Dear Goodness!!

I have been a horrible blogger. But here is my reason/excuse:

I'm tired, y'all.

The kind of tired you feel in your bones.

So when my choice has been to blog or to go to bed, I've chosen the bed. No offense.

Since school started two weeks ago, every day just seems to be cycle of continuous activity. Here's my day:

4:30--Alarm clock beeps. I hit snooze twice.

4:45-ish--I get up, grab a cup of coffee, check email. Maybe have to finish up packing lunches.

Before 5:10--shower, wash hair, straighten it (men, you just don't understand), etc.

6:00--fix Amelia's waffle to take to school, pack her bag for the day, haul stuff to the car.

6:10--wake up Amelia, give her a sippy cup of milk while I dress her (sometimes Darryl steps in and does this if I'm running late. I usually do the morning stuff for her and he does the evening stuff. Usually.)

6:25--get in the car and head out

6:50--arrive at daycare and get Amelia situated

7:00--arrive at school

7:15--first period (my planning period). Grade papers and run copies for the day.

8:12-2:30--teach American lit. All. Day. Long. Somewhere in there I have 20 minutes to eat lunch.

2:30-4:45--lesson planning, grading

4:50--pick up Amelia

5:30--arrive home and start preparing dinner or preparing to go out to dinner

6:45--dinner done (usually), play time with Amelia, clean kitchen

7:20--start bathtime ritual with Amelia (if Darryl does this instead, I go to the gym or work on school stuff)

8:00--put Amelia to bed

8:01--begin packing lunches, do things around the house, work on school stuff, do laundry, load the dishwasher, fix sippy cups for the next day--all this stuff seems to take until 10:00 at least.

10:30 or later--go to bed

And the next day I get up and do it all over again. I know my schedule isn't any more hectic than any other working mom's, but I AM TIRED. I think the whole getting-into-the-groove-of-school thing is still going on. The past two weeks have also involved lots of beginning-of-school work: curriculum maps (ugh!) and finishing up summer reading books and making tests for those. (Our school is requiring summer reading for everyone for the first time this year, so we're giving the students a 2-week grace period to get the book read.)

But school is good. I really have one class (so far, knock on wood) that I dread, but at least the class is small. Eighteen knuckleheads are better than 28 knuckleheads. I have lots to discuss as far as school goes, but I'm just happy to have a post on my blog. Maybe some time this week I can elaborate on some other things going on.

Edited to add--I feel I should say in all my "oh, I'm so tired and busy" that Darryl DOES help me. Cleaning isn't his forte (sorry, honey...I have to call you out on that one), but he often helps with dinner and watches Amelia for me when I need to get something done. Usually he gives her a bath. Sometimes he does the dishwasher stuff and fixes sippy cups. I just didn't want you to think he was sitting on a satin pillow eating bonbons while I flittered about.