Tuesday, September 05, 2006

The Summer Light Fades

It's official. Today is the last day of summer vacation. Tomorrow, I return to my classroom to face 29 students of various ages and learning levels and teach them to love Math and Science as much as I do.

I had knitting plans for today. They were great knitting plans. I was at my desk at 8:40, and I knew I had just enough time to do all the final planning and arrangements for tomorrow and the rest of this week so that we could go home in time for lunch and an afternoon of knitting relaxation. (The kids went along today since it was supposed to be a short day.) I'm just starting to get into the groove of finalizing my Bible plans for the year when the intercom goes off at 8:45 and informs us that the staff is having prayer at 9:00. "Hey, no problem!" I think, knowing prayer is usually about 30-45 minutes and that's how much of a time cushion I gave myself. Two hours later after our prayer walk around the school, my "No problem!" attitude had faded in the face of being way behind schedule for the day. I was forced to take the kids and all my planning home to do in the afternoon, and the knitting fell by the wayside.

I know there's a great lesson in this experience about managing my time better and making sure all the last minute things aren't really saved for the last minute. I also really know the reason for today was to teach me the importance of prayer and of fellowship with other believers, but the grouchy, sinful, whiny part of me really wants those two hours back. It also kind of irks me that we were not informed of this last week so I could have planned better and not had as much to do today. I am, however, somewhat comforted by the fact that I was not the only stressed out teacher on the hill this morning.

I got most of my planning done that I wanted to have out of the way when I was at home and when I had to go back to school for "Meet the Teachers." However, I only did a couple of weeks instead of the whole month of September--the rest will just have to wait for the weekend.

I'm still in summer mode, and I already do not like how my work is interfering with my knitting. I have a feeling this week will be a painful withdrawal experience as my time with my needles is severely hampered. Detox, here I come!

It's time to go play with my wool on my last night of freedom from papers and students...

1 comment:

Wendy said...

Oh My G-d, how I remember back to school. My panic dream, still, after all of these years, is that I slept through a final, failed, and didn't graduate.

Good luck with your class, and I hope you squeeze in some knitting time!

Wendy