God really does have a sense of humor..

Yes, I'm still alive :)

This first month of school has been busy beyond belief, and I've been a little stressed out lately.  Ok.  A lot stressed out!  I was dealing really well, believing it would all lighten up after a few weeks.  This and the fact that I love my job  made the 11-12 hour days tolerable.  Along with the dreams I've had every night about still being at work.  I was really impressed with myself for the amount of patience and perserverance that I'd had!  It helped me to realize that I'm a much stronger person than I'd given myself credit for!

But toward the end of last week my optimism began to wear thin. And yesterday managed to disappear for a bit.  While I hate admitting it for fear that I'll be looked at as weak, I'm doing so for a reason.  Today God showed me his awesome sense of humor and reminded me that he's always here to help me through whatever I'm dealing with.  All I have to do is ask.

Well, beg is actually a more appropriate description of what I did...

While getting ready this morning I listened to a Charles Stanley podcast like I normally do, hoping to hear some great inspiration to help me make it through another day.  Nothing really struck me though, until I walked out my door.  It had been such a rainy, yucky morning that I hadn't been able to run, but as I turned from locking the door a certain patch of bright blue sky caught my attention.  It was such a contrast to the gray and gloom all around, and I was somewhat mesmerized by it.  I felt almost as if it was God's way of telling me that everything was going to be ok.  After a minute of standing there in awe, I headed out for work.  On the way I began to ask for peace and the ability to show kindness and concern for all of my kids, and not to feel overwhelmed.  I also began to beg.  "Please don't let today be like yesterday.  Please don't let the kids come in non-stop.  Please let me be able to get a break and focus on some of the other work I need to get done.  Keep them in class today.  PLEASE!!!". And at this point I found myself laughing and yelling out loud because laughter truly is the best stress relief.  And sometimes so is yelling.  :).  "PLEASE!"

And guess what happened?  I had a rather quiet morning with only a few sick kids.  I was able to get some work done other than giving out band-aids and checking temperatures (no that's really not all that I do), and at 1 pm the whole school lost power.  For about 2 hours.  The kids stayed in class thanks to all of the excitement, forgetting that they were sick and needed to see the nurse!  And I got lots of work done thanks to my laptop's fully charged battery :). 

I'm convinced that my begging had something to do with this, and that God really does have a great sense of humor.  It turned out to be a wonderful day :)