What A Fun Week

This week I finally feel "On."  I must admit, the last few I felt like I was coasting on auto pilot, just sort of going through the motions, not being present, and just in a general blaze daze.  I didn't like it, but I also didn't have the energy or the drive to get out of my slump.  This week however, I feel like I am coming around and I am back to being a sightly interesting (all be it bazaar) and useful person in the world. 

I like list, so I think for my mental downloading please I am going to make a list of the things in my life that have helped me feel more alive and genuine this past week. 

1.  At school I have switched from teaching about oceans to freshwater systems.  While I find the ocean interesting, I have little personal or scientific background that makes me passionate about the subject.  I feel flat when I teach it.  When I teach about rivers, I become passionate about their protection, I am fascinated by their intricacies and behaviors and how humans interact with their watershed.  As I teach this unit, we have a lab almost every day and I build the students knowledge to the point of application and real world experiences.  It is exhausting, but gratifying.

Yeah I know it is upside down, but I can't figure out how to flip it

2.  Let there be light.  My favorite holiday of the year is coming up, but I can already feel its effects.  Day light savings time is almost here, and the more light the merrier.  I love being outside, I love eating outside, I love playing in my greenhouse and garden.  I love now that our refrigerator is empty, but our gardens are full of all sorts of goodies. 

3.  Quality time with my family.  This miraculous thing happened, I think three whole times this week.  We all four spent quality time just playing, goofing off, or watching a movie together.  It was nice, it felt more normal, it felt nurturing to melt into the moment rather than force it.  Just last night, when I noticed Isaac slipping into baby mode, I happily rocked and sang to him while we laughed together at my silly songs. 

4.  I am learning new things.  I just finished the book The Out of Sync Child and I feel like I have been given a field guide to Emerson.  I now at least know why he is doing the things he is doing.  It is not a choice but a processing issue.  I feel empowered now to take the necessary steps forward, rather than the victim of the vicious tantrum and colossal meltdowns. 

5.  A little recognition goes a long way.  Don't worry fellow teachers who are reading this, parents, students or administrators have not starting saying thank you, or good job.  The praise is coming for my other life/business.  The business that John and I run is called The Backyard Pantry, and we specialize in building, delivering and installing ready to plant raised garden beds.  We also do a variety of other things to assist our clients in edible gardening adventures.  Basically our goal is to provide all the necessary ingredients for our gardening clients.  Well, this weekend we are having a documentary crew come to our place because we have been selected as one of 13 innovative/creative businesses in the South East.  We did not apply for this, or even know it existed (since we don't have TV we miss out on a lot) but instead we were recommend for it by a leader in Birmingham.  Pretty cool to know that someone noticed us and what we do.  Now how it all goes on Sunday will probably be a big factor in my mood next week.

6.  More work to do in the garden.  When I started gardening to grow food for my family, I read this great book called The 60 Minute Gardener The premise of the book was that once you had a good system going, you only needed one hour a week in the garden to feed your family.  Last year, I remember me and my sister laughing at that title thinking "no way."  Now it is true.  I only NEED to garden about an hour a week, and quite frankly that makes me a bit sad.  Fortunately now that spring is around the corner, there are a few big projects I need to work on that give me more time outside with my plants. 

7.  Spring break is coming up.  Not much explanation needed here:) 

I think that sums up the big game changers in my mentality.  All in all, I am just thankful to feel awake again, even if I am still tired.  At least now I am tired from doing so much, and not from being so blaaa.