In the book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Professor McGonagall gives Hermione Granger a Time Turner. This hour glass on a necklace allowed the wearer to travel back in time. Hermione used it in order to take more classes during her third year. I want one.
What have I been doing lately? Everything and nothing. I go to school, I volunteer in the library. I help the boys with homework, I cook dinner. On the weekends we try to do something as a family. I find myself returning to journal-style blogging, which is how I used to blog when I started 7 years ago.
I do have one exciting piece of news to share. I’m the literature coach for our diocese’s academic decathlon! We’re reading The Call of the Wild and Heart of the Samurai. I’m so excited, so nervous. Aside from a couple of days subbing, and a semester of helping first years after I graduated law school, this is the closest I’ve come to teaching. I trying very hard to tamp down my naturally competitive nature. I doubt very much the children want to meet with me every single day of Christmas vacation.
(The decathlon is in March! We’re not going to wipe the floor with the competition by celebrating the birth of our Lord!)
So that’s what I’m doing.
I think all of us who are mothers and also want to be other things (wives, writers, teachers, academic decathlon coaches, etc.) have wanted a Time Turner. (Wasn’t there a bad Michael Keaton movie based upon this desire?) As I’m approaching the light at the end of the mothering tunnel, I can see that all the moments of nothing have meant everything to me.
So well said … couldn’t possibly agree more …
I enjoy hearing from you, just every day stuff. Blogs are barely on my radar anymore, but I still check in with you, and consider you a friend. But since you know next to nothing about me, I’ll share the craziness that has overtaken me. About 6 weeks ago we got our first foster placement, siblings, girl, 6, boy, 3. So now we have two girls: 6, 7 and two boys, 3, 4. It’s actually gone better than even the best I could imagine. Tons of work (potty training again, ugh) but worth it when you see them enjoying each other. Then . . . Sophia’s principal basically offered me a position teaching in the mornings at her school. This is great for a number of reasons, so we’re going to take the short term crazy for the long term benefit. I quick had to dust off my resume, contact old principals of 10+ years ago (definitely some God stories I could share ) and find a good preschool for the boys. I’m really excited (and nervous of course) to teach again; it’s been 7 years. I know you didn’t ask, but that’s what one of your readers is doing, way up near Seattle!
I love to hear what’s going on in everyone’s life! It makes me feel like I’m not just tossing words in the air. :)
I think, as far as Time Turners go, if one were to exist you would definitely have dibs!
Nah, I was ready for a challenge. I work best under pressure, and knew I could get a lot more efficient with my time. It was always a priority to stay home with the kiddos, but J’s starting kindergarten in less than a year, and I was ready to go back. It’s just a bit sooner than planned. At least now you know why I’m perpetually late in my comments. :) Happy Weekend!
‘We�re not going to wipe the floor with the competition by celebrating the birth of our Lord!’
Priceless. This may be your best yet–and that’s saying a lot. Your team is sooooo lucky to have a coach with her priorities aligned. Go git’em, tiger!!
Why did I get all giddy when I read that you are the lit coach for the decathlon??? I love it!
One of the reasons I stopped reading so many blogs was because they stopped being about the little stories and moments that make up life. I love diy and cooking and “created content” blogs when I’m looking for help with a specific project but the blogs I LOVE are the blogs that make me feel like I’m sitting down with a friend even if that friend is someone I’ve never even met and thousands of miles away. (It makes introvert me happy too)
And I’m all for a time-turner even though I’d probably just do more of what I’m already doing – mad amounts of Christmas knitting and watching trash TV on Netflix.
P.S. LOVE Jack London. I hated him has a kid, but found him again as an adult. Martin Eden is in my top ten of all time.