August = Sunday Afternoon

August 1 is the date that strikes fear in my heart ----  and in the hearts of many of my teaching friends.  Don't get me wrong, I love my job.  I just hate the fact that all-too-soon my leisurely morning cups of coffee, my stay-up past 10 pm evenings, my afternoon snooze on my porch will be pleasurable memories.  School starts this month --- in 3 weeks for me, to be exact.  Where did the time go??  In my mind, I've always compared summer to a weekend.  June, with its 8-10 days of summer vacation, reminds me of Friday night.  I'm tired, often exhausted, and I need to collapse in a heap on the couch.  I know I can take a night off because there's a whole weekend ahead.  Plenty of time to get to all the chores that need to be done, with maybe some "me time."    July is Saturday morning --- still lots of time to do all the projects and activities that need to be done and that I want to do.  And then August hits.  Now it's Sunday afternoon, I have to get up and go to work tomorrow, and I realize that I haven't accomplished a tenth of what I needed to do, and now there's very little time to get to all the things I wanted to do. The workweek looms, and I'm not ready!

This summer was supposed to be moving into the new house.  But it's not ready yet -- still need kitchen counters, finish work, plumbing fixtures, the deck railings put on so we can get an occupancy permit.  And due to the heat and humidity of most of July, I haven't made a dent in the decluttering of the present house.
DH has had to spend more time at the office than he'd planned.  It's good because it means that he's had a lot of billable work, but we haven't taken any of the day trips we'd planned.

On the other hand, I've read a lot, relaxed a lot, and I've even watched a lot of Netflixed TV (sitting in front of a fan, trying to find relief from the heat and humidity!)  I did some knitting too.  I've also spent quite a bit of time rethinking some of my classroom procedures, policies, and teaching strategies. Now it's time to start heading into the classroom to get it arranged and in order for the upcoming year.  We are not given any room preparation time during our in-service days - all of it's done on our own time.  And as usual, the custodians have done a fabulous of cleaning our rooms.  Our carpets all got washed this year.  Unfortunately when they return the furniture, it's never where it started.  I went in to school Tuesday to unpack supplies that had arrived.  My computer table which should be against a back wall, has been moved to a completely different place, and my file cabinet is totally across the room.  I will need to grab my DH or a few colleagues to help me move those things back to where they belong.  Oh well.  

I will miss all of the free time.  The older I get, the harder it is to give that up.  Retirement is beginning to look more and more attractive. . . After this year, I will be "old enough" to receive my pension, if I so choose, so I will have the luxury of taking one year at a time.  It's freeing to think that I'm going back because I want to, not because I have to.

And so I will enjoy the remaining 3 weeks, despite knowing that it's Sunday afternoon