Some thoughts on dealing with life stress.




If you haven’t heard from me recently, or haven’t seen my most recent posts, I can safely say that life is currently hectic.

Now, please understand, this is not meant to be a gripe session, because most if not all of my HECTIC is done by choice. Sometimes the choice was made a long time ago, and I am just carrying on. Other times, it is a choice based on belief or principle, and it dictates what happens as things come up.

And, as I have told my kids at home and my kids at school, griping about things you have the privilege of changing is not only pointless, it is also really annoying. You know…..If you’re not going to trouble yourself to vote, don’t be the most vocal complainer when you don’t like how things turn out.

Anyway, back to busy. I have been spending an average of 2-3 hours per day away from home, and away from school, while I access the internet to do research and readings for my UALR classes. (AVERAGE) things on the farm have been pretty normal, which means some days go with no glitches, and other days something breaks, and I add hours to my busy-ness. My church responsibilities don’t usually add a lot of time concerns, unless there are training meetings, or temple trips (like last week, which by the way, was a great day), but there are always concerns running around in my head. Trying to stay on top of my needs for Conway is a challenge. I have been assigned to do morning hall duty from 7:30-8, as a trade off for being allowed to leave early to go to UALR. I monitor the north hallway 5 days a week, so that I can leave early on 2. Major downside: I am not allowed to access the internet (even though we have a wifi server, teachers are rarely allowed access), hauling a desk back and forth would take far more time than it is worth, in terms of being able to grade, and it gives me about 4 minutes to get ready for my students, unless I choose to get here by 7 am. Problem with that is it requires me to leave the house by 5:45.

That leaves me with my prep period, and 3 days a week after school. So of course the conflict is, Monday Tuesday and Friday, do I spend the extra hours for Conway schools, or do I use the time to go access the internet at the library, so that I can stay on top of UALR, and still have a few minutes with my family?

That has been the crux of my hectic schedule. Although I am doing it all from this computer, if I am sitting at the school in Conway, I still cannot access the internet. So anything internet related that I do at the high school has to be transferred to this computer. At least this one has pretty much all I need, so my time at wifi hotspots can be as productive as I need to make it. This thing is pretty fast.

As I was driving home the other night, after one of those 3 day periods where nothing seemed to go right, I was feeling really stressed. I had been behind because I had not been able to get out and do homework at all over the weekend. Monday, I had stayed at the library to the last minute, and then met Michelle and the boys at their Scout meeting in Heber Springs. I have signed on as assistant Scoutmaster with troop 200, where the boys are working toward Eagle, since Batesville doesn’t have an active troop. Tuesday, I was working at the Library, and the thunderstorms moving through were not only making me nervous, as the lightning was striking really close, but it also kept knocking out the wifi server. I ended up typing nearly 4 paragraphs on something before I realized that I was no longer online. That was my German Blog for class.



Anyway, this is getting long, and I did have a point: As I was driving home from my Wednesday class/homework session at 10:30, feeling very stressed, a song came on the radio at just the right moment. I don’t know the artist, but I know Liz will recognize it. The chorus was good advice for me at that moment of stress: “You can’t jump the tracks, we’re like cars on a cable, life’s like an hour glass glued to the table, no one can find the rewind button now, so cradle your head in your hands, and..Breathe, just Breathe, come on breathe….”

I felt better, and life will go on, life will continue to be hectic, but when it gets out of control, take this advice: Just breathe!