Husband Father Teacher Pilgrim

Am I maintaining a balance?

I managed to leave school by 4:40 today.

There was a bit of a hitch, because I was organising some software. Actually, if I'm honest, I was playing software. I have to be careful of this. It's easy for me to become distracted by interesting little pieces of software. The cost of spending the time on such software is not worth the benefit I get from their application.

On the plus side, I have managed to eat might lunch today, to drink enough water, and I am leaving school before five o'clock. Also I am on my way to the gym to get some exercise.

In terms of keeping balance: among one of the really important keys, apparently, is to attend to what is important in front of you at the time. As an example I am going to the gym now before I get home. I need to go to the gym. If I put it off, went home, mucked about before I went to the gym I could lose a couple of hours by the time I finally got round to it.

Students aren't at school yet so the real test of whether I can maintain a balance has not really begun. However the first few steps are looking reasonably positive.

Some energy at last

I have finally recovered from the 2008 school year. I now have enough energy to get out into our long neglected house yard and give it some tender loving care.

As you can see from the photo the front fence now has all its pickets back in place. I'd like to give it a coat of paint before school starts again.

The lawn, though still looking like a war zone, is starting to respond to my rehabilitation efforts. The dead crisp grass is being replaced by green shoots. We had a tree and a shrub removed last year. So there are still craters that need filling in. In fact, the whole area needs to be re-leveled.

It now feels better to walk out the front door. There is life. There is hope. :)

The rest of the property is also beginning to look like the owners live here (which we do) rather than the neglected rental property that it was looking like by the end of 2008.

This year (2009), as I keep saying to myself, I want to have a more balanced life. I want a life that has room for healthy things like spending time working outside in the yard.

We'll see. Teaching is an all consuming vocation. Will I have the maturity to say "No, enough is enough"?