1. Picture me as the Wicked Witch of the West, only instead of shrieking "I'm melting! I'm melting!" I'm shrieking "I'm wilting! I'm wilting!" My steely resolve to smack my stack of grading around has almost rusted through. The straight-backed stiff-upper-lipped determination of this morning has been supplanted by a persistent inner query: would anybody notice if I raided the bag of chocolate that's left over from Mardi Gras? I am going to write a quick take each time I get a sixth of the way through my remaining grading. Let's see if I can get this post finished before Tuesday.
2. Monday morning, and I have just now finished the next sixth. But it's for a good reason. On Friday afternoon I had that problem I sometimes have, where I seem to think I can rearrange the space-time continuum to fit an improbable amount of work into an inappropriately small unit of time. I was heading to the Behold conference on Friday evening, and so the grading had to wait. Today I am determined to finish the grading and clean my house. In fact, that problem I just mentioned about thinking I can wave my scepter and the space-time continuum will shuffle around to suit my whims? I might have a touch of that same thing going on today. But hey -- a mom's reach should exceed her grasp, or what's a heaven for?
3. I loved Behold. I went last year too, and found it so unexpectedly refreshing that I put it on the 2012 calendar early on. The emphasis is not on slick sleek PowerPoint-y presentations -- it has a hometown Midwestern feel -- but the encouragement to live out one's vocation joyfully was compelling. Last year I came home from the day away and danced with my kids in the living room. I had so much residual joy from the day that when they wandered away I kept right on dancing.
4. This year I invited Betty Duffy and Mrs. Darwin, and they came! (I think BD was coming anyway, without an invitation from yours truly.) What a treat it was to meet in person for the first time. I also met Arwen in the flesh, after years of being online pals, and I was astonished at how kindly she spoke to me when her twins were falling apart at the end of the day. (It's not that I expected her to be unkind. It's just that I would have been scattered and flustered in her shoes.) It was also fun to meet Danielle Bean and Hallie Lord, to see Jen Fulwiler again, and to catch up wth Carla. If you're in the Midwest you should plan to come next year. (Erin? Renee? Sarah? who am I forgetting?)
5. I think I needed this day to take place on Mercury if I really wanted to fit all that stuff into it.
6. Oh, huzzah, I am ALMOST done with the grading. And also, huzzah, the mourning doves are back. This is the fourth year running that we've had mourning doves nesting on our porch, and though they are not the tidiest guests they are a lot of fun to watch. Oh, I do love spring: the daffodils bloomed today and there are baby mourning doves to look forward to.
7. Stick a fork in me, baby, because I am DONE grading. And it's not even Tuesday! This was a long day, my friends.
One of the things I have been thinking about: I miss writing real blog posts -- posts that aren't quick random lists or quick little kid stories. I'd like to fit more blogging into my life before summer. I just need to think about how.
Recent Comments