Coming up for air.

It's never fun going from zero to 110 mph. Overwhelming hardly describes it. I don't want to complain because I know that unemployment rates are very high everywhere in the world, and even in our own neighborhood. I am thankful for my job: it is a wonderful place to be and I am blessed.

But I'm also tired physically and from the never-ending emails. There's so much to do at the beginning of a school year. Eventually, the work load spreads out: meetings aren't always crammed into two days, lesson units don't all start at the same time, setting up accounts only happen once, etc.

I'm really only functioning on a day by day basis for now. It's too much to think of what's ahead in the week, but it's all good stuff: classes, some bus driving, my first Saturday night duty, a senior beach trip on Sunday, our first family style dinner with a fabulous menu.

The dorm girls are settled in and happy as far as I can tell. They are a quieter group than last year, and I hope they develop a good group bond instead of just cliques. They love the Harry Potter theme! Here are some pictures:

Brilliant bulletin board idea: don't cover them with paper and borders... use fabric and ribbon!! So easy!!

Here will be the different "houses". The jars will fill up based on which "house" has clean rooms consistently. Anything to motivate these girls to pick up!!

 In the lounge.

 Black curtains, owls and battery-operated candles. Love it.

Dore decorations!

Mine says "Mischief Managed".

My mother-in-law asked last week: So what's more exhausting way to spend a week?  A.) Teaching VBS  B.) Tending to a toddler  C.) Dealing with teenagers in the dorm & classroom?? 

What a very, very interesting question! They're all in the running for first place. Little kids are high energy with incessant motion and questions. It's like watching a tornado until you're dizzy. With toddlers it's a game of what are you saying? What do you want? It's running after papers blowing in the wind all day. Teenagers reuniting with friends is fun to watch, but easy to go deaf to from the squealing. They can be needy and inattentive and high maintenance. But they are great. They surprise you and charm you and love life. It's easy to tease them or make them laugh by playing a fool or hinting that there's a love spark between classmates, which is what I always do in my French classes. The kids know that it's my dream to be the reason behind a long and happy marriage. I want their "save the date" cards to say: "It all started in our French class with Madame."