Summer

I recognize I've been a very bad blogger and to be honest I don't feel majorly guilty. I don't know that anyone's day was truly changed due to the absence of my blogging. With my first year of teaching under my belt, I am now using this summer to be selfish and lazy. Oh yes, you heard correctly. SELFISH and LAZY. In caps even.

This is the first summer in probably about 17 years that I have had off from work. During high school and college summers, I usually worked full-time jobs. There were even some that I doubled up and added either another part-time job or some classes onto that schedule. I am finally at a point where I really felt like I deserved some major down time.

At first, I struggled with it a bit. I was getting antsy and worried that people around me would think I am just lazy and my time off was undeserved. I mean, come on...what other profession has this much time off? However, in no time, I was getting comfortable with sleeping beyond the crack of dawn, staying in my pjs well into the day, reading, or watching DVR'd mindless TV. I love me some Bravo!

I will say, in my opinion, being a teacher requires more or different things than many 9-5 jobs. I knew this stepping into this profession and still fully embrace it. However, it plays a part in being so tired during the year. My 8:30-3:30 day was filled with teaching, learning, planning, laughing, discussing, prepping, and counseling. Add in meetings, planning time, work at home, late nights of grading and reporting, conferences, and a ton of other things outside of the typical work day. It's a lot. I know that a lot of other people take work home or do things outside of their day...but at times, my almost-workaholic father even commented that my schedule was ridiculously intense. And perhaps I spent more time on things than necessary; yet, as a first year teacher, I really wanted to be on top of things to make the following years easier.

I will say this...I didn't have any official nervous breakdowns. Now, that's not to say that it was easy, breezy, and beautiful (thanks, Cover Girl!). There were definitely some moments I'm not super proud of, some tears at recess that could have been avoided (read: being overtired and spending a day with 27 kiddos making santas from bleach bottles, yarn, felt, pipe cleaners that rip open your fingertips, glue guns that burn those already tender fingertips, and some exhausted Christmas spirit pushing a smile across your face), and times at which I made things harder than necessary. But that's me!

Anyhow, a lot of great things have happened this year! So, I'm going to blog from hindsight...trying to cover the major changes...in order to make this manageable, I'm going to split it up by months...or combine some if not much happened...

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer days and evenings!