I want to tell you about the most productive day ever!

5:30 a.m. - snooze was pushed

5:40 - up...

6:45 - @ work getting a PE final test ready

7:20- 2:00 - worked all day long. took a 13 minute break for lunch to eat....otherwise i was correcting finals, cleaning girls locker room, cutting locks, taking down posters and packing up books. seriously...i did nothing for 13 minutes.

2:00- 3:30 - cleaned out a storage room looking for a shuffle board game; i could not for the life of me find it cuz the room was sooooooo messy. my hands were a different color when i was down. sooooo dirty! the good thing was not only did i find 2 games of shuffle board, but i also found a bocce ball game and some stacking cups...who knew!

3:30-4:30 - cub run and a fleet farm run to buy a yard game for my 6th graders tomorrow.

4:30-5:15- a run....on the treadmill

5:15-6:00- did some laundry while packing for the weekend at the cabin with the girls....(cant wait)

6:00-6:30- pizza in the oven while i went outside and blew up 50 more water balloons.

6:30-7:00- sat down, eat pizza and watched wheel of fortune

7:00-7:30- back outside and did more water balloons while i chatted with my goffy neighbor. he could not believer that i was filling up water balloons for a bunch of 6th graders.

7:30-8:30 - made puppy chow for the weekend, packed up some of the food i am bringing, cleaned the kitchen, did another load of laundry.

8:30-8:45 - did 25 or so more balloons....i think i lost count....and am FINALLY done.

8:45- to current (9:09).....sitting on the couch drinking some sleepy time tea and thinking about how freaking crazy my day was and how much crap i got down. no wonder i feel like i could fall asleep RIGHT NOW.

today at around 1:25, life was put back into perspective for me. this past week for sure...if not that last couple of months i've been pretty intent on my own selfish thinking. i've been pretty focused on what i 'dont have' and what i 'really want'. and maybe even more intent on focusing on why i don't have it and how unfair it is! anyways....

today as i was walking my 9th grade PE class out to the softball field i asked one of my young male students to walk out with me. He has missed the past 6 days of school, and is one of those kids that you just know has a lot of 'crap' happening in his real world and always seems to be in trouble. he missed running the mile so i told him that he needed to come prepared to make it up tomorrow. he looked at me and said "Ms. V - i've just got to much shit (excuse the language) happening, go ahead an give me a zero. i dont really care." of course i asked him what was going on. he didn't want to comment. i told him that i understand how lifes 'yuck' can get in the way, but that school still needs to be important. i told him that there have been times in my life where i just felt like crap and i didnt wanna come to work. he looked at me shook his head and said "Ms. V- you ever lost a kid?". ahhhh- what? (i was aware of him having a kid.) after digesting his question, i looked at him and said no. he told me that his daughter died 8 days ago from having 2 holes in her lungs. how do you respond to that? how do u expect a kid, who is 16, to actually show up and run the stupid mile. how do you expect him to show up and do anything in school at all. seriously- is school even a thought at all...and should it be? come on- this kid is dealing with adult like stuff and it breaks my heart. of course he should have kept his man(boy) hood in his pants and this would not have happened....but still. after watching him let loose and laugh while we played softball (he hit a home run) we walked back into school and he told me 'thanks for listening...' man.....so this afternoon and even this evening i will not feel bad about my silly 'hard' life, and instead will enter the throne room of God and pray for my student, his heart, his grief and his tragic lose. no more selfish thoughts! life could be worse...way worse!