I did not want to do my lesson plans tonight. I started anyway. As I pulled up my email and opened my books I became increasingly overwhelmed with this week: editing that movie of my students for Open House, that chapter I need to read before Wednesday's professional development, assessments, planning, centers, visitors coming two days this week, preparing for observations, little tasks to complete, and maybe finding the time to actually teach.

I began to have a brief dilemma minor meltdown. Do I work too much? My house is collecting dust, my garden is pleading for grooming, and a pile of laundry the size of Mt. Everest has been waiting for folding or ironing for well over a month. Has this taken over my life?  How will I keep up? Oh right, and my car needs an oil change. And Adam's car. Am I boring? When will I have time to do anything else? Will this job ever get easier? And I need to go to the grocery store again. Why did I take on more responsibilities at work? It's 9:30pm Sunday and my lesson plans are not done. Is this really what I want to be doing with my life?

Then I remembered: A student brought me an apple this week.
This sweet little girl.
This sweet girl with big, bright eyes and braided pigtails.

Yes. This is exactly where I am supposed to be. I have 21 children depending on me to teach them, encourage them, inspire them.

Whew.

I should probably finish those lesson plans.