OK, Let's Do This

Why is it, that when you have to get up early, you can't get to sleep the night before?

No matter how much you try... you lay there, tossing and turning, watching the clock tick by another hour knowing it's one less hour before you have to get up.

I was a good girl last night and went to bed before 11PM.  I wasn't the slightest bit tired, but I tried.  I watched America's Got Talent (that I have been DVRing), I tried playing some Candy Crush, watched some more TV.

But, by 1AM, I was still awake.  

The problem doesn't come from the good intention of going to bed early.  It's the bad planning from not getting out of bed at a reasonable hour that morning.  I didn't get up until 10AM yesterday... so no wonder I still wasn't tired at 11PM.  I should have thought ahead a day, went to bed late the night before, got up early the morning before, and I would have been tired last night.

I'm just hoping that the extra sleep I have gotten this summer has been put in to a special reserve bank... because I have a feeling I'm going to need to make a withdrawal today.

I guess I managed to fall asleep shortly after 1:22AM, because that was the last time I looked at the clock..until the alarm went off this morning at 6:30.  I hit the SNOOZE button, but actually got up before it went off again.

So, I guess my tiredness doesn't win over my excitement to get in and see my classroom.

Regardless of how tired I am, I sure do like the feeling of getting up before anyone else.  The quiet in the house is so peaceful.  I'm sitting on my patio, with my coffee, and there's even a slight chill in the air.  So not like the end of July.  I should be sitting out here and starting to feel twinges of sweat... but it's only 68 degrees right now.  Perfect weather for sitting on the patio with a cup of coffee, my blog, and complete quiet before I jump in my car and get my day started.

I'm hoping to get a good 4 hours of work in this morning before I have to come home and take the kids for their dental check-ups.  

That sounds like a good amount of time, but I know that it won't even crack a dent in to how much work there is to be done.

But, if I can at least get furniture moved to where it needs to be, and all my books unpacked back on to the shelves... that will be a start.  

This time last year, I felt the same rush of excitement except there was quadruple the nerves.  I was going in to my classroom for the first time EVER.  Starting completely from scratch to create the learning oasis I had always dreamed it would be.

Unfortunately, what ended up happening was me rushing around to get the classroom functional.  Sure, it was comfy.  It was decorated nice.  But learning oasis?  Not sure about that.

This year, I'm going in with a more clear head.  The nerves of being a first year teacher aren't niggling away inside of me and overwhelming me with fear.  I've done this before...now.  I can go in there knowing what to expect the first week of school.  I know what I need to spend my time worrying about and leaving the rest of the time pulling out my Pinterest cards and seeing what I can do with the place. It's already mine... the classroom.  It's already got my stamp on it.  Now it's just time to make that stamp more efficient and "oasis" like.  Whatever the heck that means.

Another reason I couldn't sleep last night.  All I kept thinking about was what I was going to do this morning with my furniture arrangement.  How different I wanted things to be.  How many good intentions I have for sorting and decluttering the stuff I collected over the year that I no longer need to hold on to.

I know I'm just rambling on this morning, but it's been so long since I got out of bed at the butt crack of dawn and just let my fingers do the typing.  I have excitement about getting back in to my classroom, and a little anxiety that the summer is so close from being over.

It's been ten weeks since I stepped out of the school on the last day of the school year.  Ten weeks.  That have flown by in the blink of an eye.  

Ten weeks from now, it will already be October.  Ten weeks after that, it will almost be Christmas.  

Isn't that a scary thought?  Only a little over 20 weeks until Christmas?  

Feels like it wasn't that long ago that I was putting my Christmas tree away...and now we only have 4 months until it's time to drag it out again.

Oh goodness... I really need more caffeine.  Already talking about Christmas.  What the heck is wrong with me?

Definitely my cue to get off here and get this nervous energy out in a place much more conducive.  A/k/a my classroom.

Jo