I’m linking up with Small Success Thursday at CatholicMom.com!

If you’d asked me on Monday whether I would be participating in Small Success Thursday, I’d have flat-out told you NO. Monday was not a good day around here. It was a crazy day of caregiving and housework with no breaks, and I’d woken up at 4 AM thanks to that lovely custom of “falling back” to Standard Time. (Just pick one already and be done with it!) I usually spend about 2 hours a day writing (I do freelance work, mostly web content) and there was no time for that at all. But there was a lot of time for fretting about what I wasn’t getting done.

All of that is just a lead-up to the small successes I have managed this week (it’s just about 3 PM on Wednesday as I write this).

1. After gutting it out on Tuesday and earlier today, I got caught up enough on work that I don’t HAVE to do any more until Saturday, if I don’t have the time.

2. I am caught up on laundry. My bed has fresh sheets. I cleaned both bathrooms today.

3. While listening to a podcast about podcasts, I heard Lisa Hendey mention two parts of CatholicMom.com that are near and dear to my heart:  Tech Talk and Meatless Fridays. It’s my privilege to be a contributor for both of these features. Hearing something that I’m involved in mentioned on a podcast really gave me a lift.

4. I managed to get over to Little Brother’s school and meet him as he shopped at the Book Fair. He let me know this morning that it meant a lot to him for me to be there. Unlike other years, I’m not able to block out 3 days to volunteer at school and help with this event, and he really wanted me to be there when his class was shopping.

I was a little extra freaked out about getting stuff done by the end of the day Wednesday, because on Thursday and Friday I will be substitute-teaching at Little Brother’s school. (TheDad will work from home and take over the caregiving.) On Thursday I will have the middle-schoolers, including 8th-grade Language Arts, where they’re reading my very favorite creepy Edgar Allan Poe story:  “The Cask of Amontillado.” Friday will be a challenge:  I’ll have 3rd grade, self-contained. I don’t think I’ve taught a self-contained class since I substituted during my college days. I’m used to kids coming and going every 45 minutes.

Here’s what happened the LAST time I taught a self-contained class. (Remember, I was still a college student.) It was a 3rd-grade class at the parish school where my uncle was the pastor. When the morning bell rang, I went out to the playground to collect my students. We entered the classroom and the kids got busy with their morning routine…until the kids whose job it was to feed the fish noticed that the class pet had gone belly-up in the aquarium. Pandemonium ensued, with all the girls shrieking and all the boys yelling, “The fish is dead! Can I flush it?” In the middle of all that, my uncle strolled by the classroom.

I’m praying that Friday’s 3rd-grade classroom has no pets.

Join the rest of the participants in Small Success Thursday and celebrate those little (and big) accomplishments! It’s bound to put a smile on your face, even if you had a Monday like I did.