Sleep is most certainly NOT overrated, or, Why I don't want to be a candle

A Facebook friend of mine posted this Mom-Blog article last week titled "To the Mom Who Went to Work on Hardly Any Sleep." It is my life. I be like:

Cheers.

I borrowed-without-asking that amazing mug from my AP US History teacher colleague. It holds, like, five cups of coffee.  Because my morning went like this:

- 5:30 Spartacus crawls into our bed to "snuggle."
- 6:15 Alarm 1 goes off
- 6:25 Alarm 2 goes off
- 6:30 Alarm 1 & 3 go off
- 6:35 I tell Spartacus and Hubster we need to get up.
- 6:45 We actually get up.
- 7:00 Spartacus dressed, eating cereal, and watching Curious George. Little Miss still sleeping after putting her back to bed at 1:30.
- 7:05 I debate waking up Little Miss - she'll want to nurse, which will take too long - but I opt to take Sparatcus to preschool instead and Daddy can take Little Miss to the sitter.
- 7:10 Turn off Curious George. Encourage Spartacus to finish eating.
- 7:15 Spartacus meticulously keeps eating. This is his routine.
- 7:20 Spartacus still eating. Finishes cheerios. Now wants a straw, as per routine, for the milk.
- 7:25 Spartacus keeps slurping milk through straw. Is incapable of moving any faster.
- 7:30 I leave both kids at home with Hubster (love ya babe) and I go to school without breakfast or coffee (because Spartacus usually makes coffee with Daddy and all heck breaks loose if we do it in his presence without his help)
- 7:35 Traffic jam. Oh right, the lane that has been closed for two weeks on the major main road through town is still closed. Sleep fogged brain, I forgot.
- 7:50 Arrive at school. Drink coffee until I can read in a straight line.
- 8:15 Debate grading pile of essays. Eat banana, blog instead.

This is a fairly typical morning for us. I wonder if I plotted my blogs throughout years of teaching on some sort of emotional excitement curve, if about the same time each year I start waffling between "I-have-so-much-to-do-oh-no" and "It's-the-end-of-the-year-who-even-cares-anymore." Because I am exhausted! So many essays to grade, but only eleven actual periods left to plan for before finals...and it just started getting warm and sunny outside. Last week I heard, "It's too cold to learn." This week, "It's too nice out!" The kids are good-natured about it, but many of them are as tired as I am.

My FitBit has faithfully tracked my sleep patterns since November and it's just not getting any better...this was last week's readings:

Red = children waking me up. 7.5 hours is sleep goal...

I never imagined last summer that a year later, NEITHER kid would be sleeping through the night on a regular basis. I have been forgetting things, things that I actually signed up for. For example, last week was Fine Arts Week at our school, which was awesome; I'm also in a Lutheran Confessions class online right now toward my Colloquy requirements (more on that later). I had a major assignment due Friday. I actually forgot for an entire week I was even in that class.  It wasn't like I had thoughts of, "Oh, shoot, gotta remember that." It literally never occurred to me.

Yesterday I forgot I had signed up for parent-teacher conferences with Spartacus' preschool teacher.  I did the same thing last fall to her too - signed up and completely forgot about it. Even after writing it down. Ugh.

As a closing thought to this sleep-deprived post, I saw this on Pinterest on a link for teacher appreciation gifts:

"A good teacher is like a candle -- it consumes itself to light the way for others." - Unknown

Last time I checked, y'all, this was the definition of BURNOUT.  DO NOT frame this quote and give it to your kid's teacher and expect to make her feel better.  I don't need framed things. I need coffee and chocolate. And maybe an apple. No one does that anymore, but we need fruits and veggies on the go to keep us healthy too!

This candle is going to go turn on a light because this the 21st century, and we have electricity now. Have a great rest of your week!