It’s the same thing every year.  Summer is this big chunk of time where I’m going to get all this stuff DONE!  I’m going to scrub every room, throw out all kinds of stuff I didn’t even know I had, write the book (I did work on it), swim every day, and read fun books, just to read.  Well, I did a little of each I suppose, but here it is, the Thursday before meetings begin on Monday, the beginning of year 29 of teaching and I’m asking, where did the summer go?

Well, I have to admit I slept.  A lot.  It was as though I couldn’t catch up on the sleep.  I’ve told myself that it was ok, that my body was trying to tell me something.  Ok, maybe it’s just telling me I’m getting older, but it was definitely telling me something.  I stopped feeling guilty about it about two days into summer, because after all, I’m a night owl, as evidenced by the fact that I’m writing this at 12:30 a.m.  I tend to get my second wind around 10:00 p.m. which is why if I don’t get to bed by 9:30 during the school year, I’m awake for awhile.

As for the scrubbing part, I did keep things straightened, clothes washed, rooms vacuumed, but never really scrubbed.  I rearranged artwork on my walls and even bought some new stuff.  My husband seems to think I’m going to run out of room on the walls, but you can never have enough artwork, right?  I did swim some, read a couple of books on leadership (fun, but not fun, if you get my drift), and wrote a bit.  And meetings begin Monday.

Well, I should say that I also spent the equivalent of a week working on school things.  Curriculum tweaking, professional development, Tier 1 PBiS which is now going by another acronym which I may remember before it changes again, a team meeting, a PLC meeting about PLC meetings, and half day of a new teacher orientation.  Another week was spent in Washington D.C. advocating for music education and meeting with state leaders at our National Assembly, there was an new grandson adopted, a birthday party, lunches and wine trips with friends and a lovely, week long vacation.  Ok, now I’m seeing where the summer went.

All this to say, that although I’m asking where the summer went, it really was a great summer.  A time to rest and rejuvenate, a time to teach and learn, a time to spend with family and friends and celebrate life.  The best part is I got to schedule most of it, ate as slowly as I wanted AND got to run to the bathroom whenever I needed.  It’s the little things in life.  It was enough of a break that while I’m a little overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done RIGHT NOW coming my way in preparation for the school year, I’m ready to start.  I’m ready to do better.  Ready to improve my teaching, ready to better  relate to my students, ready to mentor a future teacher again, ready to work hard and try to make a difference.  I will work my butt off for the next 191 days (not including weekends) and maybe do all that stuff I wanted to do this summer NEXT summer.