Mid Week Slump

As I do too often, I went to bed quite late last night. It was a productive night, I’d gotten my nails done, gone to the gym, painted, wrote, did a load of laundry and watered plants, but then I got texting with a friend, checked in with another friend who is grieving, took a shower and got into bed too late and too wired.

My alarm was a rude awakening…literally! I was exhausted! Typically, once I get out of bed and get moving, I’m fine, but I was sluggish all day. I also was a bit short on patience for the kids, though I mostly kept it to myself. Wednesdays are an early dismissal for the kids and then the teachers have meetings or training or work to do. These days seem like a day and a half. We also had two assemblies, so it was hard to get much done and the kids fed off the disruption in schedule and were very unfocused.

They did, however, put on three great shows for each other. Each group performed a fable and took audience suggestions for the lessons. Then we had an amazing South African author speak to the kids, sign autographs and read aloud to them. Her name means Give to me is a flower. She has spent her life trying to live up to her name. She encouraged the audience to tell their stories, which of course I love! She had such great energy, which I loved!

At recess, the 4th and 5th graders covered our sidewalk in chalk smileys. That was a great moment! It was Mother Tongue day, celebrating and encouraging the world’s people to keep their native languages, even while acquiring new ones. The message was powerful and necessary. The kids had decorated the doors with the word hello written in their native language. The assembly included a fun quiz that four members of each “house” competed in.

After school, our Sunshine Committee had a small luncheon for us with some delicious eats. Eunine had to run an errand, so she grabbed us coffee and tea since our team couldn’t go on our weekly coffee walk.

After school, my three colleagues and I hit the padel court for some good practice and a game. I had to play single on my side for over half an hour until Eunine came. It was a blast! I am really enjoying the sport.

The padel court is next to my gym, so I walked over and got a delicious salad from the cafe there. I relaxed a bit and then tried out a strength training class upstairs. It was crowded and not as strenuous or long as my Les Mills classes, but I missed the camaraderie, accountability and energy of group classes. The instructor was nice and helped me set up when I told him I was new. He had so much energy despite just having taught a kickboxing class for an hour! I was a little light with the weights for the first time until I knew what to expect, but I will definitely go higher next time. There’s a similar class on Mondays, so Eunine and I might start going to that. And maybe Stephanie or Avishkar since they can come for free as my gym buddy. I’ve been eating protein bars since arriving in country, trying to focus on those with less sugar. But not knowing the conversions that well, I really don’t know how I’m doing. I passed on most of the gluten and dairy offerings at the luncheon, but let myself have the feta in tonight’s salad.