Orientation week

I always loved teacher orientation week.  What fun it was to return to school ahead of the students – rested, reinvigorated, overflowing with new ideas, and possessing the certain knowledge that this year you would be a better teacher than you were the last.  I couldn’t wait to collaborate with my colleagues and set common goals for our students.  I especially looked forward to the moment when a heavy, 3-inch white binder was distributed to every teacher and staff member.  The pages were filled with school rules, the teacher handbook, and tedious OSHA regulations.  Every year, I immediately flipped open the cover to find the single most important piece of paper (in my mind).  It was  titled “Krueger: Weekly Schedule.”  Everything revolved around this schedule, and all the rest was simply puzzle pieces to fit into this bigger picture.

I no longer receive a handbook or a weekly schedule, and I often wish that I did.  The order of my days is entirely up to me.  Sounds great!  But it is also daunting.  There are many things I must do, should do, could do, or can’t do.  Figuring out the best way to put my days, weeks, and months together is very much a work in progress, even though I’ve been home now for three years.  “Balance” is the ever-elusive goal.

I treated the week between Christmas and New Year’s as my personal orientation week.  Time to evaluate what changes to my schedule 2011 should bring.  Time to ask tough questions.  Time to make ruthless cuts.  Are the boys and I home enough?  Am I making the best use of the time Ryan is in preschool?  Are our top two priorities, God and family, reflected in our current commitments?  When should I be saying “no” instead of “yes,” and vice versa?  More often than not, are the boys home on time for naps and bedtime?  Is there enough flex in our schedule to allow for spontaneity (but not so much that everyone is a wreck by the end of the week)?  Do the boys get enough time with Paul?  Do I get enough time with Paul?  Do Paul and I have any time leftover for him to play golf or for me to read a book?

I won’t bore you with the answers to each question or share which day I plan to clean the toilets.  I will say that I think I am getting closer to a schedule that works.  As Paul and I talked through some of these questions, he did make one radical suggestion (at least it felt radical to me!).  He encouraged me to use naptime as “me” time, rather than the usual frenzied race to catch up on housework before someone wakes up.  I have already accepted that the to-do list is never ending, but what will happen if I spend one or two hours a day in stillness?  I would love that time to study the Word, pray, read, blog, etc., etc., etc!  Will I still be able to get it all done?  I don’t know, but I am intrigued. 

I’m on Day Two of the new plan, and so far all of the balls are still in the air.  At least I know that if it fails, I have the power to declare another orientation week and makeover the schedule again…again.