Hi! My Name is Michele Dunaway and I am tired

Hi! My name is Michele Dunaway and I am tired.

You probably know the feeling. It's that one that has you saying "if only" there were 25 hours in the day. If only I didn't need sleep to survive. If only food cooked itself...

I have been teaching since August 11. I am up again at 5:20 and back to the world of grading papers, planning lessons, and getting ready for the first issue of the school newspaper. I have a curriculum to write for the district by Sept. 20 (the deadline of which landed on me today) and I have one more newspaper to judge, uh, by Aug. 26. That's up tonight and tomorrow.

I am coordinating an auction for the Student Press Law Center to be held in St. Louis in November. I have an article for C:Jet Magazine to do by Dec. 31. That stuff is for next week. I do have a partner for both, but she hasn't called because, like me, she's swamped under with back to school stuff. I have a book partial due Oct. 15. That's in there somewhere.

Somehow I'll get all this done. But I'm a tad overwhelmed. They've closed the road I always drive to work for a month, adding 10 miles one way to my already 28 miles one-way trip. They are repaving the main road I drive and starting by doing repairs; I'm hoping the two slow downs don't overlap too bad. The repaving hits me on the way home; I leave before it starts. Yesterday I had to take my daughter into the doctor for a surprise illness. She's fine but you know how those unplanned things go. A few of those plates you juggle wobble a bit.

So life is a bit overwhelming. To add to the craziness, my daughter and her friend found a baby bird in the park. It had been kicked out of the nest and it wasn't doing too well. Since they'd already carried it half way around the park before showing me, we took it home. We managed to get it healthy, only to lose it about 3 days later. It was a hard lesson in nature, but a valuable one. Still, it makes me sad.

Yet enough with the misery. I try to balance everything by staying focused on positives. Gas is $3.37 where I live. The weather is raining, but we need it. The days aren't hot like they usually are in August, and Michael Phelps got 8 gold medals. I also joined a new church that I love and my yearly mammogram was negative. I am back online after getting my computer fixed.

I'm also excited because we've got some great surprises coming to the blog next month, and I can give you a hint in my next blog as to what we've palnned. So think happy, get some sleep for me, and I'll catch you in ten more days.

Michele