I did it!

The week is over and I feel good.  This week...

• The kids started at their new daycare (aka "school").  Everly didn't nap the first day, which resulted in a disastrous evening on Monday due to sheer exhaustion, but at least she saved the worst for home and made a decent impression on her teachers.  Cortlan loved it so much he didn't want to leave.  Seriously.  He wouldn't even come over and give me a hug when I got there.  He just said, "Can I just stay for a couple more minutes??"  Every day got better for Everly, with Friday being the first day that she didn't even cry when we left.  Cortlan still didn't want to leave, even on Day 5.  And I didn't have to make one single lunch.  I am very pleased with our decision to change schools - a decision that I was once so very worried about.
• John and I started back to work.  We survived the first days of in-service, with which I have a love-hate relationship.  I asked John too many times what time it was during the superintendent's speech, only to find that it was merely 8:30 AM at last check.  Though, I loved the African Dance Troop that performed for us.
• I managed to maintain a relative calm up to the first day of school with students.  It was an effort.  I had made a conscious decision that my anxiety and nerves were not going to get the better of me this year.  To a large degree, it worked, and I think I was able to enjoy the last days of summer more than any year prior.  However, the night before school started, I had a weird feeling and actually said to John, "I am a bit unsettled that I am not more nervous right now."  It felt foreign to not be worked up into some sort of a frenzy about the first day of school.  Well, next year I need to heighten my level of concern and find a happy medium, I believe.  Thursday morning, I was going crazy because of the things that I had neglected to be stressed about and therefore hadn't taken care of in the way that I should have.  The day with the students went off without a hitch, but it was a sprint to the starting line and there is still quite a bit to take care of behind the scenes that would normally be done by now.  You live and you learn, I suppose.  I will find my balance.
• I ran.  I wasn't sure that I would be able to keep up my running once school started (and truthfully, it was just a week, so I can't really make that generalization just yet), but I did get in my scheduled three of the five days this week.  For the first time ever, I ran instead of going out to lunch on an in-service day.  I have mixed feelings about that.  I knew that there would be no other time that day, and I am proud of myself for doing it.  BUT, I missed out on lunch with friends I haven't seen all summer.  AND I was a sweat ball for the afternoon in-service meeting.  I felt like I ran pretty quickly, but factoring in changing clothes, drive time, the five miles around the lake, drive time back, toweling off and changing back into my clothes, I was lucky to only be five minutes late to the afternoon session.  Lunch just isn't long enough. 
• I ran.  Switching to the evening runs is not proving to be easy.  Yawning on my way out the door at 6:30 AM is a kind of waking of the senses, a relatively pleasant experience.  Yawning on my way out the door at 8:00 PM after a day that began at 5:00 AM and included teaching all day and savoring every energy-filled moment of the sacred after-school time I get to spend with my kids is a different sensation altogether.  But, I did it.  We will see if I can continue to do it.
• And I ran a little more.  Last year, I ran my first 5K.  Today, I ran the same one again, and this time I did it 2 minutes faster.  A definite highlight of the week was after the race when John said, "I am proud of you." And when Cortlan said, "Great job, Mommy! I liked how you ran fast the entire time!" I am going to include the details of my finish, not for any other reason than if I don't record them, I will forget them as I did in May when I had to google search to find my time in last year's race.  But I am thrilled with my race -  I managed a 2nd place in my age division and 29th overall, with a time of 22:47.  Or maybe it was 22:46.  I have to check.

So yes, the week is over and I feel good.  And now I am going to take a nap.