It's now 5:00. Soup is simmering on the stove. Tiny Boy is playing with Little People, some sticks, a train set, and miscellaneous game pieces in a plastic bag. (Don't ask. I'm not.) LG is upstairs doing her weekly book report.
We were out the door by 10:00 for a model train show (and I need to remember when I decide to go again next year that it's actually pretty lame, unless you're a collector, as it's geared toward buying train pieces not as much seeing them go, which is what's fun when you're three [or ten or forty-one for that matter!]) and then home.
My babysitter showed up, unexpectedly, at noon, because we had a communication glitch (mostly it's an every-other-week arrangement). I gave him a cup of tea, we talked, and I sent him on his way. It didn't seem, at noon, that there was so much to do, particularly as I have almost an hour during ice skating to grade.
After lunch, the kids and I all colored with colored pencils (three different coloring books; mine is all patterns) and even LG was content to be with the family.
The kids skated, I graded a few short things, we ran a quick errand and stopped for cupcakes (yum!) at a bakery on the way home. All in all, it's been a lovely Sunday.
But now I'm remembering that I have two committee meetings this week (that require advance preparation and then take up time that I'd be using to do other things) and I haven't finished the novel we're starting on Thursday and I need to get book edits done at some point and, well, yeah...
The past few semesters I've had a Tues/Thurs rather than Mon/Wed teaching schedule, and while it's taken some getting used to, on the whole I like not having that Sunday night freak-out, which was particularly pronounced back in the day I'd have a morning drive to Dr. Gorgeous's office before my first class. But on weeks where I barely take a breath--and there have been several of them running--it's hard to put aside all that will happen come 9:00 am Monday morning and just be in the moment all weekend long.
It's hard for me to know for sure, since I got tenure and had Tiny Boy at the same time, but I think this is the biggest gift of tenure for me. The house is a mess. There's a ton of work. But it's really okay.
We were out the door by 10:00 for a model train show (and I need to remember when I decide to go again next year that it's actually pretty lame, unless you're a collector, as it's geared toward buying train pieces not as much seeing them go, which is what's fun when you're three [or ten or forty-one for that matter!]) and then home.
My babysitter showed up, unexpectedly, at noon, because we had a communication glitch (mostly it's an every-other-week arrangement). I gave him a cup of tea, we talked, and I sent him on his way. It didn't seem, at noon, that there was so much to do, particularly as I have almost an hour during ice skating to grade.
After lunch, the kids and I all colored with colored pencils (three different coloring books; mine is all patterns) and even LG was content to be with the family.
The kids skated, I graded a few short things, we ran a quick errand and stopped for cupcakes (yum!) at a bakery on the way home. All in all, it's been a lovely Sunday.
But now I'm remembering that I have two committee meetings this week (that require advance preparation and then take up time that I'd be using to do other things) and I haven't finished the novel we're starting on Thursday and I need to get book edits done at some point and, well, yeah...
The past few semesters I've had a Tues/Thurs rather than Mon/Wed teaching schedule, and while it's taken some getting used to, on the whole I like not having that Sunday night freak-out, which was particularly pronounced back in the day I'd have a morning drive to Dr. Gorgeous's office before my first class. But on weeks where I barely take a breath--and there have been several of them running--it's hard to put aside all that will happen come 9:00 am Monday morning and just be in the moment all weekend long.
It's hard for me to know for sure, since I got tenure and had Tiny Boy at the same time, but I think this is the biggest gift of tenure for me. The house is a mess. There's a ton of work. But it's really okay.
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