This is my third year doing this, and this is the first year where I really didn’t know that I would complete this challenge. As is probably evident from my posts, this has been a challenging time for me, and today has probably been my hardest yet, and possibly one of the top 5 hardest days of my life.

At first, I feel disappointed in my completing this goal. My posts weren’t cheery enough. Were they actually *slices* of my life? I didn’t comment nearly as much as I had wanted to. But, what I’m coming to realize, is my best looks different at different times. Right now, I don’t have as much time or energy to do the things I want to do, and that’s ok. I made time to try to write something every day, and though I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to, that’s still big.

I hope everyone who participated in this, whether goals were met or not, feels good that they were able to do something. Like Kid President has said, “Give people high-fives just for getting out of bed. Being a person is hard sometimes.” #truth

Right now, I’m trying to enjoy the quiet.

I’ve turned the TV off. I’m not listening to music. I just realized that there’s no construction going on! (There’s been construction ever since I moved into the temporary place November, and it’s been right outside my window since I moved into my unit in February.)

I’m looking outside the window. The big, fluffy clouds from earlier are gone and now it’s just blue sky. Shadows are starting to set in as the sun is beginning to fade; it’ll set soon. The trees are still.

And now here come the birds and their chipping. A car starting. And the slam of a neighbor’s door. I’m sure I’ll soon hear another neighbor’s TV soon, or the voices of those living around me.

It didn’t hit me until now how I haven’t really had quiet in so long. There’s usually been the yelling from the construction workers, the beeping of the truck, the noises that come from building an apartment complex. I’m so grateful I had those few moments to just take it in and just be.

I was hoping by this time today I’d have more things done: planning for tomorrow, laundry complete, dishes washed, other little chores done. Well, my laundry is in the washer. And I threw a few things away…

I stayed up too late last night watching basketball. I didn’t sleep very well, and apparently I turned my alarm off this morning instead of hitting snooze. I went to get a bagel for breakfast after getting up later than I had planned, and I decided I was just going to eat the bagel there today. So of course, this was the busiest I have ever seen this place (not that I’ve been there that many times, but it’s usually no where near packed). There weren’t any seats! After waiting far too long for a toasted bagel with butter, I decided to just eat it in my car, as I needed to stop by another store that is in that same shopping center. I’m glad I did, because that’s the best a bagel from that place has ever tasted! Then I stopped by the store, only to find they weren’t having the sale I thought they were, and even if they did their system was down and they could only take cash, which I didn’t have on me.

And my day’s just been kind of blah since then. I sit down to work, but find I really don’t want to. Or I’m too tired, so I take a nap. (Lupus can cause you to be tired a lot. Lupus + teaching can cause you to be tired even more. Lupus + teaching + a very stressful year = just way too much tired!!)

And here I am now, feeling tired, unproductive, and just hoping I can get through this next week. I most definitely need to set some small but necessary goals and then actually do them during Spring Break, which is the week after next. I’ve spent too many weekends being unproductive and lots of little things have piled up.

I’m hoping my field trip gets rescheduled for this week and I can spend a nice day outside in the warm sun, recharging!

I told myself last night that today would be a day of doing nothing, especially nothing for work. I cut off my alarm and woke up when my body was ready. I left the house to grab and early lunch and then another meal later in the day, and to go to the gym. I wasn’t sure I was going to hit my goal at the gym, but I did!

One thing I need to figure out how to do is cut off the mail app when I’m on my iPad. I want to get in the habit of not checking my work email during the weekend, but if I see that I have emails, I find it hard to not open them. Today I made sure to only get on my personal computer.

One thing I want to work on for the rest of the year is to find a good balance so I can end on a positive note. Today was a good day, and it was really cold out! I’m excited that better/warmer weather is (hopefully) on the way. That should help me take each Saturday to just relax!

This was more rambling than I meant for it to be, but I’m going to choose to be ok with that!

I hope everyone has had a pleasant Saturday! (And can you believe March is almost over! Participating in this has definitely helped the month go by more quickly!)

Thank goodness it is Friday! I immediately felt like so much weight had been lifted off my shoulders as soon as I got home. If I could feel like this all the time life would be great!

I don’t even know what else to say other than I am looking forward to the weekend, even though there is nothing exciting planned. And it’ll be cold and rainy. But, I’m taking tomorrow completely off of work- no emails, no planning, nothing!

Here’s to a relaxing weekend!

My day in bullet points:

• I wish a 30 minute chunk of time during my first and second blocks would go by even half as fast as the 30 minutes before the kids come. I get to school 30 minutes early and I swear it feels like 3. But then with the two blocks, some days 3 minutes feels like 3 hours. What gives?!?
• Thank goodness for my third blocks this year. My Day 2 third block drives me absolutely insane sometimes but I’ll always take them. They have way too much energy but are good kids, and if they see that I really need them to bring it down, they do. My other third block is almost the exact opposite in terms of energy, but they are also great kids, and I am always happy to have them after my second block!
• I have been waiting for this Friday for a while. I’m chaperoning a field trip and even though it’s not perfect, it’ll be a nice break and I’ll get to spend some time outside of the classroom with some really great kids. Plus (!) I had enough stuff leftover this week for a sub to do. Except, because of weather our trip tomorrow is getting postponed. 😦 And of course the stuff for the sub is more worksheet type stuff and I don’t want to spend a whole block doing it, so I have planning to do for tomorrow.
• It turned out to be a pretty nice day, so I went out to do my run. It was SLOW and I didn’t reach my goal distance, but I’m tired and I’m glad I just got out there and didn’t stop before I did
• I feel like I’m writing more in a bulleted list than I have when I was trying to write an actual slice.

I’m really looking forward to this time tomorrow. I have six more work days until Spring Break. Yay!!!

The words aren’t coming today.

The feelings and emotions are there, but I just can’t find the words. It was an ok day. Some good points, some points I wish were better. Work ended with a VERY long meeting that was draining, but I think the person got what she needed after it. Teachers are definitely therapists, and I like when I can help someone like that, but I really need that energy for me right now!

This is a very blah post, but I guess it’s fitting. It was that kind of day! I’m looking out the window, and even the weather agrees!

I’m still trudging along. Seven more work days until Spring Break! And I’m really hoping spring gets the message- I feel like a week of relaxing at home with good weather could do wonders!!

Eight more (work) days until Spring Break!

I. Need. This. Break. !!!

I am not liking how negative I am, or how stressed. I’m not liking how worn out I am, or how every time I finally feel like I’m starting to get into a groove something comes and I get knocked off.

But I also know that mid-way through, I’ll think about work. And I’ll feel stressed. And there are changes coming for the last month that I can’t fully plan for because we don’t know quite enough and…

Right now, I’ll try to focus. Eight more work days. I can do it. And then, a week that I’ll have mostly off. And that is a really good thing!

Today was a long day! After full day of classes, I had a department meeting and then we had to stay after for conferences. No one showed for the last hour and a half, yet my brain was too over it to get any real planning done. I attempted to have everything ready for tomorrow, but my mind really works better after I’ve had about an hour after work to just not think about work. Now I’m home, I’ve finished dinner, and it’s about time to start getting ready for bed.

There are a few things from one conference I hope to write about more, just because I think it’s interesting both in reflecting about my teaching and life in general. I’d like to write about it more now, but I know I won’t be able to really get much out at this point. Basically, it has to do with kids and their handwriting. There are so many at my school who have horrible writing. Plus, they can’t read anything that’s not straight up print. I hope to really dive into this and my thinking on it sometime in the near future.

I know I say this far too much, but I’m tired! So that’s it for today.

I’m not sure what to write today. The things I’ve been trying have ended up being too personal to post. I guess I’ll post a few goals for this week:

• get the grading and prep that I was supposed to do this weekend done tonight (more of a need!)
• take this week one day at a time
• get some decisions made on home things on Saturday
• plant some seeds on Saturday and figure out where to put them (unless it snows, like it’s currently suggesting on my weather app ?!?!?!)
• make each day more positive than not and remember to take charge of the things I have control over