Gratitude

Sometimes I realize how blessed I am, and I’m fortunate enough to realize this just when needed. I woke this morning in a horrid mood – one of those days where I took a deep breath, realized there was no reason for this mood, and worked to do something about it.

After running Luke to summer band lessons, I took off for a run. I quickly went through my schedule for the rest of the day while I ran:

9-10 Luke’s trumpet lessons

11-12 Summer reading camp

12-1 Piano Lessons

and…

Ahh…. Bliss. Nothing on the schedule for the afternoon. Nothing on the schedule for the evening. Nothing.

I ran on, feeling the tension leave my body. I decided to come up with something I was grateful for during each block remaining of my run.

Family was easy – friends as well. Especially friends that will Skype into my reading camp and recommend books. (I’m looking at you Tony, Colby, Donalyn, Teri, Julie, Paul, John, and Ame.)

I’m grateful for opportunity – to teach, to write, to spend summers with students.

Schedule was another that came to mind. As much as I dreaded the end of the school year, as much as I hated to say goodbye to that class, the summer schedule is one I love. Going to bed at ten and waking at 8 – my body is so happy to finally be feeling rested for the first time in such a long time.

Finally, I’m grateful for conversations – ones I’ve had recently with friends, and ones I had this week with my sons. Such wonderful lessons I can learn from them.

With that, I’m off to the pool. And here are a few book recommendations from just a few of my summer reading camp students. My Skype with Donalyn cut out before they could share and they were not to be silenced.

J

And We’re Off…

Summer. I made it through the last week of school with just a few tears. Ok, more than a few. I said good-bye to a wonderful class and some fabulous colleagues that are moving on. Turned in all of my end of the year paperwork, made a presentation at our end of the year district meeting, and walked out of my classroom. I came home and crashed.

I think in the last four days I’ve taken a nap, well, all of them. Exhaustion finally set in along with the stress of the end of the year. Fortunately, after fifteen years of teaching, I expect this. I need to give myself about a week to really distress before I will feel that I’m on summer break. Knowing this, I looked at my schedule for next week:

It’s almost laughable. I do this to myself – no one makes me have a summer reading camp, much less two. I do it for a variety of reasons – mainly because I enjoy it AND the income allows me to attend All Write and ALA, these are not conferences my district pays for. The camps allow me to attend without feeling that I’m taking away from my family.

The boys’ schedules are filling up – and the following week with basketball camps will be even crazier. I haven’t even tried to schedule swim lessons yet! Goodness. To help keep some order, the boys have a check-off list for each day of what they have to accomplish – and so do I. We all have things that are on our “bucket list” for summer. On their list – have their friends over, go to the pool, see Superman, etc. On mine, work on the garden, have fun with the boys, dates with Chris, begin writing a book for teachers – yikes!

How about you? If you are in education, do you feel like your summer is packed already? How do you find balance? I love downtime, so I have to carve some out each day. Reading time is added into my daily checklist – without it I feel stressed. What are your tips? I’d love to hear them.