Crunch Time

I had a fantastic Thanksgiving with Jason's family. We cooked, ate, laughed, and snuggled on Thursday; cut a Christmas tree and decorated it on Friday; went to downtown Chicago on Saturday; and after church on Sunday, while it was snowing, we wandered through the neighborhood and sipped hot cocoa and tea!

And, because we are such good planners, I missed a staff development day on Monday. (Ok, good planning, a bit of snow, and a blessing from above!) As we sat at the airport in Detroit, I got several text messages from teachers who were at a district wide team building exercise. Then, there were lots of meetings. As I sat around and listened to the teachers discuss these meetings on Tuesday, I couldn't help but be relieved. I think, maybe, if I don't have to do all the meetings, if I don't have to be involved in all the bureaucracy, I could do this for a while longer. It was just such a relief to walk into my classroom on Monday and worry about those four walls. I was happy to see my students again and geared up for the next three weeks. These three weeks are the hardest -- all of us have our minds somewhere else -- and are all thinking "vacation."

And so I spent the week marvelling in my rested and relaxed perspective. Until this morning. Four students wander into class when they please, and then no one had their homework done. I tried to keep it cool, but I was frustrated. I guess more frustrated than I realized, because a colleague told me later heard me talking (!) to my students. I took a step back and realized that really, I can't do much about my students. So we spent some time doing homework, caught up on the project they are supposed to be doing. I could have gone one, and said so sad, too bad you are failing, but that doesn't help anyone. I can't go on because they don't understand what I'm teaching. It's a nasty cycle. So now we are behind, but they did learn something today, and I didn't lose my composure.

This time of year...I fight not wanting to go to bed with the sun at five o'clock. I fill up my time, but spend a lot of it alone because when I'm busy, I'm REALLY busy. And so I fight busyness. And then I'm so busy I forget the reason for the season. And I don't want to. I want to do it all, get it all done, (it being cards, cooking, baking, decorating, celebrating, and visiting) and enjoy the season too. Anyone know how to do that?