ME Time

School has begun. This is the way it's going to be. There seems to be no time for ME. I squeeze in showers here and there, but other than that, I can't seem to get the time to do much of anything else for me...including blogging.

The schedule is crazy. Up at 4:30, put coffee on, find clothes for the day, (iron, if necessary), get myself ready, Ji up at 5:30, Zack at 6:00. Lunches to be packed, practice clothes, homework, lesson plans to be gathered. (All the while, trying to get enough coffee in me to actually wake up.) Out the door at 6:30 with much prodding, poking, yelling and threatening. It appears that neither of my teenagers is ready or willing to get out the door by 6:30. Drop them off at their bus stop, and then on through the morning traffic to school. I leave my school at 4:00, pick Ji up from volleyball practice at4:30, Zack from soccer at 5:00, face afternoon traffic and get home at about 5:45. Everyone is hungry, so dinner prep, eating and clean up until around 7:00. Zack usually has the computer until 9:00 and by that time, I'm at the point of exhaustion that I don't even want to sign on.

This past week we had something going several evenings. Monday was homegroup, Tuesday "back to school" night at their school, Thursday "back to school" night at my school, Friday volunteer appreciation dinner for church. Wednesday, the only night we would actually have had a free evening, my car broke and had to call friend (thank goodness my friends have great husbands). Car was towed, ($300 plus to fix it), they fixed us dinner and loaned us a car for a few days, but free evening was GONE.

One teenager (my own) was a handful...taking on another goes in the "what was I thinking" category. We are definitely having adjustments. Ji is definitely a teenage girl with a mind of her own. She came thinking, well, I'm not sure what she was thinking. As long as she is getting her way, she is funny and sweet. But if she feels that she is somehow being treated unfairly, she pouts, stomps, slams...any of you who have teenage girls know what I'm talking about. She says that in Korea, teenagers go out with their friends every weekend. She is learning that in America, we make plans, ASK PERMISSION, and do this with more than 15 minutes before said 'time out with friends'. She took her packed lunches to school week one, then said she didn't want them week two. She has money on account at the school for lunches, so I figure if she's hungry she can buy lunch. But then when she was angry at me Friday night for not letting her get in a car with another Korean girl (because her mother told me I was not to do this and I don't let my own son go out in cars with kids) she got very angry and told me that she needed to go because she was hungry. (this was after wolfing down a Big Mac, large fries, apple pie and large coke). I told her that there was plenty in the house to eat and she yelled, "YOU DON'T GIVE ME LUNCH!" Aaaugh. I'm sure she has relayed this information to her parents, but since they don't speak English, I haven't heard from them.

Zack, in the meantime, well, can't say much there except that some information was found out while he was at his Dad's last weekend and he is grounded for at least 2 weeks. No phone, no myspace...so every evening this week, he has spent at least 1 hour (sometimes more) pleading for just an hour...he doesn't take no for an answer. I guess he thinks he will wear me down. It is a bit like chinese water torture...drip, drip, drip. But, so far, I haven't given in OR physically caused him harm.

The good news...I love them both and am praying my way through it. I LOVE my new students and the school. The kids actually thank me when they leave class and I have gotten some great compliments from other faculty and parents.

I am going to work on finding ME time. It is necessary. When I give up ME time, I give up ME and GOD time as well and that makes things 100 times worse. I need to put aside whatever time I can for time with God...I do most of my praying on the way to school and on the way home...but usually on the way to school I am praying away the frustration of the morning.

All that being said, I also have to find blog time. It's cathartic, and something I really enjoy. I'm hoping things start settling into routine more and start falling into a fairly even rythm. That's my goal for this week.

Hope things are well with you.