During the past two weeks, my school district took winter break. We finished up finals and the students vacated the premises of the school building. Before leaving, I tried my hardest to finish up grading.

Impossible.

However, I made a considerable dent in the stack and entered as many grades as possible. I even posted grades for four of my classes–before leaving for break.

Breakthrough!

The weekend before Christmas, I finished grading the papers and posted the remaining two classes’ grades. This meant that I had NO grading to do for the rest of the break. This has never happened before in my 13 years of teaching. (I just finished my 13th year of teaching! I was a mid-termer and was fortunate enough to find employment mid-year.) I always had a lot of grading to do over break, sometimes because of poor planning on my part, sometimes because of bad luck, and sometimes because I procrastinated–usually because of the first and third reasons. Bad luck is usually a symptom of the first and third reasons.

This year, I planned better; I was lucky; and I didn’t procrastinate.

As a result, I spent time with my kids and family, read books, watched an entire Netflix series, cleaned, caught up on laundry (which is another rarity in the Morgetron household), went to THREE movies, IN A THEATER (big deal in Morgetron land), played with my dogs, hung out with my chickens, helped my husband deliver firewood, created a flyer and business cards for our new business, and I did so without the distraction of a task left undone, looming over my conscience.

As a result, I feel refreshed and I will be a better teacher this semester.

That which feeds the soul, clears the path for bigger tasks.

My cup runneth over.