Joy in the morning.

Ha ha! I fooled you. The title of this post sounds terribly peppy doesn't it? Like I woke up at 6 am and had a little (decaf, I swear!!) coffee and watched the light change from the swing in my backyard...

Well I didn't.

In fact I didn't roll out of bed until Josh was about to leave and then I just curled up as best I could in a chair until he woke me up to say goodbye. Then I feel back to sleep. I had a 45 minute bath, where I might have fallen asleep again and I didn't eat breakfast until almost 10:15.

Now I am dressed (it's almost noon) and I've checked my e-mail. Egads!!

In my inbox was a note from my new principal (whom I've heard excellent things about, by the way) letting me know that she has signed me up for 8 days of workshops and orientations starting next Tuesday.

So soon?

I suppose it's partly because I'm pretty tired at the moment (still... this is what comes of staying up until after midnight to finish reading a book while you are seven months pregnant) or maybe because I know how easily I can get tired right now... Probably it has to do with the wonderfully lazy sumer I've had as well- but I really can't believe that school is about to start again.

This time will be a bit different, I know. I will have my own classroom and my own filing system and I won't be teaching the dreaded 5th graders... I'm moving on to 7th graders and I'll be teaching Language Arts (Wait, something that actually has to do with the stuff I got a degree in???) and not math or social studies. So I'm thriled- truly ecstatic. But also sad. I love laying in bed in the morning and waiting until Lump starts to boogie a little before I get up. I like to be able to pay attention to the flowers in my yard, and watering the garden... and my car... and maybe myself a little when it's hot in the afternoon.

And I think- it won't ever be like this again. Or at least it will be a minimum of 18 years before I find myself having a lot of free time without a lot of responsibilities to other people. Time that I can spend reading or doing just whatever I want to do. Once school starts I'll have about 2 months and then Lump will arrive and I'll take a maternity leave, but I'll have to go back to work before Christmas. Next sumer I'll be off, but I'll still have Lump.

I guess this all just started to hit me yesterday when I had a sweet friend send me an update on the NSN conference that I just missed in St. Louis, and I started to really realize that I was going to miss the National Storytelling Festival this year (it's way too close to my due date to go- I don't think I really want a storyteller to deliver my child for me). I hope I can go to the conference next year (it's in Johnson City and I could probably find someone who'd let me mooch a room for a few days) but will I have to take my little Lump? How would that work?

So here I am. Me (Joy) in the morning, wondering how many more of these mornings I will be able to get and what my new mornings will be like after Lump comes and school starts and I start to be THE MOM.