Sunday, April 15, 2012

Too Busy

I'm not sure what it is, but Terry and I are both exhausted tonight. I know it was a long week last week, and I know we were busy yesterday and today, but we're both having trouble keeping our eyes open at 9:45 pm (actually, Terry's asleep on the couch next to me).

So this post shall be short.

Today turned out to be productive, but not in the way I had hoped. I needed to complete a lot of school-related work, and I finished only about a third of it. That's the way things go, I suppose. I also did five loads of laundry (I told you last week was busy!), cleaned our room, blogged about the weekend, and made some goodies. Later in the afternoon, I completed a 2.5-mile jog/walk over to Jenn's apartment to pick up my car, which I left there last night.

Tonight we ventured across the street to our friends' house for one more social dinner. Our friends Rox and Chris (and their son) hosted a delicious meal for Terry, myself, and our other friend Lisa. Lisa brought her dog, Ollie, to play with Rox and Chris's dog, Bree.

Bree

Ollie


Probably best we didn't bring this guy along to play.

Chris and Rox provided a delicious meal, starting with some incredible appetizers that I failed to photograph. Chris made hummus with edamame instead of chickpeas, which was incredible. I'm definitely stealing that recipe! Along with some fresh tuna, grapes, and wine, we were half full before the real meal started.

Dinner was an Asian-inspired one the left us all super satisfied.

(Blurry!) Vegetable stir-fry

Pot stickers and meat

Noodles

Rox's amazing red velvet cupcakes - the best I've ever had!

It was a great night, and I was bummed to cut it short to come home to do the work I failed to do earlier today. Thanks to Rox and Chris for hosting, and to Ollie and Bree for providing entertainment!

This week promises to be ever so slightly less crazy than last week, but barely. I have two late nights at work and one volunteer meeting at UCLA. I honestly haven't planned out when I'll complete my workouts, and we didn't do our usual grocery shopping/menu planning for the week. It's been a little crazy around here.

I actually feel it's been too crazy lately. I like having a full schedule, but I'm pretty beat. "Mental health days" aren't exactly encouraged in the teaching profession, so I've gotta just stick it out for two more months (less, really - our school finishes June 8th this year). As much as I love my job, part of me is really looking forward to summer, because I need to slow down. I feel like I'm so busy keeping up with life that I'm not really living. My body is noticing it too; I've had several stress stomachaches in the last few days. We got to spend time with lots of friends this weekend, which was awesome, but Terry and I haven't had more than a 15-minute conversation all week! Something's gotta give.

Meanwhile, I'm going to get to sleep early tonight to be fresh for my classes tomorrow. We have lots of standardized testing this week, which provides me time to catch up on grading and to get ahead on lesson planning for the remainder of the school year. And then eventually I'll get around to all those things I've been wanting to do that really won't happen until summer, like: 
  • reading all my magazines
  • assembling and putting up my picture frame collage
  • creating our wedding scrapbook and album
  • reading about 10 books I've been trying to get to
  • cooking boeuf bourguignon a la Julia Child
  • trying restaurants we've been meaning to visit
  • sitting on the couch
  • going on picnics, hikes, and long walks
That list could go on for days. For now, I'll just try to get through one more week, and hopefully my husband and I can sit down to a meal together one night - or at least have a 20 minute conversation. :-)

What do you do to stay on top of your game when things get really busy? 

Do you prefer being busy or more relaxed?
My brother and I are completely different on this one. My brother is the King of Relaxation and could easily spend a day watching television. I, on the other hand, always feel like I need to be doing something. Why can't there just be a happy medium?

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