Hamster wheel and a thank you to Mr. Lincoln

Do you ever feel like no matter how much you do you just can't get ahead? That has been my entire month of January. Well, actually, it goes back to the end of December. I left for the east coast to spend the holidays and much needed time with my family. I was very excited and a little apprehensive because at that time we didn't think that my husband was going to be able to go and we already knew my little brother wouldn't be home as his leave time was moved to the spring. Anyways, my husband ended up surprising me and flying over night a few days into the week and was standing outside of the mall when my mom and I went shopping! We had the best time all together - I hadn't been in Rhode Island for more than a week in over 2 years. The day after Christmas we got a huge snow storm and were snowed in for days. I had planned to leave on Thursday and then I would 4 days to do a lot of things around my house that were projects that were just too big for weekends after working all week (i.e. sorting, organizing, and cleaning all of our clothes and closets, deep cleaning the cabinets and corners, and finishing the office) and getting ahead on all of my planning. I didn't get home until Jan 3 and had to miss my first day back at school. Since then our weekends have been filled with projects around the house but it still hasn't felt like we were caught up from not making it home in time. I have also had to create, administer and grade 130 finals and start a new semester. Enter President Lincoln. For some fabulous reason the school system has given us today off in honor of his birthday and so I have a whole day with nothing to do other than get caught up so that tomorrow, Saturday, will be a Saturday to relax and work on some Valentines Day surprises. I am giddy about this (I know as I type this how dorky it sounds) But, I am off to blast my Glee sound track and get to work. Have a great weekend.
What do you do when you feel like you just can't get caught up?




image from cartoonstock.com

Baby it's cold outside

Today is one of those days where I cannot seem to get warm. I am sitting in my class, holding individual conferences with each of my students on their grades and I am freezing. I was hoping to run out a lunch time for some soup or some coffee but there have been kids here nonstop so I haven't been able to venture out yet. Here are some of my go to items for warming up: Ghiradelli's Hot Chocolate, Paula Dean's soup, Old Navy Fleece Pants, and Boots - of course my favorite thing to keep me warm will be home from work soon!

What helps you warm up?

We were on a break!

* must be said in Ross Gellar's nasily obnoxious voice. obviously.

Well it's August 2 and I'm finally in the swing of summer break. According to my blog roll I haven't posted since June 14th so I have a ton to get caught up on. In the that time I had more drama at work than I thought possible, I had a new job offer that I seriously considered, my director resigned which prompted me to stay, I co-ran graduation, took 19 seniors to Disneyland overnight for grad night, flew to RI for a dear friend's wedding, had my 15 year old sister visit for two weeks, taught vacation Bible school, and worked downtown during Comic Con. I know that people think that we teachers have it so easy because we have 2 months off in the summer but unless you have worked as a teacher or lived with one, it is impossible to understand that massive amount of stress a teacher has during the year and that it takes at least one month to simply decompress from the year on top of having to get everything ready for the next year.

The past month I have taken some time to reflect on my past year. This past year was the most stressful one that I have ever experienced. Things at my work were so awful that it spilled over into every aspect of my life; I've gained weight, I've had trouble keeping a good schedule with cooking and keeping up with my house, I've had trouble with my skin and even my hair! (wow I should like a wretched old hag - one of the highlights was one of my difficult students telling me one day - "wow Ms. T I saw a picture of you from the first year here - you were hella skinny". Thanks - this is what 3 years inner city will do to you) I've spent hours crying or wanting to rip my hair out. I've had very little time to work on things that I enjoy such as my jewelry and so my little shop has suffered. I allowed my stress to affect everything in my life. The only calming factor I had was my wonderful and supportive husband. Last month I decided that never again would I allow stress to do this to me. I am in control of my life, the elements around me are not.

When my sister was here, my husband and I took her to LA for a few days. We spent a night in Malibu, exploring the Pepperdine campus and dining at the fabulous Paradise Cove. The next day (which happened to be our anniversary) we went to Universal Studios. I told my husband that even though school was out I was having trouble relaxing. I had been in such a fast gear for so long that I was having difficulty relaxing and just slowing down. That day my blackberry died. It would not charge for the remaining two days that we were in Los and guess what: no one died, my house did not burn down, not one of my students had a dire emergency, my dogs were fine, and I had no choice but to stop worrying about everyone and everything else and take a break. And. It. Was. Wonderful. Since then I have worked on relaxing and getting things in order. After a much needed break I am back on track and feeling great. Pictures to follow.

"and who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life" Matt 6:27

A Bit of Perspective

This weekend was long and relaxing and exactly what I needed. After 4 days of headaches and stress and exhaustion, I took Friday off and it was amazing. My school is currently a battlefield between staff and administration and changes and stress and testing and I needed to just be away from it all for a day to gain some perspective. I feel awful for even complaining when I am so fortunate to have a job right now but I have come to realize that the stress from my job has entered into almost every aspect of my life and that needs to change.

I spent the weekend doing a lot of this,

plenty of this,

even more of this

made one of these

and even tried this from Heavenly Cupcakes downtown

While my dreams of supporting us while at home are larger than ever I am ready to go back tomorrow and continue to get my students ready for the state tests. I realize that I need to do what is the best for myself and my husband rather than trying to please everyone else and at the end of the day my family and health are what matter the most. I have a lot more praying to do over the next few months and I am back to work full force both at school and in other outside endeavors.