Done

One of my mother's favorite words/phrases, as in, "Well, I got that done." We in the Finch Family like to "get things done," "checked-off our list," "project accomplished." Tonight, however, I'm an entirely different kind of "done." It is the day before final exams begin and I'm exhausted-- mentally, physically, even a bit spiritually tired. It has been a really great teaching semester--although I would guess that my family would argue that it hasn't been the best mommy semester ever.

 I am deeply convicted that I am a better mom because I teach--God called me to this vocation, and I think it important that my kids see me fulfill that gift. I also am deeply thankful everyday that I have the kind of career that places me squarely in the middle of my kid's lives everyday--we have the same schedules, I know their teachers, I understand how their school district "works"--and even one day, we'll all land at the same building together and it will be totally uncool that their mom could be their teacher--or at the very least, their friends' teacher. But. Does all of that make-up for the hours I spend every evening grading and reading and planning--when I could be playing with them? Or, if I am playing with them, my mind is not always in the present . . . I'm ruminating over a new idea for a lesson, or running through how to handle situations within my department, or, or, or. On a good day, or for that matter, almost every day, I know in a very clear, "the-spirit-is-moving-kind-of-way" that this is the life for us. But on December 15th, when I've just poured myself into 5 months of other kids' lives, I am grateful that in three days I will have a few weeks with my boys to become "undone."