November is a great month and a hard month. As a teacher, it's a blustery, indoor-recess, parent conference month. We talk among ourselves about how many parents came, which conferences were great, and sometimes cry on each other's shoulders about the ones that went badly. And there are always a few for which the parents didn't show, didn't call, nothing. I hunt them down.
I am a little pleased with myself that I have an awareness that I need to get ready for Christmas. Usually, I just become stunned and depressed when the Christmas season is suddenly upon me come the day after my birthday at the end of the month. I'm never ready for it, and I always wish I could go back a month and spend time thinking about how I want my holidays to be this year. So, again, I'm glad that I'm thinking about it now.
So my need to be ready has me now hosting an Advent Study Group at my house on Wednesday nights. I'm looking forward to being focused on the "reason for the season" before December rolls around. Maybe the spiritual focus will help me through the good and bad of parent conferencing, as well.
I'm praying for a couple of my friends specifically; one is sick for unknown reasons and the other has lost a mother and has a daughter in the hospital. I pray that they are relieved from pain and grief. In the same breath, I pray my gratitude for my own family and friends who are well, my life, the Candymaker and his son, and the fact that I'm employed as a teacher and I get to do parent-teacher conferences this month.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
A Full Plate
After 50 years it should come as no surprise to me that this time of the year gets so overwhelmingly busy that it's hard to think of what's coming up and what I have to be ready for tomorrow. I don't have a calendar in my purse like I used to, but it doesn't seem to matter. I'm in just about the same frantic state as I've ever been this time of year.
My DH got me involved in something that I was not really ready to jump into. That is, he volunteered the two of us some months ago to be official trainers for leaders of small groups at our church. I go where he goes, and so we went together into that adventure, and I like to remind him of his decision every now and then when it's convenient for me to do so. Ah, well, time passed and suddenly we felt pushed into taking on more leadership in this area last week, and now we are not just training new leaders, we are...well, we're the ones setting up the groups and getting people involved. We each now have our own group that we are leading starting next week, as well. Not what I had planned to coincide with my first year in a new grade at school, and not what DH had in mind when he said, "Sure! We can do that."
It's never our plans. We like to think that we are making the plans, but we aren't. God has a way of moving our calendars around to more suit what God wants. The message is clear, that we are supposed to be doing this work at this time, so we will do it. I'm not anxious, in fact, I know that when this sort of thing happens, there's a gem waiting to be dug up in my life just under the surface, so it is kind of interesting, too.
I noticed a sweetness in my life this morning. Whatever it is that makes me do certain things, notice certain things, or say certain things was powerful today, and I felt the wonderful sense of playfulness returning to my life. A little practical joke in the staff room, self-portrait paintings from the kids on the wall, and a nice long talk with a friend. These are very precious gifts, considering that I was so overwhelmed just a few days ago. I'm just going to dwell on those images as I drift off to sleep tonight. May your dreams be blessed, as well.
My DH got me involved in something that I was not really ready to jump into. That is, he volunteered the two of us some months ago to be official trainers for leaders of small groups at our church. I go where he goes, and so we went together into that adventure, and I like to remind him of his decision every now and then when it's convenient for me to do so. Ah, well, time passed and suddenly we felt pushed into taking on more leadership in this area last week, and now we are not just training new leaders, we are...well, we're the ones setting up the groups and getting people involved. We each now have our own group that we are leading starting next week, as well. Not what I had planned to coincide with my first year in a new grade at school, and not what DH had in mind when he said, "Sure! We can do that."
It's never our plans. We like to think that we are making the plans, but we aren't. God has a way of moving our calendars around to more suit what God wants. The message is clear, that we are supposed to be doing this work at this time, so we will do it. I'm not anxious, in fact, I know that when this sort of thing happens, there's a gem waiting to be dug up in my life just under the surface, so it is kind of interesting, too.
I noticed a sweetness in my life this morning. Whatever it is that makes me do certain things, notice certain things, or say certain things was powerful today, and I felt the wonderful sense of playfulness returning to my life. A little practical joke in the staff room, self-portrait paintings from the kids on the wall, and a nice long talk with a friend. These are very precious gifts, considering that I was so overwhelmed just a few days ago. I'm just going to dwell on those images as I drift off to sleep tonight. May your dreams be blessed, as well.
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