"Children are a blessing to be enjoyed"

When dealing with kids, sometimes you have to encourage yourself.

After threatening to "slap the black off you," "knock you into the middle of next week," or "slap the taste out of your mouth," my mom would simply pray out loud: "Jesus, keep me near the cross!"

My sister and brother and I would then know she was on edge, and we were usually smart enough to back off.

These days, my go-to line is more of an affirmation: "Children are a blessing to be enjoyed."

It's one of the many sayings I've learned from listening to Joel Osteen on satellite radio. Taken from Psalm 127:3, it reminds me that no matter how far my girls have gone, how much they are weighing on my last nerve, I need to be thankful for them. Saying it aloud helps me remember to not get worked up over little things.

Hearing it aloud alerts my children that they are "skating on thin ice." Hearing me chant it multiple times further drives the point home.

I found myself saying it at school a few times last year, usually with my eyes closed in a mock yoga pose. While the students chuckled, I seized the moment to remind myself that all children are blessings to be enjoyed -- even other people's kids.

My plan to NOT lose sleep

NerdyTeacherMom has only 17 more days of summer.

I envision my colleagues enjoying themselves, stress-free. I see them reclined at the pool or at their beach houses. I picture them in their home theaters with their feet up surfing the Netflix menu. I assume many on on their decks sipping out of wine glasses and chatting with their friends.

Why such imagines? Everybody at school seems to talk about spending weeks on the Eastern Shore or Delaware beaches. I, on the other hand, run around my house telling kids to stop bickering and wondering how Chic-Fil-A and Costco manage to pop up so frequently on my account statement.

And I'm already losing sleep over the school year that hasn't started. Of late, the routine is to wake up around 2:30 a.m., go to the bathroom, get back in bed, think about all the things I have to do.

After losing good sleep on three nights this week alone, I've developed an action plan. I've decided to devote 2-3 hours each day until school starts getting myself ready for school. This is a lot easier said than done, but that's the goal. During this designated time, I will do the following:

• Plan out time table for the entire year for Spanish 1 and Spanish 2. After all, college courses spell out the semester with a syllabus. It can't be that hard. Yet, after 11 years of teaching, I have yet to do this. Will this year be different? Yes! Of course it will. 
• Plan out Spanish Club activities for the entire year.
• Organize my units and resources for both courses on Canvas, the instructional management software our school district is using. (And pray that after doing all of that, the district won't switch to a different system and waste all of my time.)
• Read up on classroom management and assessment strategies.
• Come up with more games to play in class this year.

Of course, that's just the stuff related to school. I have another whole to-do list for home-related tasks that I need to complete before returning to work. That's on paper, and it's about two lined-pages full. But I need to add one more thing: Get some ZzzQuil. (Just in case!)