Back to School

What I'm doing this week:

Reading:
Online comics -- Girls With Slingshots (which got onto my TBR list via a recommendation but so far it's got potential but hasn't really hooked me), and Sorcery 101 (which is pretty engaging so far, although his website is a pain in the ass to maneuver around) -- and staff development articles on building a supportive school culture and inquiry-based teaching.

Listening to:

Watching:
The new season of Miss Fisher (finally available on Netflix!)!  Phryne's the tiniest bit OOC (out of character) in it -- they've got her chasing after Jack at one point, calling out excuses about her dalliance with an air force officer, which is just not at all believable. I can see the two of them struggling a bit with whether it's possible for them to find a way to actually be together, given their very different outlooks on life and on relationships, and I can see both of them making some compromises, but I can't see her chasing after him -- but it's still a lot of fun.

We're giving Merlin a try, as well.  Quite enjoyable so far.   A nice mix of adventure and humor.

Doing:
Having the first week of school -- the first day went remarkably well.  I can see how much the kids have grown in their ability and willingness to be part of community activities, conflict resolution processes, and the school meeting's decision-making.  Other than that, spending a lot of time in bed, recovering from this week's cold.

Eating/Cooking:
I'm needing to change my eating plan to help lower my cholesterol.  I'm not too stressed about that -- I did it in my 20s, quite successfully, and then just got out of the habit of doing all the things that kept it in a good range.  So I'm putting together a list of reminders, and getting them on the wall.  Today we're having papardelle and cauliflower.  Not a particularly cholesterol-lowering food, but tasty, and moderately healthy (healthier if we were making soy sauce lentils-and-onions to go with it, but we're not).

Something that went particularly well, this week:
I facilitated a difficult mediation at school, and was pleased with the results.  My bloodtests were generally good, other than the cholesterol.  I was particularly pleased by the glucose results -- that's something I keep an eye on, because of family history -- and my blood pressure is excellent, which always makes me happy to see.

Something that went less well:
There was some confusion around our Back to School picnic, which made our Friday a little tricky.  We found out our favorite tea spot and haven is closing at the end of the month.

Something I'm grateful for:
The gorgeous days -- sunny, pleasantly warm/cool (hovering in the low 80s, for the most part), often breezy.  My health.  My little family.

Something I'm thinking about:
How I spend my time.  What choices are worthwhile, given how brief our time here is.

Something I'm looking forward to:
The things I'm planning to facilitate this year -- glee club, science club, and an independent research and public speaking class.  I'm a little excited, a little nervous, but mostly just feeling really settled and contemplative about those classes.  They give me a lot to chew over, as I think about what I want to do with them.

September, but still summer

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: 

How sad to say, I haven't read anything new since I last posted here.  I was busy with work, then doing summer vacationy things.  I've been reading articles online -- this article on GMOs, most recently -- but no books.  It's Read A Book day, I'll have to fix that!

Listening to: 

This guy, at the Scotch Plains Italian Festival.  He's a lot of fun to watch, and has a nice variety of oldies and classics in his repertoire.

Watching: 
RWBY (enjoyable animated show about a couple teams of teen monster hunters).  I"m lobbying heavily for Barney Miller and Rockford Files, to no avail.

Doing: 
Having summer vacation!  Meeting Joe in Hoboken for lunch, walking along the Hudson River, going to Sandy Hook Beach with friends, going Back to School shopping, going to the Italian Festival with friends.  Today we're sleeping in, having breakfast potatoes and scrambled eggs.  Tomorrow we're choosing between Meadowlands Environment Center, Palisades Pkwy overlook, Rutherford Labor Day street fair, or heading back to Scotch Plains to catch the VooDudes.

Eating/Cooking:  

Lots of breakfast potatoes.  Raymond's has not been as good, recently -- their sourdough toast is a little sweet, which is really off-putting with home fries and eggs, the eggs themselves are a little overdone, and the homefries have been bland -- so we've been staying home more often, both for budgetary and culinary reasons.  Our home-breakfasts tend to be breakfast potatoes (inspired by The Pioneer Woman's, although ours skip the cayenne pepper and the bell peppers) and scrambled eggs (inspired by these lazy eggs, although I do whisk them before sticking them in the pan, and I skip the milk).  Occasionally with the extra indulgence of Gina's apple turnovers.

Something that went particularly well this week:  
Everything about summer vacation has been going well.  One thing that stands out, though -- friends were in town and invited a bunch of folks to meet them at the Italian festival, so we got to see lots of people we don't see often enough (both the friends who were in for the visit, as well as the mutual friends who came to the festival to see them) and got to experience a classic summer church festival in the midst of our let's-fit-in-all-the-summer-we-can week.  

Something that went less well:  
Some of the Back to School shopping was frustrating.  It's amazing how hard it can be to find clothes for a teen who just wants tshirts, plain jeans, comfy underthings, and kickass boots.

Something I'm grateful for: 
Having enough to eat, and a sturdy home, and a network of friends and family.

Something I'm thinking about:  

How to maintain good work boundaries, this school year.   How I can best help the Syrian refugees (always so hard to know where money will do the most good, or what sorts of letters to write to representatives).

Something I'm looking forward to:
The rain.  (yes, I wrote this last month, too.  Still, the rain.  It's been a dry summer, here.)

Discipline

I'm sitting with this, this evening: Three Small Discipline Habits You Can Train and with the article he links to at the end.

I was completely undisciplined through most of my 20s.  I did whatever "had to" happen next -- I have to get dressed, I have to go to work, I have to make dinner -- but everything else sort of floundered, waiting for inspiration to strike or an urgent deadline to materialize.

My work experiences in my 30s and 40s forced me to find an organizational approach that worked for me, and quick!  I cobbled together bits and pieces from Flylady, from GTD, from zenhabits, and have taught myself through trial and error to pretty consistently be able to meet at least B+ standards for organization, productivity, and reliability (at least when it comes to work tasks).  But I still find myself with a running list of 20-30 items that I've never quite gotten around to.  The curtains I've been meaning to change since we moved into the house, the last half dozen boxes we never quite finished unpacking but instead sit stashed in a corner of a bedroom, a thank you note I've been meaning to write.  A trip to the post office that's been written down on every single ToDo list I've jotted on the backs of envelopes or the bottoms of receipts since the beginning of last month.

I occasionally borrow Flylady's concept of an anti-procrastination day and manage to clear out a half dozen of the highest priority past-due items, but it is so easy to get bogged down by the silliest things -- being intimidated by the idea of a phone call, or searching for exactly the right phrase.

I've tended to work slowly and thoroughly almost meditatively, in part as a way to reject the idea that getting things done has to be stressful (as it was, unavoidably, back when I was always behind on everything).  But I wonder if there's a way to gently and cheerfully challenge myself to a speedier work day.  I wonder if it could, in fact, make getting things done even less stressful, as it would leave me little to no time to worry over getting the words just right in each email I send out, instead focusing on just getting them written, sent, and moving on to the next task.

My work year starts back up in earnest next week.  Perfect timing for a new approach...