I have come to the unfortunate realization that life is kicking my ass…

I’ve spent one too many mornings waking up worried about all of the things I need to accomplish for my students that I can’t sleep. I’ve gotten everything done but that doesn’t stop more work from coming in. It’s making me delirious… and tired. Very, very tired.

I haven’t had any time to myself, time with my husband or time with my kids and I’ve gotten to a point where I couldn’t handle it anymore. I hit a wall and it just so happened to be while my best friend Emily came for a visit.

I hadn’t seen her in two years and was beyond excited. However, this excitement didn’t keep me from falling asleep at the airport when I went to pick her up. Her flight was delayed so I sat down next to strangers to people watch. The next thing I knew I was jerking awake fully aware that people were people watching me. She made fun of me when she walked up to me and I didn’t even see her because I was staring into space.

I was so frustrated all weekend because I couldn’t muster up the energy to celebrate her being in town like I wanted to! I had faked having energy one too many days and I was all dried up.

So I did what any rational grown woman does when she’s frustrated. I cried.

And she did what any good friend would do. She told me to take a nap.

Later that night we sat down at my kitchen table with a glass of wine and tried to figure out a schedule so that I could manage to fit everything in my life that I needed to fit in. She was the perfect person to have around at a time like this. She thrives on planning things and meeting nearly impossible deadlines. In fact, she’s so good at it that she’s made a living out of it. She’s the cofounder of Austin’s first Television Fesitval, ATX so she knows all about handling stress. And posing for magazine spreads apparently…

(While she was here she failed to mention that she was being featured in a magazine. She’s the one on the left.)

Anyway, getting back to the point, she told me that her trick is to plan her day in thirty minute increments. But first we had to make lists, because she loves lists. We did it together and made the following lists:

Priorities: Family time, Me time, Brent and me time, exercise, eating healthy, reading, writing

Must Do’s: Grade a million papers a day, plan lessons, laundry, clean house, grocery shopping, meetings, checking emails,

Here is a glimpse of the daily schedule that we came up with together:

5:00-wake up

5:15 to 5:45- Grade, plan, drink coffee

5:45 to 6:30- Get ready for the day/Get Penelope ready

6:45- Drop Penelope off

7:00 to 8:00- Grade papers, answer emails and plan lessons

8:00 to 10:00- Teach at school 1/pack everything up for other school

10:30 to 11:00- Go for a walk/go to meetings

11:00 to 12:00- Grade papers, answer emails and plan lessons

12:00 to 3:00- Teach at school 2

3:00 to 4:00- Meetings/after school help for kids

4:00 to 5:00- Grade papers, answer emails and plan lessons

5:00 to 7:30- Family time (Cook dinner, deal with tantrums, sing songs, do laundry, run errands, walk the dog, etc.)

7:30 to 8:00- Penelope time (bath, stories, songs)

8:00 to 9:00- Get stuff ready for next day, hang out with Bridget

9:00 to 10:00- Get ready for bed/read/actually have a conversation with my husband

10:00- Go to sleep

Now that I think about it… it actually makes me more exhausted typing it out. I don’t even know if this will work because I have a 2 year old wildcard who rarely does what is planned. For instance, as I sit here trying to type this blog post out at 8:45 at night she is screaming her head off in her room refusing to sleep.

Wait… now she’s howling like a wolf. Or is it a ghost? There’s just no telling with that kid.

I thought I could go grocery shopping today and get some meal planning taken care of but this about sums up how that went…

We came home nearly empty handed and ended up eating Peanut butter toast for dinner instead.

I’ll look back at this and smile one day, right?

Everything is pretty exhausting but it’s not all bad. Here is a list of things that make up for the chaos…

1. The fact that my husband is a much better housewife than I am. When I get home the house is clean and he has some form of dinner planned out and ready to cook.

2. At night when I’m dog tired Bridget will just curl up in bed with me and read a book while I pass out after drinking a cup of sleepy time tea.

3. Penelope who constantly tells me she loves me and lets me know how much she likes that “sunshine song” I sing to her.

4. Friends who sit at my kitchen table and help me try to formulate some sort of survival plan.

5. Other friends who are willing to wake up before the crack of dawn so that I can go for a walk and talk while the sun rises.

6. Students who thank me for holding them hostage during their lunch hour because they have assignments missing in my grade book. “Thanks for caring so much Mrs. Chapman.” Seriously, what 13 year old says that? Weirdos 😉

Okay I feel better now. Thanks for that.

I think we should skip the part where I weighed myself and weighed in at 199.6 pounds. Too late.

Somethings gotta give ya’ll and lets hope it’s not the seam in my pants. Yikes!