Stress and School's Coming

"So what fun things did you do with your summer?"

I have very few answers for this question, and it's entirely of my own doing. Both hubster and I have a tendency to overplan and grossly overestimate the amount of tasks we think we can accomplish in a given time period. For example, when he went to Fort Jackson in May for six weeks of chaplain school, he took a suitcase of theology books he's "been meaning to read." It came back virtually unopened; when you wake up a 0400 for PT and don't return to your room until 7 or 8 PM, you oddly don't have the urge to do much more than watch Netflix and go to sleep.

My ambitions for the summer included teaching six weeks of summer school, renovating our bathroom, re-roping our 90-year-old double-hung windows, finishing the 2016 yearbook, taking my students to yearbook workshops, redoing my curriculum for my English and new sociology classes, and walking my dog every day.

About two weeks after Hubster left in June, we discovered this had happened:

 

Spartacus II should make his/her appearance around February 1...poor Hubster was away playing army and didn't answer his phone, so he found out via text message.

 And just for funsies

Obviously we are thrilled to add to our family; God's schedule is always better than ours.  But in the midst of my massive summer to-do list, first trimester pregnancy woes weren't terribly conducive to my plans (I pretty much describe it as feeling hungover about 80% of the time without any of the fun party memories).


Spartacus loves babies; of course, his definition sometimes includes anyone up to age 3, but after a few weeks of talking about it he likes pointing at Momma's tummy (or sometimes his own) and shouting, "Baby!"  He's had a fun summer; we kept him in daycare most days with me working, but he's had plenty of zoo trips and time with both sets of grandparents.  He sleeps until 8, watches a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine on Amazon Prime, and aside from a few trying two-year-old moments, he's been a joy to spend some extra time with.

Instead of enjoying the pregnancy glow though, it feels like other stressors keep popping up.  Until this past Thursday, my school didn't have any solid leads on a yearbook teacher to take my slot, so I've been running all the planning and registration sales, which (although enjoyable) has cut severely into my planning time.  It will be built into a co-taught program, so some of my next week (in addition to all our in-service requirements) will be working with the new people to see what this could look like. I think it will be awesome long-term, but there will be some growing pains in the short term - for my students, for the new teachers, and for me, having to let go and let someone else handle my (other) baby.

This past week my father (and also our pastor at my husband's field work congregation) went to the ER and ended up having his gallbladder removed.  Obviously this was not planned, but I am super proud of my hubster stepping up and basically standing in as the associate pastor - he's preaching his first sermon this week and doing all the liturgy himself, all on very short notice. This also has meant some of our backup babysitters are out of commission, so that's thrown off our schedules a bit. However, Boobah (that's Spartacus' name for him) should be back on his feet later next week, God willing.  We found out this morning Hubster's grandma took a spill and is in the hospital as well, so everyone needs some healing!

Also adding to the mix was the beginning of my colloquy classes through Concordia University-Portland. I finished my Old Testament class this past week, and start the New Testament portion on Monday. The classes are not difficult; in fact, they are quite interesting and I'm learning and relearning a lot, but they do take time.  I did about 70% of my OT class last weekend, unfortunately, and am certainly regretting it. I'm hoping that once school gets back in the groove a solid routine will help me stay on track. 

 Please keep my family and all students and teachers in your prayers and we rapidly approach the beginning of a new school year.  I'm praying for energy (so thankful first trimester is basically over), organization, and confidence that by year five of teaching, I do in fact know what I'm doing - or fake it really, really well.

Oh yes, school starts August 10th.

Also pray that the hole in my kitchen ceiling caused by a super leaky old bathtub would magically heal itself. Thanks.