Monday, August 18, 2008

Reasons to Drink

No, you don't have to worry about me, but as I was logging on and all the other blog titles were scrolling through as they do, this title popped up and just seemed applicable - caught my eye and made me laugh!

As I've shared on David's page, we face unique challenges and significantly large time pressures this semester.

OK, so we know that's coming, and we're gearing up. I had thought today would be an open day for me to get a serious and necessary jump on the beginning of my semester, and I had been COUNTING on this being the case. The day was entirely open except for just a couple of little things to be taken care of - should have been minimal time expenditure involved - maybe involving a total of half an hour combined. Um . . . NO.

They took from 9am until 4pm pretty much, and my frustration built to such a level over these things that should have taken moments and took hours that now that I AM home I can't focus on my work.I was tempted today to use this space as full-on therapy for myself by listing each and every item that should have gone right that went wrong, but I know you have your own experience of "one of those days." So, instead of writing specifics, I am including this very appropriate comic that I'm sure we can all relate to.

(I must say, when David called to see if things were going better this afternoon and told me he had been praying for me I told him it was all still going wrong, but then I remembered that although I'd been out driving I had not been in an accident, so not EVERYTHING that could have gone wrong did.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry about your Jonah day, Heidi! (Are you an Anne of Green Gables fan? Not sure if we've ever talked about that series. I so feel for Anne when she cries to Marilla and says, "Oh, Marilla! It's been a Jonah day!")

I hope things smooth out for you. I miss you! Hope we can talk soon.

Heidi said...

I hate to admit it, but I have not read any of the Anne of Green Gables books, so you'll have to fill me in on Jonah.

Given the lateness (or earliness, as the case may be) of the hour, I did succumb and write out all the details, but have thought better of it and erased the blow-by-blow account that was up here a minute ago. I'm sure even this will be too much, but it's 1:30am, and I'm too tired to have good judgment!

Much of it wasn't so bad in itself as it was difficult in that I had my mind set on having all day to work on preparing for my particularly important and high stress semester - which I've had to put off and put off and put off for one thing after another, and today, which as of 9am looked nearly entirely open for that suddenly turned into one thing after another after another after another, and they were things that should not have been such problems but were - much of it having to do with fixing problems with Anthony's schedule for his school year, which caused problems with extra-curricular activites, some of which were beginning today and all of which cascaded into an abominable snowball.

And I had thought the diaper stage was busy!

There were things other than his school issues too, and they kept me from my necessary work at a time when I am under a lot of pressure. I do live in an advanced society with a solid educational system and available technology - cars, computers, refrigerators, air conditioning, etc. - which is WONDERFUL, but all of that takes maintenance and brings with it glitches you don't have without it.

The busyness has hit home, and most hasn't started yet. I don't actually begin teaching until Monday, and we only have one child whose school year has begun. Coming soon all five of us will be in school - and piano lessons start and church youth group starts and cross country meets and soccer games enter the scene.

Already David is not getting to his therapy until 11 at night, and that's no good. As I said in my post on his page, it's going to be a steep learning curve this semester, and we have begun taking some giant steps already - many were anticipated, but the ones today were not. That was what was hard about them for me, because we're maxed out already.

I'd always been glad for the technology we have these days and the knowledge the human race has and the educational system we have and the era I live in, but today I was thinking I might like to time travel back to the "hunter-gatherer" stage of human existence where you pretty much focused on getting and preparing food all day - and not becoming food yourself.

Oh for the simple life! :-)

Anonymous said...

When will Anthony be able to drive? A child driver, although scary to think about, is needed in your home about now.
Paula

Heidi said...

EXCELLENT POINT!

THAT WOULD HELP TREMENDOUSLY!!

Anthony has NO interest in driving. He has LESS THAN no interest in driving - which I don't get, because I could not wait to get my license when I was his age!!

I hear more and more parents these days expressing that their 15/16 year olds are not interested either. I wonder what it is with this generation?

Yes, we probably should have
PUSHED him along before now, but back when he was heading toward 15 1/2 when he could have gotten his permit, David had not yet had his stroke, and we had no idea we would be this inundated. Up to this point David and I have been able to handle it quite well, so we kind of figured, "What's the hurry? Why push him? There's plenty of time for that when he's ready."

Oops - miscalculation on our part.

At this point we are looking into it.

Anthony is 16 now. I just checked with his school about driver's training. They do not currently have a teacher who is certified, so they don't offer it, which is fine. We'll go private. The question at this point is, 'When will we fit it in?'

He won't have a license early enough to be of help this fall no matter what we do.

So, yeah, we are looking into it, but it's too little too late. Fall is our busiest season - with Caleb in soccer - me finishing my thesis - Anthony in cross country, etc. By the time he gets his permit and gets the hours in and so on we'll be past this time - so, like I said, "too little too late."

We just had no idea it would be a necessity, and, to be honest with you, I wasn't all that disappointed when he didn't show an interest in driving.

I guess it's a good lesson learned. You don't know what is coming in life, so have your kids as skilled as they can be as early as possible just in case!