Stress and Trying to Stay Afloat

The school year is full swing and I can feel it! It is always hard to keep up with the swing of everything after a summer of doing things at my own pace. A summer of being caught up and taking care of the smaller things is definitely over. Now I feel like I am running behind on everything. Laundry is piling up again and I have to prioritize everything, unfortunately that means some things get left undone or half-done. This week was particularly challenging.
A 2 week long on-call for jury duty is an evil joke to play on a teacher. I am sure no one can really give up 2 weeks of their life so easily, but writing sub plans for 2 weeks is not fun in any aspect. Luckily I only had to report on 1 of the days, and had to call in on the rest. The day I missed turned out to be the right day to miss too, because some major classroom drama unfolded. My wonderful administration swooped in to remedy the situation so that I returned to a better scenario.
I am still on call this week, but have my fingers crossed that I won't have to report since we start standardized testing this week, 3 days of the CogAT. (Fun!)
My body let me know it was not so thrilled with the amped up activities and decided to put me on alert. The signals were received loud and clear and I have been slowing down to recover. I spent Saturday in bed, sleeping to recover from some of the physical exhaustion. I know my brain needed the rest and although I am behind on some house chores, it was just one of the things I had to do so I can keep going.
One of the ways I am keeping up with my lesson plans is using planbook.com  I can work on them from home and school. I really love that I can attach documents to my plans and they have the standards available to attach to my plans. This past week I printed off my plans for the sub, a definite time saver! If you are looking for a new lesson plan book check it out.
I know I cannot do everything, so I must prioritize and take care of the bigger things and most important things. I want to keep going with the blog, but it is unfortunately on the lower end of the priority list.
Case in point is that I cannot finish this post without being interrupted by my own kids. Usually I can sneak in a little time to myself, but this morning that is not going to happen.So to prevent upset feelings and a rise in anxiety in the house I have to cut this short. My youngest is trying to be patient with me but his hunger and desire for pancakes is not going away while I type.
So until the next time, take care!