On a Tuesday…

{I started this post yesterday, with the intention of posting it yesterday morning, but then life got in the way.}

I took the day off today to set up the book fair at my daughter’s school. We can’t actually get access to the room until 2pm, but we have a staff meeting today, which means I wouldn’t have been available to set up the book fair until after 6pm, unless I missed the meeting, which would have cost me 1.5 hours. But here’s the thing, if you are absent on the day of a staff meeting, you lose 7.5 hours (the contracted school day) and not 9 hours (the contracted staff day plus the staff meeting). So I figured I’d just take the day and try to get out from under a massive pile of paperwork I hadn’t graded or entered.

{Of course, planning for a sub took me over three hours. With my insane schedule I had to write very detailed notes to make sure everything went okay. I even included a map so he could find all my classrooms. I hope he made it to the other campus okay.}

This weekend, which was busy but nice, I found myself building up the list of things I expected to get accomplished during my “day off.” I’ve written before that I tend to create impossible goals for days off, and then feel disappointed when the day is over over and I haven’t gotten nearly as much done as I’d wanted. This time I recognized what I was doing quickly enough to scale my expectations way back. All I hoped to do today was grade all my papers, create a handout I need for tomorrow, and workout. I also hoped to do two of three online safety trainings that I am required to complete before mid-October (while grading papers and/or working out). I am playing the blood borne pathogens presentation while I write this. I’ve heard it before twice, so I’m hoping I remember the answers well enough without really listening. I’ll let you know how it goes.

{Right after I wrote that I remembered I had to use exercise time to send reminders to the Book Fair volunteers. Which I did.}

Now it’s 10pm. I’m listening to the Mandated Reporter of Child Abuse training (I’ve gotten 100% on the Blood Borne Pathogens AND Sexual Harassment quizzes!) and creating that handout I wanted to get done.

And the handout is done! Woot!

And I passed the Mandated Reporter training. Ugh, that was super depressing, but I’m relieved to get those out of the way. They’ve been stressing me out for a while now.

I also got all the papers graded, though they are not yet entered online.

We got the book fair set up in three hours, which wasn’t too bad. I was picking up my kids at the same time as I would have been if I’d gone to work and stayed for the staff meeting. I’m so glad I got to miss the staff meeting – they are almost always a total waste of time.

Tomorrow my husband leaves for five days. It’s bad timing with the book fair, but my in-laws are stepping in to help, for which I’m very grateful. They have been spending 7-10 days in Texas EVERY MONTH, so I’ve gotten more used to making things work without them, and I’m much more grateful of the help they give when they are around.

Things at work are still really stressful, but I’m falling into a routine. It’s a rushed, chaotic routine, but a routine nonetheless.

I actually have a “things I’m loving right now” post in the drafts folder of my brain that I hope to post soon, because there are some things I’m really loving these days. I guess I’m mentioning it here to hold myself accountable.

Now it’s late so I should head to bed. I’m super tired and I’m working hard to get more sleep every night. I know I need it with these crazy busy days.

I hope you’re all doing well.