Here we go again...

Last week of term.  LAST WEEK OF TERM!!!!

No, I'm not that much out of control.  Things are pretty calm in my classroom, actually. Projects have been finished without any hectic nagging, the room is tidy - I'm even redoing a display. Which reminds me... it's staring me in the face, shouting 'take me down, take me down' - I'm only half way through stripping a board of children's work before I put the new stuff up, and somehow I'd forgotten about it.

But that's symptomatic of everything else. I get up in such a rush in the morning that I only have time for the bare essentials - and that doesn't include breakfast (that comes later, when I have a break at school).  And what's bothering me is what the 'bare essentials' are.

Washing. Brushing teeth and hair. Moisturiser. Clothes. Earrings and necklace. Cycling to school - essential exercise.

Where is my time with God?  If I'm lucky, I read a little from the Bible or from a book out of my pile of 'good reading'.  As a church we're studying Rick Warren's 40 Days of Community, so I try to keep up with that as well.  But when do I do that?  'If I'm lucky', between necklace and cycling.

Priorities are wrong. Luck doesn't come into it. I just need to drag myself out of bed just a few moments earlier.  That's all.

Time

SOMEONE has stolen my most valuable possession from me.
Well, perhaps not the MOST valuable - thought I'm not sure. I feel a philosophical mood STEALING over me so I will resist the thief with all my might. Thieves have already stolen too much of my TIME this week.

And the worst of it is - I can't remember where I stored it or what I did with it.

One or two events stick in my memory.

I spent a happy day with my brother, his wife and two delightful tiny boys, and took my mother out for afternoon tea. I do remember all of that plesant catching up.

I came home early from school one day, with a 'putrid sore throat' as Jane Austen would have put it. An afternoon in bed gave me enough energy to return to my classroom the next morning.

I have spent much time in prayer for a friend who has just been diagnosed with a golf-ball sized tumour on one lung.

So the thieves didn't steal all of my time away, maybe - just my memory of it!

Gifts of Time

I had an unexpected gift of time this morning. We are off on holiday to Lanzarote - easier said than done. We have no easy drive or train ride to the airport: instead, we have to hop over to Gatwick from Guernsey and then check in for the flight to Arrecife.

If there are no delays we should make it. No fog, no technical problems on the aircraft, no air traffic hold-ups, no closure of the airport because the firefighters have gone off sick - again.

Travelling from our tiny island is, in many ways, as uncertain in travelling in Africa. Except that I do not fear for my life - only that I can never be sure of the time I will leave, or the time I will arrive.

This morning, we decided to try to get on the earlier flight to make sure we WOULD have plenty of time. Up at 5. Showered and breakfasted. Out to the airport. Then back home again - the flight was too full and our booking was in any case for the second flight of the day.

We were home before 7.

So now I have this unexpected gift of time which I would have spent waiting around at Gatwick. It has been wonderful.
I have skyped Catharine - up, today, as early as us.
I have caught up on friends' blogs.
I have checked my writing blog.
I have enjoyed a leisurely cappuchino.
I have thought about this precious commodity - time - and thanked God for these hours and minutes. I long to fill my thoughts with his goodness during all the time he gives me, not just now. Or then.

Half term holidays

I LOVE my job. It's tremendous fun. High energy, intense, exciting - never a dull moment.
Part of the reason I went into teaching is because one of my teachers said that every day was different. That sounded a lot more fun than an office job so, decades later, here I am.

But I LOVE the holidays. This is half term week, and it's such a pleasure. I have time.

Time to cook different meals, trying new recipes.
Time to meet up with friends for coffee and chat and talk and eat.
Time to go on long bike rides with my husband.
Time to take the dog for an exhilarating scamper on the beach.
Time to search the internet for resources to enhance my teaching.
Time to catch my breath before diving into the hectic run up to Christmas.
Time to catch up on emails.
Time to pray for my loved ones at greater length.
Time to reflect.
Time.

I LOVE having more time.

Priorities

Until yesterday, I hadn't been on here for a while. So when I clicked that little arrow/triangle thing next to the bar that shows a website URL, www.mamampira.blogspot.com was way down the drop down list which emerged.

It was interesting to see what this little laptop had been looking at.

First was my school email. There is so much going on in the last few weeks of term that I look at the school electronic calendar and check my school email from home as well. I need to be prepared: sometimes, 'stuff' happens at school and I don't manage to look first thing in the morning – usually when there really IS something urgent I should have known about.

Then was the University of East Anglia website. Ah ha, Cat has been using my computer to check up on her course work marks and exam results. (Pity I can't check up on that one as well – she's out now, so I can't ask her and satisfy my curiosity.)

I'm glad to see that www.biblegateway.com comes before www.jerseymet.gov.je . At least I have my priorities right – a God forecast (looking to see what God is saying) before the weather forecast.

Then there was www.thisisguernsey.com/ecycle . Our wonderful website for recycling unwanted items. Only been going a year or so, and 8000 items recycled. I'm hunting for unusual containers to put herbs into, so I trawl it frequently. Nothing much has come up, but I could have collected, for free, a 22foot yacht, a wireless router, a children's climbing frame, a new car tyre, a set of gym weights, kitchen units, deck chairs, light fittings and any number of furniture and furnishing items.

Then there was my hotmail address. I've had it for years but don't use it much now, so I check it infrequently. Now, it's a quick reference for messages I'm sent on www.facebook.com as well. That was the next one down.

After that, the list becomes quite garbled. Amazon and Boots (shopping). A website which helps sort out router problems (we've been having difficulty getting online). Google – I'm surprised that wasn't further up the list. I just love finding out information in seconds.

Lastly – www.magicseaweed.com, set at the Guernsey page. Instant surfing news: how good the surf is expected to be and when, the height and frequency of the waves, tide times… everything you need to know.

Interesting to see my life in terms of websites most frequently visited. It's not a true reflection – just of my relationships and activities through my laptop.

Time

I'm constantly amazed by time. How it changes. Slowly, dragging - or flashing by. Often there's no rhyme nor reason to why some things take for ever and others vanish like a flash of lightning in a puff of smoke.

It's the time of year when the pace of the treadmill is picking up. Parent meetings, after less than pleasing exam results. Some meetings called by me, others by worried parents. Reports - by next week please. Children to be put into groups for activity week coming up.

The curriculum to get through, in spite of cricket matches, concerts, art events, visiting speakers... and a pack of boys who are de-mob happy now that exams are over and summer has arrived.

The next few weeks will call for great reserves of patience, tolerance, forbearance - and energy.