I get by with a little help from my friends.

We just started the third and final term of the school year this week. 

How did I celebrate making it through 2/3 of the year? 

🎉🎉🎉🎉

I started planning for next year!

What made me start thinking and dreaming about next year (other than the fact that I'm a crazy over-planner!) was the reality that I've barely covered half of what I planned on teaching this year. I went into this year (my second year teaching) feeling so prepared. I had my scope and sequence, my I CAN statements, my checklist of concepts to cover by grade...I was ready! The first term went by and, for the most part, I felt like I was on track. We learned about rhythm and all the classes did an amazing job in our big Christmas production. After Christmas break, things were rough getting back on track. (And we lost some days to the snow!) Just when things started to settle in, we had February break.

Now it's Term 3.

I reached out to my fellow music teacher Elizabeth Caldwell of Organized Chaos. I shared my concerns, my thoughts for next year, and sought her wisdom on how to proceed. Elizabeth- who is awesome btw!!!- immediately got back to me with lots of advice. Which brings me to the point of this post- the importance of community!

We weren't made to do life alone. We were created to live in community. To have friends in all walks of life and in different seasons of life. I have a few really close friends that I share most areas of my life with. I may go to them for advice often, but I don't just go to them or always go to them. They have crazy, busy lives just like I do! I don't have the capacity for each of my closest friends to come to me for everything, every day. I'm having a hard enough time being fully present for my kids and my husband! It's not fair to lay that expectation on any friend.

I have mommy friends who I can go to with parenting challenges. I have friends who are married that I can vent to when I'm frustrated with my husband. I have animal loving friends that I can go to for advice on bringing a cat into our home. (That's another story, I'll share later.) I have prayer warrior friends who pray for a breakthrough in the hard things. I have teacher friends that I can go to when I'm stressing out about how I'm going to get everything done in a school year! 😏 I am so thankful for my friends! 

So, I encourage you to find your people. Your tribe. Your community. Find people who you can go to for the different things you have to work through and process in your daily life. Don't put the weight of your world on one or two friends, and even more importantly don't try to suck it up and do it alone! Even you introverts out there (Disclaimer: I'm an extrovert, so I don't fully know where you're coming from. But with 3 small children, I definitely appreciate some time to myself.), branch out and find those people you can go to for certain things. They don't need to be your bff, but you can grab a coffee with them once in a while or send an email or chat via text.

One final thought, remember that your people need you too.

♫ You just call on me brother, when you need a hand. 
We all need somebody to lean on. 

I just might have a problem that you'll understand.

We all need somebody to lean on. ♫

♫ ♥ Ashley