Well another year is about to begin!  I am not sure how I feel about that….excited because I have so many new projects to embrace but also a tad apprehensive simply because I have so many projects to embrace!  I have done quite a lot of preparation over the holidays but it never seems to be quite enough when D-Day arrives and term starts with a vengeance!  I have been very irritable with my family over the last week and I know it is because I am feeling anxious about what lies ahead.  It is the same every year and Nigel is used to it, although that doesn’t make it any easier for us and it makes me feel unhappy that my kids and husband bear the brunt of stress created by work before term even starts!  I feel guilty that I haven’t spent enough time with the boys in their last couple of weeks of holidays, and resentful that my work denies me the time with them.  However, I am also enthusiastic about the new opportunities that have come my way this year and very keen to make them work.  But… have I bitten off more than I can chew?  How will I manage everything to the high standard that I and the school expect?  I am determined to keep my home – life balance this year – that is why we came to New Zealand after all, but I am starting to find myself in the same position I was in before leaving the UK.  I love teaching, I love the challenges it provides, I wouldn’t be happy just doing the minimum; I know that because I have tried it – I get bored.  However, I also feel strongly that I have to have enough time to spend with my boys before they grow up and grow away.  Lachlan is already in Year 12 and studying for his NCEA Level 2 – he got a Merit endorsement in Level 1 by the skin of his teeth, but a Merit nonetheless and we are proud of him.  I must make time to spend with him this year to support him in his studies.  Gus starts Intermediate school and is excited about what that entails – he is most excited about playing hockey for the school and studying Science and French!  So, my main challenge, amongst the  many, is to manage to keep that balance; to not say “Yes” too often, to give my family the time we all deserve and to do my job to the best of my ability.  No mean feat!  Here goes!  Over the last week  have also been re-reading some of my favourite childhood books; long story, but Nigel brought home and e-reader over the holidays and I have been experimenting with it.  Whilst I was looking at the ebooks available for free I found the “Anne of Green Gables” books – a blast from the past, but I found this great thought in one of them which I will share – “Humour is the spiciest condiment in the feast of existence. Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them, joke over your troubles but gather strength from them, make a jest of your difficulties but overcome them”.  Definitely worth remembering! This one also , I think, gives us food for thought; “There is so much in the world for us all if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves – so much in men and women, so much in art and literature, so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful”.

Time to embrace all that 2011 has to offer, methinks!