Oh Summer! Where have you gone???

This post is a bittersweet one...

Today is July 21, 2014--about nine days away from pre-planning, a day I have personally been looking forward to since I began my journey as a teacher. But with that comes the scary idea that "hey! I'm almost there and there is so much left for me to do". Only that thought is short lived considering I don't have much time to contemplate what is left and what not, I just have to keep doing, keep going.

For the past month, my home has become a temporary storage ground where as soon as I empty my space, thinking I am closer to the final product, it gets filled again. A lot of it is me just being me, a perfectionist in its purest form and OCD to the max. Teaching myself along the way that there is no perfect way of doing any one thing, just the best way that works for you. I am a pro at giving myself (and others) advice, my shortcoming is trying to follow that advice. But baby steps help win the race, right?

There are a few things I have learned over this past month:

1. The value of air conditioning haha--not having any is quite a challenge, but it takes me back to my 2006 summer in India. I was a champ, battling an Indian summer, creeping into the monsoon season (which for those of you who think you know what that means, you have no idea until you actually go to India). Even then, you realize how much strength it takes to complete the most minute task in heat. 
2. Inspiration comes from EVERYWHERE. We have probably heard this a trillion times, but it's so hard to understand until you take a step back and pull inspiration from the most random of objects (i.e., a dead patch of grass in your backyard or the HGTV channel). I have spent countless hours Googling, following blogs, clicking aimlessly and finding the most amazing articles to use in my home and classroom. It's a time consuming adventure, but well worth it, especially if you walk away with an entire bulletin board idea--not a bad trade-off by any means.
3. Last, but not least, when you are bed ridden from getting your wisdom teeth out, you are reminded of how valuable time really is. It's been a little over a week now and I still feel the affects of my surgery. There are days where I can't move from the couch because of massive headaches. At that point, you realize that you really need to take the time and heal or else it only makes things harder in the long run. Timing is impeccable and I am thankful for time to just sit back and realize that which surrounds me.

So, for my teacher friends who are dreading the countdown to when we go back to reality, enjoy your last 9 days of summer. For those of you who think teachers get summers off to do nothing, you need to befriend a teacher and see how much s(he) has done in the past two months--you may be shocked by what you find out. =)

Happy Monday!