Playing Catch Up

Things have been busy around here, as usual. At the moment, I'm feeling that there are so many things that must get done and that cannot get done in the time that I have to do them, that I may as well not even get started. So, here I sit. Blogging.

As I mentioned, we spent the weekend at our staff retreat. It's one of those things that sounds great in theory. And it is great for about a day. That one day in the middle where we don't have a three hour bus ride.

The preparation for it is always more than I would like it to be. We have to pack towels, sheets, and about a million other things for just two days away at the beach. So, we end up with two big suitcases for just the four of us. Ridiculous.

(I think this is my favorite picture from this hike. Our view of Mt. Baker as we hiked up Sauk Mt. You just have to remember to turn around to catch this one!)

Then we get there and all is good. The beach is beautiful. The company is good. The food is decent. The bugs are miserable. The sand is everywhere. The showers are public. And then I wonder whether or not it is worth it. All of the packing. All of the laundry. All of the lack of sleep. All of the catching up.

The thing is that I know it's worth it for the kids. They love the beach, the water, the time they get to spend with friends. The relationships they build and strengthen. I want to be one of those people that can just go with the flow and handle it all. I want to be able to do it for them, but I'm not very good at it.

 

 



I stress when we get home and we don't have any groceries. We have more laundry than can be done in a single week without a dryer. I have grading and lesson planning to do. I have dinners to plan and lunches to pack. I have an apartment to clean and moldy bathrooms. I have babysitters to arrange and open house to prepare for. Life to live, I suppose.

I guess it's a good thing that I make myself take these trips for them. Otherwise, those daily chores may come to define me, and I pray that they don't.

I may live to regret this whole "being honest" thing. I'm really not trying to complain, but something that has bothered me lately is the fact that with this world of social media comes a fallacy. We have the ability to only put our best foot forward. To only show the world the good parts of our lives. I don't want this blog to just be a representation of the best of our lives here in Korea.

The more I look back over old posts (there are ridiculous reasons why we do this--trying to figure out when something happened, what the weather was like, etc.), the more I realize that this is going to be how our kids learn about these years. And I don't want it to be glorified. I want it to be real.

These are the last of the pictures from our hike up Sauk Mountain. It's no surprise that I haven't had time yet to edit pictures for our retreat this past weekend. This little trip actually had its own stories to tell, but I think some stories are better left untold. We hiked up to watch the sunset, but ironically our best view of the sunset was at the base of the mountain after the clouds cleared. Best laid plans!