Longest Days and Shortest Days

Well I did it. I made it to the winter break. Limping to the finish line. Maybe crawling. But I got there!

Work was brutal. I subbed during my prep all week. I hosted rainy day lunch twice. One day I literally had not one minute of break – I had to ask someone to come watch kids in my classroom while I peed.

Afternoons weren’t as bad though, which is probably why I survived. And in the end I got all the assessments graded. And the projects. Most grades are inputted. I said goodbye to my student teacher and felt a lot of feelings about it.

It struck me today that this week holds the shortest days of the year, and yet they have absolutely felt like the longest days.

And now I have two weeks at home with my kids. I’m being reminded tonight that if I don’t set some boundaries around screen time (mostly the 13yo and her phone), there will be constant conflict. I shall be figuring out what those boundaries look like tonight, so I can communicate them clearly tomorrow.

I am so glad work is over. And I am looking forward to the holidays. But I need a day or two to decompress in between. I hope Friday and Saturday can provide that. Friday I’m with the kids and I have a couple very low key things planned for them (trip to the library, a melty bead project for each of them), plus a run by myself to relieve some of the pent-up stress. Saturday they are going to my parents’ house and I am so looking forward to 24 hours to do with as I please. I don’t even have that much wrapping left! Right now I can’t even fathom how I might use that time, when I consider it my brain goes blank. I hope after tomorrow I can start contemplating a whole day to spend as I see fit.

In the meantime, here are some photos of the sunset yesterday. I pulled over into some key spots on my way home to get these. I absolutely love Crystal Springs Reservoir and the way the fog can sit on top of the mountains. It’s one of my favorite places in the world.