Friday, January 25, 2013

Gratitude

For the past few years, I have regularly taught five days a week with meetings filling up the afternoons and in-between times. All of my prep work and grading have been done late into the evenings and on weekends. The ongoing college crisis has added significant stress to the daily routine. Every day is jam packed with working and parenting. Life is wonderful, but certain things just don't fit well into the schedule, and the days, at times, seem rather frenetic.

But this semester, I don't teach on Fridays. Granted, most Fridays I will be on campus at meetings, but not always. And not today.

Today, after the kids went to school, I went for a run. Then I spent a couple of hours working on the dissertation. Then I worked on boxing up some Zappos returns that I've neglected for months, and I finally took them to the post office. Then I finally got a flu shot. Then I returned some boots to Sears that were too small for my daughter. Then I read for a while at a coffee shop. Now, I'm heading home for movie night with the family.

Exercise, quietude, productivity, relaxation, family time--it all seems so civilized and *balanced*.

I am so grateful for this day.

5 comments:

jo(e) said...

I love days like that.

Anonymous said...

Last semester was my first semester (in four years of teaching) with no Friday classes and it was wonderful!

Heather

Amstr said...

Sounds like the perfect day. I'm glad you got some much needed respite. Wishing you many more days like this to come!

Fie upon this quiet life! said...

It's so great having a day where you don't teach. Oh my gosh, I miss it! In the fall, I should have Tuesday during the day off, and then a night class that night. It will help, though. I'm guessing I'll have discussion groups on Thursdays. So that won't be too bad -- no prep for that anyway.

Congrats on having a day to do some work!

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

I was always so grateful for Fridays off from teaching. Or Mondays. It meant I could swing a three-day weekend to travel every few weeks to see my husband when we were still doing the commuter marriage thing.

I'm glad you got that flu shot in there, amidst the other things! I hope the epidemic isn't quite as awful there as it appears to be in other parts of the country. I'm hiding from germs like the cat from the vacuum.