Universal Malfunction

I am someone who needs to learn better organizational skills and learn to prepare ahead and just generally be a less chaotic person. I think. So when days like today happen, it frustrates me, because it throws all of that out the window. I think it was one of those times when there must be something in the universe causing all children to be completely unfocused. And I don't mean simply paying attention to whatever. I mean that there are very real, physical wanderings of the body. Arms kind of float around, feet trip over themselves in ways you have never seen before, and foreheads somehow find their ways into paint. They can't help it; it's not a choice. They simply malfunction on an entirely new level.

Now, I love my jr. high students. They are fun; they are chaotic; they are the personification of energy; they are fabulous. But today wasn't even high-energy for all of them. It was simply chaos. I was completely exhausted after 10 minutes. I don't know how to describe it. We made it through tie-dying shirts and painting a collage (kind of) - but even that was a feat. Hopefully they heard something about John the Baptist and baptism in there somewhere, but God only knows.

So when I was much more prepared today than yesterday, and yesterday went 14x better than today, it tells me that I should never work on anything. I should just run with whatever and not even try to prepare anything, because it won't matter. They will never know the difference. They have no clue whether I worked 40 hours on something or 40 minutes; it all comes out the same.

I don't know. I don't feel completely defeated yet; just exhausted. But if tomorrow is like today, making it through the week could be quite the challenge. Praise God for hope and strength. And praise God that I still love these malfunctioning creatures, draining though they are.