~and it couldn't hurt to try it, you know?~

I've been practicing the fine art of napping during the course of the last couple of weeks of Christmas vacation.  In fact, I've been taking a nap every single day.  So far, it's been working out pretty well for me.  It seemed kind of silly at first, this thought of stopping what ever it was that I might have been doing at the time and lying down to rest.  But I did it anyways and it is with some degree of regret that I realize something.

Tomorrow's gonna hurt a little bit.

I've never been one to get enough sleep for the better part of my life.  I used to the think that sleep and rest were a huge waste of time.  I would lie there and think of all the things that I could be doing, would be doing, or should be doing if I only weren't trying to sleep.  

No more.  Those days are gone.

All of us, me included and right at the top of the list, take on way too much these days.  We plow forward with super human effort and the very best of intentions, only to wear ourselves out to the point of almost making ourselves sick.  It appears that losing weight or getting in shape are at the top of many folks' resolutions for 2016.  I think mine is going to be the desire to allow myself to rest more from time to time without feeling guilty.

It couldn't hurt to try it, you know?

The day around here begins pretty early, especially on school days.  I like to get up at 4 to have at least a bit of time to think, reflect, and get myself together.  I leave the house before 6 a.m. in order to make the nearly 30 mile drive to school.  I get there about 6:30 where I have the chance to do a little bit more thinking and planning for the day.  By 7:30 the buses have begun arriving and by the time I make it over to the cafeteria, the happy sounds of children talking and laughing can be heard.   The day begins.

By the time I make the drive home from school it is usually about 4:30 or so before I arrive back here.  When 8:00 rolls around each evening, I'm thinking it's time to start getting my pajamas on.  Shortly before 9 I head to bed, well that it is I haven't already fallen asleep in my recliner in front of the TV first. 

I found a photo over this break that I'd kind of forgotten about.  It shows a much younger version of me, taken in January of 1979.  I was nearly finished with my college classes and would be graduating in May.  I looked at the person that I used to be and somehow wished that if I could go back in time and whisper just one bit of advice to her, then it would be this.

"You are young now but some day you will be a whole lot older.  Learn to take care of yourself.  Get some rest.  Don't think you have to do everything.  Never be afraid to ask for help when things get a little overwhelming.  Love yourself and remember you are here for a reason.  Life will be good."

Good advice for the young woman I used to be.  
Still good advice for the older woman that I have now become.
Hey come to think of it~
It will probably work for you as well.

Happy Sunday everyone!  Back to school tomorrow.  It might be the end of naps as I have known them, but that's ok.  I need to be with children and there will be a whole bunch of them waiting on me.  There is no other place that I would rather be tomorrow than right there with them.

From a long, long time ago~My old friends from my days of being a teaching assistant in the learning disabilities room at Haven Grade School. Later on I would graduate and my first official teaching assignment would be there at Haven.  It was a wonderful experience to be able to go back and teach at the very same elementary school that I attended as a child.  

I practiced the art of napping using the warm lap robe that my 1st graders from last year at Olathe Elementary made for me.  It was the sweetest of things to receive it from them on the very last morning of school.  Their little handprints and names are emblazoned on the front of it.  Their old teacher loves them still.