DROPPING THE BALL

DROPPING THE BALL

Remember all the wonderful thoughts I shared yesterday about feeling happier and more at peace?

Yeah, well, if you saw me during the hour and a half window between 4:00 pm and 5:30 pm today, you would swear yesterday’s post was a lie. I was not happy or peaceful. I was grumpy and frustrated because I was dropping the ball.

Thank God this is not a blog on how to live perfectly. I am a self proclaimed imperfect perfectionist, and sometimes the imperfect is more obvious than others.

Here is how I dropped the ball today (and picked it back up):

4:00 pm- Faculty Meeting:

I was working on tomorrow’s lesson plan in the back row. When the meeting ended, I saw that the superintendent of schools had come in and taken a seat directly behind me. I was not paying an ounce of attention to the meeting that was explaining our medical benefits (because I can read…let the email do its job, people).

Hopefully, he noticed it was a lesson plan, not Facebook.

4:15 pm- Gathering my three kids from my classroom after the meeting:

I was trying to keep the kids moving quickly because we had soccer at 5:30, and I needed to help my son with his project before practice. My youngest had taken a lot of paper and colored pencils out to make something during my meeting, and she was having a hard time gathering everything up. She began crying because she was frustrated with being rushed, and she wanted to bring everything in the car.

My response? “Quit crying, that is only making it take longer. We have to go.”

Yup, I am super mom.

4:30 pm- 4:45 pm- The ride home:

After my youngest dragged her tearful self to the car, she continued to cry.

My response? “If you are going to cry, you need to do it quietly.”

Are you taking notes? This is an excellent example of to show compassion and grace to your children when they are as worn out as you at the end of the school day.

4:45 pm- 5:15 pm- Getting ready for soccer practice:

My daughters had brought all the soccer equipment I had previously organized nicely to my in-laws’ house, and we were not sure whether or not one of the shin guards made it home. I did not do well with the search for my son’s shin guard that ensued. I was agitated and short with the kids. I made sure they knew they had made a mistake.

My youngest cried some more.

My husband brought rotisserie chicken home, which the kids ate with their fingers on the way to the car. The girls were out the door….. and I saw the dishes from last night and breakfast in the sink (because we were out of dish detergent).

AHHHHH! dishes in the sink on top of a missing shin guard, a flat soccer ball, a crying child, and a project that was not getting worked on before practice.

5:20 pm- 6:30 pm- My husband and the girls left for practice, and I prepared our son for his practice. 

I took my son to search my in-laws’ house for the missing shin guard. It was there.

We went to the store to get him a new soccer ball……. and dish detergent.

He practiced reciting the preamble to the Constitution from memory while I loaded the dishwasher.

Suddenly the world was okay. So, maybe I do need clean dishes to feel sane sometimes.

The rest of the night….

I talked to a soccer mom who has a daughter in my class. She said some very positive things about my teaching.

I laughed with my son on the way home from practice.

I sat and read a book out loud to the kids with my middle child on my lap.

I opened a gift from my youngest…. it was the picture she had started in my classroom wrapped in more paper. Man, did I feel undeserving of that gift!

I didn’t shine as a mother for an hour and a half tonight. Thank God my child knows about giving grace.

….I’m working on it.