Slump

Last week was my first slump of the school year.

I'm going to change it up and explain this in swimming terms.

By the end of high school, my favorite event to swim was the 500. This was the longest event at the high school level, lasting 20 lengths of the pool, and up to 10 minutes, depending on the swimmer. I wasn't that fast and I usually averaged around 6:40.

The gun fires and you leave the starting block, entering the cool crisp water, heart racing with excitement and anticipation, glad that your goggles didn't fall off, checking out where the other girls are in the pool, hoping that your counter buddy at the end of the pool remembers to flash you the right number. You hit the first turn hard, legs are still fresh, blood still racing. At the end of the second/third length, you quickly remember that you are not a sprinter and that your race is not over yet, you pull up. At the end of length 6, you start to feel the excitement wear off. Your heart settles down, you acknowledge that you still have 14 lengths to go, you buckle down and make the decision to stay with it until the end, you pace yourself, you breathe, you stay focused, you find your groove and you go.

We just finished week 9 of 36 for the school year. I'm about to make the turn into lap 6. My initial excitement and energy about this school year has worn off. I am no longer running on the buzz of hearing the starting gun. The jitters are gone. I know my kids. They know me. The first report card has already come. Reality has set in. We're settling down, we've got a long way to go, we're getting into the groove.

It was just a challenging transition week for me. I'm starting to feel the pressure of a busy schedule. I slept for 9 hours last night and woke up feeling like I could have slept for a couple more. I love what I get to do. But because I get to do it so much, it starts to feel like a chore. So when I woke up this morning, I got all ready to go to a yoga class but I was running late. I was torn. I was looking forward to a class with my favorite teacher, someone I don't get to see that often since my advanced studies program started. But, I didn't want to walk into the class after it already started so I just stayed home. I did my own practice for ~75 minutes and decided I would work on some inversions. To my surprise and great relief, I put myself into a handstand all by myself for the first time ever. I was never the gymnastic type as a girl. I hated even the easy things like cartwheels or forward rolls! As soon as I was up, I yelled for Grant to come see me, hoping he'd get there before I lost my balance (even though I was against the wall). He was proud and also relieved because after today he won't have to help me anymore.

So it was a drag of a week. I could tell I needed a change of pace. So I will now regularly add unassisted hand stands to my home practice and the world will look different.

New pictures from this week... HERE