I am supposed to be writing lesson plans. Instead, I am sitting on the couch, contemplating all the things that have happened in the past year, and feeling exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally. Part of this is because I've done a great deal in the last 10 days, but also, the last year has been a lot. And I accidentally kicked a pickax as I walked through the garage carrying something that obscured my vision.

Usually, there's not a pickax out, but Aaron was using it for something and had set it against the wall where my foot found it. So for the past four days, my foot has looked like a stubby-fingered surgical glove someone inflated with air. Except it's not air and there was a sizable lump on the top. Today everything looks considerably less swollen. I have an ankle again (yeah, the swelling was from the top of my foot just behind the toes, all the way to my lower calf). The top of my foot is still a bit swollen and sensitive and colorful, but everything is working as it should. I think tomorrow I will be able to wear shoes again.

And somehow, I have gained long purple bruises on the undersides of both of my upper arms. One of those came from a ride mishap at Lagoon. I think the other might be a lawn mowing casualty but I'm not sure. I look a bit worse for the wear.

School started Monday while I was finishing up some business in Laramie. My plane back home landed at midnight last night. I'll start my first day tomorrow, four days after school has begun. I'm a little nervous about that. I've had very little prep time. The assumption that I'd get some time to do prep while I was in Laramie was flawed. I had no spare time while I was there.

So today I will write lesson plans and visit my classroom and try to figure out how I will make this new job work. I have never directed a middle school choir (grades 7-9) before. Nervous. I am nervous.

I was hoping to get some down time in the coming weekend. Then I realized I have yet another wedding to attend, and some other commitments I had forgotten. Also, the lawn needs to be mowed again. Maybe the following weekend? Alone time is becoming a very precious commodity.