BYGTWSO!-Day 48

I'm not sure I have the words right, but every year before school begins, I think of that song from The Sound of Music where she's singing to herself, "A captain with seven children, what's so...fearsome?...about that?" I'm too lazy to look it up. However, let's substitute some of the words, shall we? "A teacher with three dozen children, what's so fearsome about that?" THREE DOZEN FIFTH GRADERS! I can hardly wait to find out who they are.

Well, it's finished. Today was the last day of my summer vacation. The summer I was so worried about wasting. The summer I chose in exchange for all the blessings of being a National Park Ranger at Timpanogos Cave. It's been nothing but a gift, especially that I got to spend the whole thing with my Sweetie. For the most part, we made the best of it and enjoyed many worthwhile, wholesome, uplifting, healthy, learning opportunities. No regrets.

Today, The Last Day of Summer Vacation, I woke up late (5:40 a.m.). I studied and showered, but did not exercise. I was late to my unpaid job again (7:32 a.m.). I enjoyed working in my classroom, preparing many various things. I saw more teachers today, so the chatting was good. I left the school for lunch and then returned to meet up with four more student helpers. They helped SO much! Stayed until 6:00 p.m. and then returned home to provide dinner for my husband who is under the weather.

We had big plans to hike to the Enchanted Forest this evening, the place of our engagement, because today is THE DAY we got engaged eight years ago! And then we were going to stop by Bat Night at Hanging Rock to see all the rangers. But no, not when someone is sick. So, I headed to the pool around 8:00 p.m. and swam for an hour after first removing the heavy patio chair located at the bottom of the pool. Some people! The water was lovely and no one else was there. It felt so good to move and stretch and breathe hard and feel my muscles working, especially since I didn't exercise before school this morning.

After swimming, K surprised me with a frozen Snickers ice cream bar hidden in the freezer. Awww...he remembered! That was our celebration.

I never once counted ahead to see how many summer vacation days I would actually have. I just took them one at a time, not knowing there would be 48 blog posts. But 48 is the magic number. I've got a response waiting for the next time I hear someone say, "But you get the whole summer off!" I may say, "Actually, it's 48 days--I counted! I freely choose to spend some of those days working at school without pay. Why would I do that?" I wonder where the conversation would go from there.

Tomorrow, I work for pay. Well, during contract hours. The work before and after that is still unpaid. And yet, it's a profession full of blessings, not money. I guess I'll stick with the blessings--they've brought me this far! Farewell, Dear Summer! Farewell.