life lately.
Hello friends! Oh, how I have missed my blog! I feel like I have so much going on in my life right now, but I simply just don’t have the time to sit down and write about it. So, hopefully I’ll cover everything in a nutshell in this post.
I’m trying to take a fairly laid back approach with my blog during this busy season. Last year, I felt so incredibly guilty about not blogging and tried to continue to keep up with it while also doing some sponsored posts at the same time. And it totally stressed me out. I just had way too much going on and wasn’t putting forth my best work in anything I was doing (blog, family, work, etc). This year, I’ve decided not to take on any sponsored posts or products since I know I can’t dedicate the time I need to for them. I’m also trying not to feel guilty for not blogging. I LOVE my blog, but I also don’t want it to be a source of stress. I have plenty of other things to worry about that are much more important and if I have a chance to blog, I’ll sit down and write a post. But, it’s last on the priority list right now. Hopefully ya’ll understand. I’ll try to drop in as much as I can but until the end of October, my posting will be few and far between. You will mostly get sporadic posts about what’s going on in my life, sort of like today’s post!
So, what’s been going on in life lately?
Work.
The first day of school with kids was August 14. It’s amazing how much more confident I feel this year with my teaching than I did last year as a first year teacher. We’re not much more than a week into school but so far, I really love my classes and the schedule we have this year. I’m teaching 6th + 8th grade P.E., an 8th grade Exercise and Fitness elective, and 7th grade health. We get new kids every 6 weeks which I think I will really enjoy. I’m sure by the end of the year, I will be sick of teaching the same lessons over and over, but at least it will break things up nicely. I feel like my classroom management is much better this year and I am actually going into each class feeling like I know what I’m doing. It’s still early but I think it’s going to be a good year!
Volleyball is also underway now. It is by far the best part of my work day! Tryouts started on the 12th and we ended up having about 40 girls tryout for the team. We only ended up cutting 10 girls, giving us a very large freshman team (12 girls). But, I’m so excited about how are teams are looking this year! My varsity team is so talented and have the potential to really go far this year, but we just need to get all the puzzle pieces to fall in place correctly. I know what we need to do in order to win and I’m hoping I can really push some of these girls out of their comfort zones so we can win our conference and hopefully districts as well. We have a pre-season scrimmage Tuesday with a few of our rival schools, so we will get a good gauge on what we need to work on for the season. Our season officially begins the day after Labor Day. I’m so ready to get the season underway but I feel like I have so much more I want to engrain into them before we really start getting into our competitions. I’m also not sure I’m ready to have less time at home than I do now…
Home Life.
The past 2 weeks have been rough for me. Yes, the school year and volleyball season have been going well, but I just don’t feel like I have enough time at home with my family. And I’m coming home absolutely exhausted. I get about 30 minutes in the morning with MacKenna and on a good day, I can spend about an hour and a half with her before we put her to bed. Most days, only an hour in the evening. I miss her like crazy and have been really trying to spend my weekend time playing with her. And I can tell that she understands that I’m not at home as much this year – there are many days where she won’t let me put her down in the morning. It’s definitely the worst part about being a working mom.
We are still in the process of getting our house ready to sell. Matt and I have both been so busy that things have stalled a bit. All of the big things are finished (woohoo for having a deck we can enjoy!), but we still have plenty of cleaning we need to do before we feel like we will be ready. Honestly, I’ve been stressing more about how to keep our house clean once it is actually on the market than I am about actually getting everything done. I don’t think either of us are really in a hurry anymore to list it, but we are hoping that we will be ready to sell soon.
Running and Training.
I never thought I would say this but I actually sort of miss triathlon training. But, I don’t miss the fact that it definitely slowed me down quite a bit. I’ve been trying to get in some speed work the past 2 weeks and I’m already starting to see my paces getting better. It’s always my goal to get faster, so I’m trying to get back to where I was back in May and hopefully even drop a few more seconds on my 5K time.
Currently, I’m training for 2 different races that are totally new to what I’ve trained for in the past. My big race this fall is actually a half marathon relay that I’m doing with my brother. I’m so excited about it and I think we will do really well in it! I’m also training for a pedal and pound race – a 7.6 mile race that you do with a partner, one biking and one running. You can switch off as many times as you want but just have to finish the race together. I am doing that one with my friend who let me borrow her bike for the tri. Both races should definitely be fun!
With school in full swing now, my workouts are now at 4 AM – which is mostly why I am exhausted since I am usually up working until 10 PM. But, working out at that time is the only way I can fit it in, and it actually helps wake me up a bit. My training schedule is sketched out but it seems to be constantly changing to fit my needs. I’m sort of just going with the flow right now, which is nice, but I really like to have more structure. I’m not getting nearly as much strength training in as I would like, and I’m sort of just hoping I can handle the bike part of the pedal and pound without actually training for it (biking is not my priority right now – I’ll start tri training again this winter probably), but I’m hoping this will just help with my speed and get me ready for some 5K and/or 10K races.
Other than that, I’m just trying to keep my eyes open most days. I’m not exactly stressed, just so very tired. The end of October cannot come soon enough! Until then, I’ll be busy with my head in volleyball drill books, stressing out over our games, and missing my little girl like crazy!
What’s going on in your life lately? Anyone training for something really fun?