School Daze (Winding Down)

I am tired and I need to go to bed. I've been so tired lately after work. These last few weeks have been really hard. I did manage to drag myself to the gym for about a 40 minute bike ride, but it took forever to make myself do that, dragging myself around like carrying a body bag on my back. I am convinced right now that you have to fight against death. If the Bible said our days would be 120 years (Genesis 6:3), I want to stay alive as long as possible. I was under the impression that 70 years was what I could expect to live and 80 if especially fortunate. "The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years; Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow" (Psalm 90:10); So, for all the years I've been a Christian, I thought our life expectancy was 70-80 years, and for that reason I was getting very stressed about all the stuff in my apartment, much of it stuff from my dad and my grandfather. I even visited with the Kansas Historical Society about it, but it doesn't appear that they want any of it. Anyway, I have a few more years now if I'm going to live to be 120. Of course, none of us knows when our day will come. We just know that life is short. And shorter and shorter, the older we get. I keep remembering what my dad's wife said to me one day when I went to see her at the nursing home. I didn't find her for a while. (You would meet them in the front room). When she came out, she said, "I'm still alive." That has always stuck in my mind for some reason. What happens after this life is more important than what happens in this life. That is, this life is, I believe, where we prepare for the life to come. A lot of people don't believe that, I know. But I have to believe it, and I have to try to stay focused on trying to live in God's will at all times. I had some issues with some people 12 years ago who preached that God did not convict Christians of sin, and if we believed that, we were listening to the devil. That was just one issue I had with these people. It was very painful, the whole ordeal. I wrote in my journal that "God will bring it down," and bring it down he did, and he will bring down anything done in his name that does not honor him, so I have learned to keep my focus on following Jesus and living in his will, because everything else will take you off the path. This is going to be very short because I can feel the walls of this temple beginning to come tumbling down. With only 12 days of school left, I have to live in the moment all day long because this is a very stressful time for children and teachers. This is Teacher Appreciation Week, so we had a couple of very cool days so far. Monday PTO bought us pizza and donuts from Casey's. Today we got free drinks from a drink truck; I got a hazelnut cold latte. Just FYI, I was certified to teach Spanish and French and later picked up art in Tennessee, but I never taught art or French. I taught middle school English my first year teaching in Kansas City, but I was mainly a Spanish teacher. I have graduate degrees in family studies and child development. I won't go into all that right now because it is not relevant to what I'm sharing right now. I only mention it in the context of Teacher (and staff) Appreciation Week. My current work is as a literacy tutor and assistant kindergarten music teacher. I love it, but I am looking forward very much to summer break which will happen in (the rest of this week, next week and four days of a third week). We are also writing little notes of appreciation to our co-workers, which is really nice. In other words, the school year is winding down. The kids are having their field trips and picnics, state assessments are over, and staff and students are all tired, so we are all just hanging in there. My three sixth grade boys I meet with Monday, Wednesday and Friday are making me laugh every time we get together because I think we are all loopy by then. I mean I think they are, and I'm pretty sure I am too. But we are getting some work done and we are having some fun at the same time. I'm going to wrap this up for now. I still have to take my vitamins and brush my teeth. Goodnight and happy Wacky Wednesday tomorrow!