One of my strengths, and also weaknesses is that I am a planner. I plan my school lessons a week ahead and get the copies made for the next week on Fridays. I like to plan our family’s calendar so we know who is supposed to be where and when we are supposed to be there. I try to plan meals and outfits ahead of time, and I especially like to plan for special occasions and holidays. In many ways this is a strength, as it helps decrease stress, manage time, and coordinate the chaos that is our busy life. In other ways it is a terrible weakness as re-grouping when plans change can be very stressful for me.
This has been one of those weeks that was well planned out,
and then totally changed 14 times. While
the winter weather has been pretty, it has turned my well-planned week into
something totally different. We were only
in-person for school one day this week, so my copies will go to the scrap paper
pile, I’m scrambling with the unknown to replan my students’ beloved Valentine
party. I realize some of my kiddos don’t
have all the text books they would typically need, and doggone it, I didn’t get
to wear my cute Valentine dress to school today. My family had a hectic week of after-school
appointments that we had been planning for, only to re-plan them factoring in
extra time for the bad road conditions.
And as I sat last night planning my school work for today (Thursday and Friday
are usually the days I spend my prep time planning and preparing for the next
week) I realized I don’t even know how to plan as the weather forecast for next
week is questionable at best as more snow and ice is predicted for our
region.
But then early this morning I sat snuggling a little guy in footie pajamas who woke up about 5:15. As I cuddled with him I watched the light starting to peek into the sky, and I thought about all the blessings that have come from this week. While a LOT of things were still accomplished, the pace at which they happened has been drastically different. And God gently reminded me of my word for 2021, “STILL.” This week I have actually had some time to be still, some time to do things I never would have done otherwise. I rarely drop our boys off at daycare because it is the opposite direction of my school, but this week I was able to take them (cause face it, we learned during quarantine that remote teaching and having littles at home is NOT an amazing combination) and we had some pretty fun and adorable conversations on those slow, snowy drives. Since our home internet consists of my phone hotspot and is little more than dial-up speed, I then have driven a few blocks from daycare to an amazing little coffee shop in our downtown where I can use their high speed internet and a quiet corner to accomplish hours and hours of productive school work while also enjoying a cup of hot chocolate and a breakfast sandwich- two things that would usually never have the chance to accompany my hectic day. And by having the chance to work for hours daily without many of usual interruptions (classroom phone, meetings, remembering to post lunch count, etc), it is the first time in MONTHS I have actually felt like my head was somewhat above water on school work. There really are some wonderful silver linings to the unplanned.
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the
Lord establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9
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