I've been rather teary eyed lately. Throughout the past several weeks, I've been melancholy and listless. Let me begin to unpack why.

The school year is in full swing, and it's around this time of the year that I begin to wonder if I have too much going on at once. Our school's fund raiser for the year is selling Nelson's chicken so that the classes can go on their field trips. It's a lot of work on the teacher's end, what with tabulating how many tickets different students were given, correctly accounting for each day's sales and moneys (I feel like Scrooge when I'm behind my desk counting a pile of crinkled ones or pile of coins) brought in, and recording all of this information. I'm grateful for everyone contributing to our school by buying the chicken, but it's very frustrating that I am left to count the money piled on my desk when I should be spending time instructing students. There's no easy solution to this problem, and so I am thankful that chicken sales ended this past Friday.

It's also at this time of the year when I create a video promo for the Young Hoosier books. Indiana has a book program where there are 20 selected texts for various age levels, and at my school we offer prizes for students who complete a certain number of books and show their competency by passing a computer generated comprehension test. For each one of the 20 texts, I created a script and, with the help of my students, included summaries of each of the books intermediate Hoosier students will read this year. It's a lot of fun, but trying to fit in a time to tape students each day is somewhat difficult. Thank the Lord for cadet teachers! Without mine, the taping would yet to be complete! Filming has ended, and so I was left with the raw footage for me to sift through and edit. This was not difficult, only time consuming... and this year I found myself with fewer days to complete my project.

This was due to the wonderful even that took place this past Saturday. My cousin Emily got married! And to a wonderful man I might add! I loved being able to be a part of the wedding, and being able to share in their day. I also enjoyed their wedding because it gave my friends and I an excuse to get together, which doesn't happen often as we all live so far away from each other. Karen in LA, Emily in Kansas, Abbey in Ohio, and me in Indiana. The Lord has taken us to such different places in our lives, and yet, despite this fact, we all have remained close to each other.

These three major events all happened to fall upon the same time frame, the end of September/beginning of October. These three major events have left me very, very tired. When I get to these points, I become like a tea kettle and have to let out my steam. Thankfully for those in earshot, it's not through an ear piercing scream (I hate that about tea kettles), but through tears. I cry.

It's at these points that I am forced to remember that it's not on my own strength that allows me to continue on through each day... and maybe that's what I'm supposed to learn from these experiences. There's more, and I'll share that later, but for now I rely not on my own understanding.