Okay. February is officially the month from Hell for me. To say that this month has been stressful or even completely exhausting still doesn’t seem to quite cover it. I’m … I can’t even think of a word right now. Tired. Irritated. Stressed. Overwhelmed. A little worried. And oh, yes… stressed again.
When I first looked at the calendar a few months ago and saw that February was just 3 full weeks and two broken ones, I was elated. Months like this usually go by super fast for me. They fly. Literally. So imagine my happiness and j.o.y. when, after all this work and craziness that has been my school year so far, I saw that the month of February might actually be somewhat of a break (and much-needed, I might add…) for me.
Yeahhhh, no. That didn’t happen. That wonderful short-looking month quickly turned into the month from Hell with tons of IEP annual and results meetings (which aren’t bad, by the way), Professional Development workshops that last hours after a full day of work, and wonder of wonders, THE WORK PRODUCT STRAIGHT FROM THE PIT for my certification program. To say that my brain is swimming and my remaining energy (and sanity) is incredibly low right now doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Our work products (for the certification program that has been the bane of my existence for several months now) usually take a good amount of time, but they’re still something you can handle along with your everyday responsibilities as long as you don’t wait till the last minute to start them. Granted, they’re not something you can breeze through if you want to do a good job on it and not just ‘pass’ but have a good-quality work product to put into your end-of-the-year portfolio, but it’s completely doable if you set aside the time for it and put in the necessary hours. So it would follow then that the one that was due this past week would be somewhat similar, riiiiight??
NOPE. This one was… a bear. A pain. An incredibly long, time-consuming, energy-sucking, sanity-robbing nightmare. It looked harmless enough, until you started it, that is. The goal tracker part alone took me two FULL weekends (all day every day of my precious weekends) and a full week on top of that, and I still barely got through it in time. The Synthesis Statement always takes me a few hours to write, because I don’t want to just throw something quick together and call it a day – I want it to be good. Add to that working everyday AND planning for classes (which already takes me awhile to do – that’s usually my weekend right there!) AND planning for annual IEP meetings and updating related paperwork AND preparing for results meetings and the mountain of paperwork that comes with those AND countless workshops after a full day of work that suck up very precious, very needed hours from my evening that I really need to use to knock out this assignment AND required staff meetings after school that last till about 5 pm AND parent meetings (also from Hell) on a Friday afternoon that last till just about 5, again. And again. Annnnnnnd, again.
Yep. The month from Hell.
Funny thing is, I don’t even curse. I don’t use profanity, haven’t in over 20 years. But I do fully believe that Hell is a very really place, and that’s where I think this month came from. Straight out of the gates of Hell and into my calendar. Oh, joy.
Through God’s grace, I’ve made it through the first week and a half . Just two and a half weeks more to go and I can gladly say goodbye to February and pray that March brings much more peace into my life.
7 more weeks till v.a.c.a.t.i.o.n.
