What a week.

All together now: TGIF.

This week started poorly, with my receiving a phone call while teaching that Earl had been in a car accident. A teaching colleague held my class while I called home and got the story, the short version of which was that Earl wasn't seriously hurt, but the van was.

Over the next couple of days, insurance issues were worked out (the other driver was at fault) and, after squishing three disgruntled kids into the back of our tiny Focus for a couple of days, we were able to get a rental with more room, although not a minivan, as they were in short supply due to the upcoming school vacation week.

Note to self: you're not the SUV type.

The accident (or "crash," as the official report calls it) has overshadowed our lives for the past few days, but now all that remains is to have the van restored to its former glory. That process is ongoing, and we don't know how long it will take. Earl has recovered from the majority of his aches and pains, and at least we have a vehicle that fits all of us more comfortably than our little second car.

The other TGIF-worthy news is that we had Abby's annual team meeting yesterday, to create her IEP for the coming year. It's a three-year reevaluation year, too, meaning that Abby completed a battery of tests in a variety of specialties to help the team determine her eligibility for special education services. Earl and I were very pleased with the testing reports, and felt that they gave an accurate picture of Abby's strengths and challenges. It's tough to see some of the challenges in print, of course, but the reports have given us a lot of food for thought.

Team meetings rank right up there with going to the gynecologist. Inconvenient but necessary, mostly annoying and a little painful, while feeling vulnerable the whole time. A necessary evil that isn't really evil; just a non-preferred activity, to use autism language.

Yesterday's meeting, however, was the best yet, with a very low level of nonsense, and a general sense that everyone in the room was on the same page. It still was an uncomfortable, almost-three-hour meeting, and Earl and I have to do more thinking about what was proposed. All things considered, however, it wasn't that bad.

And now, it's Friday, with school vacation week stretching before me. While I'm trhilled to have a week off from school, myself, there is that little matter of the kids also being out of school. On top of that, it's Holy Week, which is anything but restful for a church musician and choir director.

As I am wont to say in these kinds of situations: it's a different kind of work.

The coming days are bound to be better than the past week, if only because there's no team meeting on the horizon. Now, if we can avoid further car crashes, it will seem like a real vacation.