New Season

The school year is complete and summer is upon us. There is that wonderful relief that I no longer need to get anyone besides me to school on time and I don't need to put together another school lunch for a couple of months. The late sleeping of the kids has already begun. The list of chores (that aren't even given a second thought while I'm at work) are already not being done. Church camp, a conference and vacation are in our immediate view.

Life is still busy, but in a much different way. I notice that in the summer I pull back trying to relax and everyday tasks pile up, causing me stress. I need to put together a plan for the summer so that I won't float through the next few months and wonder why I seemed to accomplish nothing.

I want to remove clutter from my house. I want to work on my business. I want to exercise more. I want to stress less. I want to enjoy time with my kids. I want to read more (even though I probably do this too much already!). Perhaps I can break it down into small bites and look back at the end of the summer and say, "Yes, I accomplished some things this summer!"

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 6 To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to gain, and a time to lose; A time to keep, and a time to throw away;

Ups and Downs

I realized late last Sunday that I forgot to post on my blog. I would have written about being so busy that I had to shut my door at work, getting 16000 steps on my Fitbit while walking in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life and celebrating Mother's Day. I could have stayed up a little longer to write my blog, but I had taken to heart what my Mother's Day card from mom and dad said - "take a break and enjoy what makes you happiest!" So, after celebrating with the family until mid-afternoon, I came home and read a book the remainder of the day. :)

I had no idea how much that break would mean to me as the week progressed. Talk about a another tough week at work! I finished a major project on Tuesday, went to a 4 hour off-campus meeting on Wednesday and found that there was an error in my project. I headed back to work and was able to talk it through with a co-worker and repair the damage before leaving around 6 p.m. From there, I picked up fast food and headed to a parent meeting at church to talk about camp. Thursday gave me another off-campus meeting, then back to work to test upgrades to our system. Friday was my final day for testing and I was able to sign off on it. My job was done and I was ready to crawl in a hole to hibernate.

Weeks like this make me really appreciate the high I was celebrating on Sunday. It's important to grab on to the little pieces of joy and feed off them when things don't go the way you envision.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him. 

Learning Well

Proverbs 9:9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. 

My son is a dual enrollment student at our college. He has just finished his first year and is still a junior in high school. I couldn't be more pleased with the effort he has put in to excelling this year. He just completed finals from his 2nd semester (taking 5 classes) and it was a tough week.

His classes were in English, Geography, Economics, Spanish and my favorite, Calculus II. Somehow he balanced that with Track practice every day, club meetings at the high school, Civil Air Patrol and spending time with his friends. I think that if I were not his math tutor, I would never actually see him!

Finals week is loaded with the pressure of performing well in every subject. There is a test or project due almost daily and the stress can be overwhelming. He pushed through and got everything done, sending me a text last evening telling me he had all As. :) He's taking a week of downtime before starting a job for the summer. He needs it and deserves it!