Looking for a new trick...

I'm entering one of those periods in my life when there's just way more going on than you can hold in your head at one moment. End of the school year is often this way (luckily, the only thing that really helps you get through it is knowing that summer vacation is just a few short weeks away), but this year I'm coupling that with being the staff representative in a school environment that just keeps getting more complicated and less put-together (that is putting it very nicely) and I'm getting married in less than six weeks (which just really hit me on Monday when we filled out our application).

The point is, my organization and patience usually really pay off in times like this. The strategy I've developed for myself over the years is to make lots of lists - one for every day of the week, every week of the month, etc. - and then to follow them religiously. If something is not on my list that day, I'm not allowed to even think about it. I really pick everything apart, focus on one task at a time and then move on to the next.

Sadly, in LV, this strategy doesn't really work. I'll tell you why. Just because I put something on my list for that day or week, does not mean that it's going to get done when I have scheduled myself to focus on it. Point and case, we STILL have not been able to meet with the people from restaurant where the wedding reception will be. She doesn't answer her phone or she's too busy to talk or she's not working on the days when we are available etc, etc, etc. Now anywhere else in the world, I would've panicked a long time ago, totally put this place out of my mind as unacceptable for such an important event and moved on. But see, here that is just normal. It won't be any better anywhere else we go, so we just deal with it.

Now I ask you, how is a person supposed to keep sane at a time like this??

While I am organized, I am also flexible. Extremely and extraordinarily flexible. This is the name of the game of being a teacher, a preschool teacher in particular. You can have the best and most interesting lesson planned, but if A tell B he doesn't want to be her friend so she starts sobbing, and C sneezes and blows glowsticks from her nose at the same moment that D has to run to the bathroom (and gets angry at himself in the process, because "why does my pee have to come so fast and all the time?????" - true story - and then doesn't make it to the bathroom on time because he was so busy getting angry at his pee), meanwhile X, Y and Z are playing spiderman again so they are running around the room like maniacs dropping into the spiderman pose.......then yes, you learn a bit of flexibility.

But this whole thing of not being able to make lists and stick to them, is just too much for me to handle....my brain gets too full.

If anyone has any suggestions, I am so very open.

Until then, yeah, let me get back to that list I had written for tonight. Writing on my blog definitley wasn't on that list.....