It’s 11:06 PM and I’m happy to say I am getting my daily dose of reflection in before calling it a night. It was a stressful evening for a great variety of reasons.  From work deadlines to frantic text messages, to family squabbles. Does any of this sound familiar?

The minute I walked through the door the race was on:

• Pack lunch and breakfast (track them for tomorrow)
• Start cooking dinner while listening to Voxer (an app that is like a walkie-talkie that my colleagues use when planning professional learning).
• Negotiate a truce among family members who are bickering
• Track dinner and eat it quickly
• Head out into a Google doc and finish planning the day for tomorrow’s learning (no students; it’s ELECTION DAY so PLEASE VOTE)
• Finish planning my specific parts on my own
• Handle various phone calls/texts in-between

Today was a test, it would have been easy to just call it a night and go upstairs and turn out the lights. I’m sure I’ll be asleep before my head hits the pillow.  In my eternal search for balance, I say “This is just as important as all the rest. I’m worth the effort to think about my day because I want to get to goal.” 

I have my share of challenges, but really there is so much that I am grateful for:

• I have a husband and three children who love me and each other
• I am very close to my siblings we love each other so much
• I am very close with both sister-in-laws and brother-in-law I love them
• I look forward to the holidays
• I had parents who are worth missing every day
• I get to teach children to love reading
• I get to teach children to believe in themselves
• I get to teach children that they are very special
• I get to focus on how to improve my craft as a teacher
• I have time to focus on improving my life for the better
• I have friends who support me
• I love where I live

I could go one, but then I wouldn’t get this post up before midnight. I feel so much better thinking about all that I have instead of all the challenges and the pressure. It’s not that those things don’t exist because they definitely do – life is complicated.

There is no cupcake so sweet, no glass of wine so relaxing, or salty bag of chips that can take away any of my stress. Those things are only momentary distractions from reality.  So I am deciding to end today on a positive note because all of the positives in my life is a reality too:

Thank you as always for reading, more tomorrow…