Happy Friday

Summer, glorious summer.

As a teacher, I can attest to it being a very happy Friday. The last day of school for us was Wednesday and we had a teacher workday on Thursday but I am technically free with the long (not so empty) summer ahead of me to look forward to.

I started my to-do list weeks ago, of course, and it is already looking daunting. I have two separate lists even. One for school items and one for home items. I will need to remember to take it one day, and one task, at a time so I don't get overwhelmed and stop doing anything.

We've already had an auspicious beginning to the summer. I went to the bathroom this morning, intending to go back to bed to enjoy sleeping in for one day before I got started on a schedule for the summer, and my feet got wet. Yep, there was water all over the floor by the toilet. The tank had overflowed (thank heaven it wasn't the bowl!). To top that off, our poor exchange student was downstairs eating breakfast when the cover for the big fluorescent light in the kitchen fell to the floor covering everything with water. (The water from the toilet upstairs had seeped through the floor to the kitchen ceiling.) That was a bit of a shock for her. While it was fortunate that the light cover didn't hit her, and that she doesn't usually turn on the main kitchen light in the morning, she did, unfortunately, get very wet when the water covered everything.

I find myself in an interesting and introspective place this summer. So much has changed and happened in the last year. Many things have been transferred from last year's to-do list to this year's because I didn't end up accomplishing much last summer. I spent the first half of the summer sick with a cold and then re-injured my back and then had wrist surgery, effectively putting me out of commission all summer. The back pain and problems lasted all year which kept me from doing much at home, organizing anything at school and even from trying to get pregnant as I wanted to be. It got so bad I could barely walk at times and sleeping was often difficult.

This summer is to be one of building strength. After 10 months of nearly constant pain, my back feels good. I am taking a daily pain medicine that really helps and I'm able to get lots of benefit out of only half the dosage I was told to take. Now that the medicine has allowed me to start exercising again, I feel like I will not only be able to build strength but, possibly go off the medicine in the near future. I've known for years that exercise makes my back pain go away and stay away and now I'll have a chance to get back to that. One of the difficulties of the last year has been that the pain was such that walking made it worse, so exercise was out of the question.

This year, this summer, however, I have plans!!! I want to learn to cook new dishes, record memories in new ways, and record ones that have been waiting for months before they disappear! I want to build strength and endurance, play with my preschooler and spend time with my borrowed daughter before she returns to Germany. I want to spend some time in my classroom so I don't have to spend so much time there in October! Who knows, baby-making might even make the list again. :)

As any good procrastinator would do, I have put an item on the list that gets listed every year. That item? Writing on this blog 5 days a week. Even as I write it I want to hedge and commit to fewer days! This year, I shall prevail! If nothing else, I need my own writing to keep me accountable to accomplishing at least a few items on my list. All of those items were placed there to make my life and that of my family easier and more pleasant. So, come along for the ride, I'll be back on Monday (...maybe...). ;-)