tired

It's funny how your brain works.  I am so inexpressibly tired.  Every part of me is tired, and I just want to lie down and sleep and rest and vegetate for weeks.  My brain has been telling me, "Just get to the end of term.  You can do it, you're almost there!"  It has been telling me that somehow things will slow down and there will be a chance to catch my breath.  Now it is the night before graduation.  Today was the last day of classes.  The term is ending, and tomorrow we will have a celebration and our students will leave and the College will be very quiet and uninhabited for the better part of the next 4 months.  And yet, suddenly, I have realized that this is just the beginning!  I am tired now, and somehow I don't think that's going to change.  Why was I ever thinking it was going to change?  After the graduation, I have to finish writing our newsletter, and send it.  I have to write a column about the graduation on behalf of the College.  I have loads of baking I need to do to finish up the flour, sugar, oats, etc. in my cupboards before we leave the house for 4 months!  I still have organizing and scrubbing and cleaning to do to prepare my house for our absence so that everything is clean and orderly while we are away.  I have one week to do all these things and more.  And then when we get to the UK... no, things are not going to slow down there.  David will be preaching twice every Lord's Day, plus we will have mid-week meetings as well, and reports to give for the College.  Traveling throughout the country, visiting as many friends as possible, navigating by bus and train again... it will be a busy time.  Then we will go to the States.  More travel, more speaking engagements, more preaching, more visiting.  And then, after a few weeks, yes, things will finally "slow down."  For me, at least!  David will still be preaching and reporting in churches, plus preparing his College lectures and working on administration.We will be settled in one place, with family.  Awaiting the birth of our second child!  After the birth... recovery.  That takes time.  A newborn.  A new schedule.  A toddler who will have to get used to the idea of a brand new sibling occupying Mama and Daddy's attention!  There will be preparations to make - clothes to sort through, shopping for things to take back to Zambia, all sorts of paperwork.  Baby's birth certificate, baby's new passport, baby's plane ticket.  And then, more international travel, this time with two children in tow, one of them only a few weeks old.  Back to Scotland in the dead of winter... traveling the length and breadth of the country... more preaching and reporting.  More visiting with dear friends and supporters. More gathering of supplies.  And then at the end of it all, our return to the College. Another international flight with our young ones.  Readjusting to our previous life which will be all new.... new baby, new routine, learning how to do things with my hands full, always.  Hot weather after 4 months of cold and coats and snow! The start of a busy new term, February 2012.

Yes, somehow my brain tricked me into thinking that things are about to slow down now that the term has ended!  :)  So my mantra is: "Take it one day at a time."