Week 6 Day 7

So my mother started texting me at 4:00 a.m. My students woke up at 5:00 a.m. And despite any effort to make them go back to sleep, they were wide awake. And so, my girls were showered, dressed, hair and everything done and ready for church by 6:30 a.m. And yet breakfast wasn’t until 8:00 a.m. and church service not until 10:30 a.m. They spent a lot of time singing praises to God and even got compliments on sounding like a heavenly choir. I was so impressed.

Now the boys were a different story. They did not get up until much later. And although I turned on the lights at 7:15 a.m. so that they wouldn’t miss breakfast, I got yelled at to turn them back off. Oops. All in good fun though!

Following the church service that was held for us, we ate lunch (again, so thankful I had my meals prepared so that I could say no to the meal they had). However, what I didn’t expect was that I’d miss the activities for the next few hours.

We discovered a problem that had occurred between two students and it was immediately deemed that one student had to leave. Of course, upon hearing he would have to leave, he decided to make a run for it. I HATE running, more than I could ever explain to you. Not to mention running through brush and over hills. No need for a workout today. I got my cardio in for sure!

After everything was taken care of and settled back down, we were getting ready to play football in the town on their professional field. The kids played so well, even despite some unfair calls that were made, but that’s a different story. The problem was how cold it got. I had stopped and gotten snacks and hot chocolate for the students for later as even I was literally freezing watching the games.

We left the field at 11:30 p.m. (can you tell how long of a day this was for me?). The students were debriefed when we got back to the gym, they were thankful I had gotten snacks, and spent the rest of the night celebrating and having fun. After we sent them to bed and made sure they were all in bed, we went over to the weightroom and had a little fun workout session of our own. We kept checking in on the students who were of course tired and went to sleep very quickly. Following our workout, we sat around eating before bed. Again, couldn’t have done this without my pre-made meals. Thank you so much Fresh Fit Foods!

It was a late night of going to bed around 2:00 a.m., especially exhausted from already running so much today. But I was never more happy to see my sleeping bag on the floor, no matter how uncomfortable it was.

Week 2 Day 7

I woke up today feeling so much better. I slept in, and didn’t even bother starting to eat until noon. I could still feel the negative effects of eating so much sugar last night, just not quite as uncomfortably full.

I had my meals way more in check today and felt so much better. I made it back to the gym and finished my workout from the day before with much better energy and also completed 25 minutes of cardio on the stationary bike.

My husband and I decided to have a date night. We decided to go to a movie. As usual, we got a #1 combo that comes with a pop choice (we got diet coke), popcorn (no butter), and two candy choices: peanut butter M&Ms for my husband, and a fat free candy that I could have some of.

Now I know diet coke is not the greatest choice. I am against aspartame. But when I know I’m in a situation where I’m bound to slip, it’s better to make a safer choice than not. I also know popcorn, even with no butter, is not a very friendly food (when it comes from the theatre). But I already knew ahead of time I could only have a little, so it is much easier to stay within range without that yummy butter. I also already know that candy, especially after yesterday’s episode, was a terrible idea. But I also knew that again, I could smell my husband eating it, and it was better to plan ahead with something I could have some of without killing my diet. And yes, above all it would have been best to not buy anything, but I refuse to force my husband into doing what I’m doing if he doesn’t want to. So did I really make the worst decisions? In my mind, no. And it’s ok if you do not agree. I may come to a point where I can watch him eat other things and not feel tempted to eat the same things, but that day was not today and so I did what I could.

I did learn something from this whole experience, and that was that watching tv with too much food on your plate is a horrible decision. Do you know how easy it would have been to mindlessly keep eating that popcorn? My husband nudged me a little to remind me of my limit. I do so appreciate he supports me. But it really did hit me how easy it would have been to be tranced by the movie and not even notice how much I was eating.

HUGE fitness tip: Portion your food and don’t eat while watching tv!

Today I Walked in the Office and Said “I Quit!”

Ok, so not really. But I did walk in and said that I felt like quitting.

Today was one of those days. Those days where you wish you had never gotten out of bed, that you called in sick, that anything would have happened except what did. Teachers, I’m sure you know the kind of day I’m talking about.

Today I had to deal with something I hoped to never deal with; something that totally broke my heart. Since I don’t have kids of my own, those school kids are so much more like my own children. They are the kids that I try to protect. And when something happens, I immediately attack myself that I did not do a good enough job training and guiding them in life. When something happens, I immediately feel like a failure.

Today was probably one of the worst things I’ve ever had to deal with. So immediately my thoughts were I had failed as a teacher, I had failed as a guide in the life of my student, and I wasn’t fit for my job. What a hit!

Teaching is such a large, tough responsibility. Parenting is a huge responsibility. Any career in which you work with children and youth is a huge responsibility. When working with children, you have to realize that everything you do, they are watching. Anything you do or say, they will carry with them the rest of their lives. What a scary thought!

And as a teacher, you are being entrusted with someone else’s child which carries an extra burden in itself. You strive to be a good influence in their lives. You strive to teach them such great morals in such a small time and when something happens (and it honestly only has to be one thing), you feel as if you’ve failed altogether. Nevermind the fact that you have so many other kids in the class. All it takes is one student, one incident, and you immediately begin to judge yourself.

That’s what I went through today. I wanted to cry. I wanted to quit. I wanted to go home. I wanted to just curl up in a ball and go to sleep so that I could forget about the world around me at that moment. But instead I took deep breaths and did what I needed to do to deal with the situation.

Today was a really hard day.

Fellow teachers, a lot of you have probably dealt with something similar. I feel your pain, I feel your stress. Please know that you are not alone. The devil’s presence is ever near to us and our students, which makes our job ever increasingly important in showing them God’s light and guiding them away from the devil’s tactics and creating their own personal relationships with a Saviour that will be with them always.

Do the best you can and be the role model those kids need. Pray for your students and the choices they will make. It’s the best thing you can really do.