I cannot always be a Pinterest Page



Hello Friends,
This image totally states how I feel right now......... We started Back to School on Wednesday. I felt totally prepared for the arrival of my new group of kinders. After all, I have been teaching kindergarten for 20 years; surely I was prepared for whatever came my way, right? And...... I WANTED to write a post about all the fun Back to School fun we had this week. I WANTED to share some amazing pictures of all the super FINISHED projects that my new kinders did this week. I WANTED to stitch together some cute pillows to add to my reading corner. I WANTED to cook a really, wonderful, delicious dinner tonight. I WANTED to work in my garden and look for the flowers that were there two weeks ago, but since starting Back to School projects, I haven't been able to find.... sigh......... Despite all my "WANTED TO", none of this happened.....

Instead, I am frantically trying to figure out how to get laundry done, my house cleaned, and the grocery shopping finished, so that I can spend the rest of the weekend preparing for our first full week of school.....

I am not sure if it is because I ALWAYS forget what August kinders are compared to May kinders or if it is just my group this year, but I feel like a new teacher all over again..... I came home and COLLAPSED on the couch every day this week. When I was a new teacher, this is exactly what I would do and my roommate at the time (who was a nurse) could not understand how I could be so exhausted working "only" 6 hours a day.......... sigh........

If these 3 days have shown me anything, they have shown me that I cannot always be the Super Woman/Teacher that I envision and despite my great attempts to be the "top of my game", I cannot prepare myself for unknown events that inevitably will happen. And instead of deflating me; I am INFLATED and refreshed with this thought..... because how do you prepare for a little one who does not like her new shoes and spends the entire day kicking them into the air? How do you prepare for the fact that four little guys were best buddies in preschool and came to school with the thought that kindergarten was going to be one big birthday party bash for them? How do you prepare for a little one who found the fish food and proceeded to ask "Are the fish hungry?" while at the same time opening the lid of the tank and pouring in the food in the 3 seconds it took me to get from one side of the room to the other?"  

AND........ Instead of the BEAUTIFUL weather we had all summer, we have been hit with HOT, HUMID, MISERABLE, RAINY summer weather that I am always ready to say good-bye to in September. We had to have INDOOR recess on the second day of school.......  Yes... indoor recess......... on the second day of school..... How do you prepare for that?

So I say to myself, "Self, so what if you cannot be a Pinterest page every day of your life? So what if your house looks like the windows caved in and the wind blew through? So what if you had tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for the second night in a row?"

Life is not always sparkly and glittery. Sometimes we have to put up with the glue and mess before something beautiful is created. So, in these next few weeks of school, I may not be worthy of a Pinterest page, but I WILL be learning and loving my new class of students, striving to make time for my family, and not fretting the small stuff.

Until next time!

Blessings,