did it's nothing that you did it I just I'm having health problems and I need to go I need to not be working full-time so I said I completely understand I'm so sorry like I wanted her to know that I was thankful for everything she's done and like I want her to go and get you know healthy like her health is 100% important so I told her it's not a big deal but now I'm six weeks in and I have six weeks left and the kids have six weeks left now they only have four weeks technically because two of those weeks is gonna be winter break so they have four weeks left until I return in school so now we're trying to find a substitute for four weeks and now I have to plan for this person because the odds of this person being self-reliant like Andrea was is really slim the odds of finding somebody that's willing to stay for four weeks is really slim this short notice and I just have this feeling that I'm gonna have a different sub every week so now I get to spend the rest of my maternity leave planning for a substitute not a long-term substitute because planning for a long-term substitute is way easier than planning for a day-to-day substitute because you can tell them okay cover this you know and most the time they know what to do whereas a regular substitute is normally just like they need a scripted plan and like everything printed out for them and everything like that so I'm freaking like now I have to do double the work like you guys know how hard it is to plan for a sub for one day now I have to do that for four weeks worth of stuff while taking care of my newborn baby like are you so I'm a little bit stressed so I'm gonna start planning like over the winter break and anytime cash is down or with someone else like if someone else is there I'm gonna have to be like hey can you watch him while I sit like and plan like I'm really not gonna be able to spend time with my baby so like I'm in my head I'm thinking like do I just go back like should I just go back to work early and you know duke it out and just deal with it and not be around my baby because honestly like all the work that I'm gonna have to do I'm not gonna be able to spend time with him anyway I'm really like annoyed and frustrated and stressed and I know I need to not be because I'm breastfeeding and when you're stressed out like it affects you when you breastfeed and I don't think anybody around me really understands the severity like they keep telling me it's not your like it's not your responsibility you've been told like I've been told by my superintendent do not do any work while you are on maternity leave because I'm not getting paid I'm not getting paid to plan for a sub so on my end I feel like saying okay if I'm gonna be planning for this person like I am expecting to be paid because I'm still working and I'm just like totally flabbergasted I don't know what to do like do I not plan do I just say here's three textbooks just do this chapter this week this chapter this week this chapter this week and here you go and just let them suffer like I told my students when I went in on Friday I told them everything that was going on I told them you know I'm so sorry about all of this I I know you guys don't deserve this you know and they were very understanding they were very mature about it and they said you know miss Anderson we need you to be healthy and miss Valdes we want you to be with your baby so they know that they might have a different person every week they know that they might not be doing the most exciting lessons they know that they might not be having fun they know that the substitute might not you know do all of the classroom management things that I do and that the sub did because they're not going to be trained to do any of that and they understand that it's only four weeks and one of those weeks there's not a there's no school on a Monday so that's positive and I just don't know what to do like should I just do the bare minimum and just let let them go for four weeks without really really learning anything like substantial or do I bust my butt and plan so that my kids can be kept up to date or do I wait until I go back to work and just kick butt and really really get everything covered which I think is a better idea because I have such a good class that honestly I think that we could get a lot done when I get back I feel like just giving them the bare minimum for now would be better for me for my baby and I told my teammate and she was like well I'll just give the sub you know like if they feel like they don't have enough to do like I'll just give them whatever I'm doing so I think that that might be a good option to like just have my teammate just print her lesson plans and give them to my substitute and say here just do this and call it what it is I mean I would rather me you know hammer in the good stuff later than try to plan and take care of a newborn because it's different when when you plan for a sub it's completely different than planning for yourself like I know what I'm gonna say I know what things I need to do I know what I'm looking for but when you plan for a sub you don't really plan for any like real learning to take place I mean as awful as that sounds most of times subs are doing busy work or review or practice or things like that but not for that long of a time like if it's for one day yeah they just review all day or practice something or do like a fun you know activity that you wouldn't normally do so I don't know what to do comment down below if you guys have any ideas for me I'm like really stressing out and I don't want to spend my the last six weeks of my maternity leave with my baby that I'm never gonna have again planning for a sub I'd rather spend that time really thinking and planning what I'm gonna do when I get back you know and investing in what I'm gonna be bringing to the table I just don't I don't know I'm very like I just need to calm down and pray and just follow my heart and at the end of the day you know the kids are gonna be fine they're gonna be okay like people don't get that like as a teacher like everyone around me keeps saying it's not your responsibility it's not your responsibility no but those kids are those kids and their learning is my responsibility I'm not gonna let the fact that I was gone for three months ruin their fourth grade year I'm not gonna do that it's just not it's not right those kids deserve everything and anything I can give them and four weeks of boring busy work is not investing in their educate like it's just not giving them everything that they deserve so I don't know what to do I just spent a crap ton at TJ Maxx but you know what it's alright I ended up finding a Kate spade luggage like a carry-on like suitcase rolling suitcase and I've been wanting one of those so bad like the last time I went to the Kate spade outlet I planned on going there to look at them to see because I already have like a bunch of purses I have diaper bags and like I have a couple of items that are luggage like I have my duffel bag my backpack and now all I needed was the suitcase so it was on sale for 250 so I text Scott and I was like hey do you want to get me this for Christmas he's like sure so I'm like perfect I told him how much it was he's like yeah that's perfect and I was like and you don't have to go shopping for me he was like I don't and I was like no not unless you want to so end up getting that and then I ended up getting him a suitcase because with him commuting up and down until May he uses like this janky duffel bag that we got like for free from Under Armour when we like you know when you make a purchase of so much you get like a free item it was like this janky little like tote bag that he uses to go back and forth and so I thought it would be nicer to like take a suitcase because then he can roll it and then later on when we travel he doesn't own a suitcase so now he has one and it's just like a little carry-on size so now when we travel when we go back and forth to like Disneyland and stuff he has a duffel bag that he can pack his stuff in so I got him that and then I got him a hundred dollars to Dix so that he can buy whatever he wants or he can buy weights for his gym when we move into our new house because I know he's mentioned like the fact that he wants to buy like free weights but they're expensive and I was like well I can get are you kidding me I just got cut but anyways so then I got my dad $40 to Dix and then I got my sister-in-law a gift card to Ulta and I also got her a cute little planner I got my other sister-in-law gift card to Torrid which is the plus size shop and then I'm gonna get I got my little niece a little vacuum cleaner and now I need to get my nephew's something I need to get my one nephew a Lego set my other nephew needs a he wants the Call of Duty World War 2 game and then I'm gonna get him like a crap ton of popcorn from Costco and my other brother-in-law and my nephew so I'm almost done Christmas shopping this year Christmas is just like crazy I'm getting mostly gift cards because I just don't know what everybody wants it's easier for me and I got like the cute little packaging for the gift card so like it's an acute little wrapper it's not just gonna be like a card or anything so hi guys it's Char I just wanted to say thank you so much for watching my video today and for supporting my YouTube channel by subscribing don't forget to click the little bell next to the subscribe button so that you can see when I put up new videos I hope you have a magical day