Good to Be Back

As any self-respecting, sane teacher (who would like to remain sane), I love my breaks. Especially the ones that are longer than a day. And Christmas break rates right up there as one of the best! (Yeah…any guesses about the BEST??) I love days to sleep in, and days when we never make it out of pajamas. I love the uninterrupted time with my family, and I love having the time to go be with extended family. And as a total night-owl, I love the chances to stay up late playing games or reading or watching tv. Well, okay, I love them as long as those nights are followed by a chance to sleep in the next day…and thanks to my wonderful husband, they usually are.

And while I really enjoy my job, I am NOT one of those teachers who rushes back in after a break ready to go. Nope. I'm one of those teachers who drags back in hoping that nothing really exciting happens that day because I can't mentally handle it. Probably because I stayed up too late trying to eke out the last moments of vacation. Unless I was sort of smart and took a Benadryl and made myself go to sleep early.

BUT…there is something really special about a new year – whether it's the new calendar year or the new school year – that takes a little of the pain away from going back to work. Something about settling back into the regular routines of life, and looking for ways to create better routines to fit my family...deciding that some things are going to be different from now on…all that hope right at the beginning of the new-ness.

I'm not sure where that hope eventually goes. Or the optimism and motivation to be better. I mean, really….I know I like to cook, and I absolutely love the sense of super-mom-ness I get when we all sit and eat together. So why is it that somewhere along the way I end up feeling like it's a burden and we end up caving and eating out (or in our case, ordering in) over and over again? Maybe it's just a matter of getting out of that rut and getting a break…not just from school, but from everything…that makes the "getting back to normal" seem so appealing.

Except I want this to be a better normal. I want to hold on to the new-and-improved routines a little longer this go 'round.

I want to be a better wife and mom. A better child of the Father.

Oh, and maybe a better blogger. More than once a week again would be nice.

We'll see….but for now it's really good to be back!