Category: busy

One Step at a Time

On By LarissaNapolitanIn busy, God's plan, teaching, wisdom1 Comment

My senior year of college, I had a lot of things going on.  I was an Resident Assistant, taking a full load of education and theater classes, leading a bible study, and was highly involved in a campus ministry, on top of that was dealing with slight depression.  (Okay, now that I type it out, it doesn’t seem like that much compared to now, but at the time it was a lot.)

I have this distinct memory of driving back from a leadership meeting with one of my best friends and now roommate.  We were both overwhelmed with life and still unsure of what our futures held.  We had senioritis but were no where near close to then end college.  We had to make decisions regarding the next year, but didn’t know what to do first.

Then this song came on and it became our anthem for the year.

You wanna show the world but no one knows your name yet 
Wonder when and where and how you’re gonna make it 
You know you can if you get the chance 
 In your face and the door keeps slamming
 
Now you’re feeling more and more frustrated 
And you’re getting all kind of impatient, waiting 
We live and we learn to take
 
One step at a time there’s no need to rush 
It’s like learning to fly or falling in love 
It’s gonna happen and it’s supposed to happen 
That we find the reasons why, one step at a time
This song echos something that my mother (oh, she is a wise one!) says to me often! It doesn’t always translate directly with a large to do list, but I think it is important to live the life you have now and not get to far ahead of yourself.

One thing at a time! 
As I begin my 4th year of teaching, I am overwhelmed at all the things that I have going on in my life, whether it be the commitments at school, or grad school, or at church, or just maintaining my relationships with my friends.  I have to remember to take one thing  at a time.  Then the future, my to do list, don’t seem so daunting, overwhelming or frustrating.  
Most of these things are good and I want to do them, and perhaps I over commit to things, but still the only way to get through is take on one thing a time.
Yes, I have a lot of things on my plate right now, but the best thing that I can do is take one thing at a time, start somewhere or I will never get anywhere. 
Anyone else like me and get overwhelmed with life?  What other things do you tell yourself when things get to be too much? Do you have an anthem that you sing when you are stressed out?

Busy, Busy, Busy

On By LarissaNapolitanIn busy, caffeine, lists, mexico, talent show, teaching2 Comments

These next 3 weeks of my life are going to be pretty busy. Here’s a list to help you understand a little bit of what is going on in my life for the next month or so.

1. My 2nd year of teaching ends in 9 days. I thought surviving my first year was a feat, but somehow this year seemed a little more difficult. Every year we have to make changes and try to defeat the odds and make progress with a new group of students.

However, in the next 9 days, I need to get students caught up on all their missing work, help them finish their end of unit projects, and grade 127 projects and give a final test. (EEK!) They are having fun making them! I just have to get my classroom cleaned up after they are done!

2. Talent show- somehow I took the initiative to put on a talent show again this year. I forgot how much work it is. Not that I don’t have help, but it is still a lot of work and I have to be after school 3 days this week for afternoon rehearsals and performances. But I don’t do it for me, I do it for the kids that are extremely talented and need a chance to show it off!

3. Throwing a Bachelorette party!- One of my best friends, favorite people, and kindred spirit is getting married and I am throwing her a bachelorette party in my city and at my apartment. Great idea, except in between teaching and grading and talent showing, I need to clean my apartment so people can stay there. However, I am looking forward to hanging out and having a girls’ night out! 4. Packing and preparing to travel to Mexico for my brother’s wedding!- I am starting my summer out with bang, a vacation with my family to Mexico for a wedding. I am a tad nervous because some of my family is not as familiar with traveling and there are a lot of factors to this sort of travel. I have gotten a dress, some swim suits, and now I just need to get some essentials. I am missing some teacher workdays to go, so that means I have to have everything done before I leave. (In fact, thinking about it makes me want to stop writing this post and make a to do list.)

5. Being a maid of honor and marrying off best friend, favorite person and kindred spirit- Just a few days after returning to the US, I am in a wedding of the same beautiful friend. I have to work 1 day, then pack again and driving 3 hours to Salina, KS and witness another beautiful event.


Those are just the big things. There are a lot of little details and small things to do to get me through these next couple of weeks.

Here are 5 things that are going to get me through.
1. Caffeine!
2. The fact that I look A-mazing in my dress for Mexico and my bridesmaid dress. (60 pounds down…20ish more to go!!)
3. I get to lay on a beach in MEXICO!
4. School is almost out for the year and then I have SUMMER!!!!
5. The grace of God. I am bound to make some mistakes in the next 3 weeks, and I am going to need lots of grace!

What do you have going on in the next 3 weeks? Are you busier than me? Or am I to be jealous of you?