Not a Wasted Word

We ordered the yearbook this morning. I can’t believe it’s finally done! Actually I can, because it wasn’t a sprint to the finish line this year. In fact, it wasn’t all that stressful at all.

Still, I’m really glad it’s over and I can turn my attention to other things.

This Thursday is my school’s “Celebration of Learning” (FKA Open House). My classroom has been a disaster area for months and I’ve been slowly excavating it from under the rubble. It’s definitely going to take many more hours for it to be presentable to parents.

Once Celebration of Learning is behind me, the biggest single work event is the Tamale y Mole party I throw for the kids who went above and beyond, completing all the possible comprehensible input options. This year there are only 40 kids invited, which is 15 less than last year, which means it will be easier to pull off.

But work isn’t the only thing that’s busy. The 15yo and I have PADI trainings to complete before our weekend in the pool. On the 30th I have a good friend’s baby shower, my pool training, and then a party with a bunch of high school friends, some of whom I haven’t seen since before the pandemic. I am dreading that day, but looking forward to two of the events.

May has been really busy. The first half of June will be busy too. I keep reminding myself that in four weeks I’ll be on summer break. When that happens I’ll finally be able to breath.

I finally went back to PT this week. It had been five weeks since my last appointment (he was sick and we had to reschedule) and I was itching to go in because he promised that I’d go on the treadmill to check my gait and then he’s start me on a program to return to running.

I will be running for a total of 12 minutes at a time over the next two weeks. Friday it was six 2-minute intervals with a minute of walking between each run. Next it will be four 3-minute intervals with the same minute of walking in between, then three 4-minute intervals and so on. I think ultimately I do 8 minutes then 4 minutes before running for a straight 12 minutes, at which point – if my knee seems fine – I will email for the next steps (which are distance based, not time based).

On Friday I went to one of my favorite spots and ran for the first time in five months. It was a beautiful day and it felt so good to be running. My knee has felt okay since the first run. We shall see if it continues to hold up.

(I wrote this post on Saturday but then forgot to publish it. I also forgot to write it on Friday when I meant to. I’m not hitting my photo post every day in May goal but that’s okay. At least I’m getting something up most days.}

I’m writing on my blog from my computer! I haven’t done that in over a month! This is big news!

I’m also on the elliptical! I’ve missed writing blogs on the elliptical!

What did I do to fix it? Absolutely nothing. I have no idea why it wasn’t working before and I have less idea why it is working now. I’m just going to embrace that it’s working for the time being!

On thing I hope to figure out now that I’m back on my browser, is why I have been required to manually turn on comments for every post. I just went into setting and it seems I should NOT have to be doing that. Hmmm. Not all the problems are solved. Shocking…

Still, I’ll take what I can get!

There is a lot going on right now. I’m definitely starting to hit a wall. But! I feel like I am, overall, handling the stress relatively well. I’m doing WAY better than I was at this time last year. Of course this time last year I was getting ready to test for my red belt! How did I survive that and finishing the yearbook? I truly do not know.

One thing that I think is helping is getting at least six hours of sleep most nights. Even when I go to bed “late” it’s never after midnight. This feels like a big step in the right direction! And yes, it’s not perfect (ideally I’d want to be asleep by 11pm every night), but I refuse to let perfect be the enemy of good.

Speaking of which, I need to head to bed. It’s almost 11:45pm, which is the latest I’ve been up in a while!

Yesterday I did not manage to workout. I didn’t feel great about it, and in an attempt to quell my disappointment I pulled up the Peloton app to choose my Wednesday workout. I really wanted something long and hard, and even wished there were a new Sims 60 I could take, when lo and behold, that is exactly what I found at the top of the app. It had just been released that day! It was like someone left that workout just for me.

Today I got home from PT (more on that tomorrow), changed into my workout clothes and got my ass thoroughly handed to me by that Sims 60 workout. It was just what I needed.

Serval is a very distinguished gentleman, especially when he’s perched on the top of our couch.

I would apologize for two cat photos in a row, but I love cat photos so I won’t. Also, today was a crazy day and I’m exhausted and it’s almost 11pm and I’m going to bed.

I am attempting to post every day in May and I’ve skipped a few and forgotten once or twice and always feel like I’m playing catch up.

So here is a catch up photo of Panther sitting on my closed computer. She loves to sabotage computer use, and sitting on it while it’s closed is a pretty effective way to keep me off it. Touché Panther. Touché.

I have struggled with this day in the past, with not feeling seen, appreciated or celebrated by my family, and with feeling pressure to see, appreciate and celebrate my own mother enough. I know it’s much harder for so many people, people who have lost their mothers, or never had the relationship with them that they needed. And for those who haven’t been able to embody the role mother in the way they so desperately wanted. It’s minefield to be sure.

Today I got three heartfelt notes, one from each member of my family. I absolutely felt seen, appreciated and celebrated.

My mom is joining us to see Project Hail Mary, which is exactly how I want to spend this afternoon.

I am feeling immensely grateful.

The 15yo and I watch a lot of reality TV. One of our favorites is Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. We started watching the first season over a year ago and just finished season 4 last night. At the end of the finale we heard an iconic line that has been quoted in articles about the show for years, but that we’d never actually seen. We both freaked out, and this is a shot of the 15yo losing her mind in front of the actual moment when Heather Gay yells, “Receipts, proof, timeline, screenshots, ducking everything.” An iconic piece of Real Housewives history, that we’ve been quoting for months, that we finally saw.

Last night, as I finished a 45 min Arms & Intervals ride and queued up a 10 minute core class, I realized I was about to hit 500 workouts on Peloton. 500 is a lot of workouts! Especially since I’ve only been a member for 2-3 years and I was repeating Bike Bootcamps that I Zoom recorded for a year before I bought a used Peloton bike. Peloton is not the only way I work out, but I’m clearly using the app a lot!

I swear I posted this on Monday! Boo! Oh well, I’ll post it now.

This is a table in my classroom. It’s right next to my teaching desk and it acts as a depository for basically everything I put down. I try to clear it off every week but eventually it looks like this again.

And this is what my life feels like right now. Every day I have 1-2 extra things, on top of regular life requirements. I just feel so, so busy.

Which is why I should probably go to sleep right now…