I woke up cranky...

...with a capital C.

I hadn't set the coffee yesterday since I was exhausted and forgetful, so my a.m. beverage was the instant Tassimo kind, and I'm not entirely a fan of early-morning change. Cranky.

I don't like the bagels I bought which meant my breakfast-on-the-go was kind of icky. Cranky. Cranky.

My clocks must be confused because I was late to school. Not the typical Pam's-running-3-minutes-behind late (and, YES, I AM working on that.) but the oh-my-goodness-please-tell-me-they're-doing-the-morning-news-report-early-because-I'm-supposed-to-be-at-work-right-now-late.

So, that adds to the cranky.

We're assessing our kids this week. Mrs. P (my co-teacher) took her portion of the class into the conference room one at a time. That left me to juggle the other 15. Usually not so bad, but remember...I'm cranky. And my three difficult children were in "rare form". Somehow, I managed to keep the cranky inside.

I ate lunch alone. My two lunch buddies were out. One was at home with a sick child and the other was covering for the one at home. Lonely lunch. I kind of wanted to growl at the HEB employee who asked me how my day was. But I got my band-aids and contact solution (darn contacts NEED to be replaced NOW) and made my way back.

I had sweet time with Jesus in my car in the school parking lot. He reminded me that He's bigger than my hormones and my cranky. I asked Him to remind me for a few more hours until I could go home and curl up in bed.

My first sweet moment was when my two bosses recognized me as "Apple of Their Eye", which is essentially Teacher of the Month. I got a ribbon (attached it to my badge), a pretty gold apple pin (attached it to my shirt collar), a certificate (going to frame it and attach it to a wall in my classroom) and a nice card with a small gift card to Target.

Still, my 3 tough kids were the last ones left (never happens!), so I got to hang out with them longer than usual. Then I had to talk with mom of the child in whom I still haven't discovered an attractive quality. How do you express kindly the things I would like to say?

Drivers in San Antonio suck. The drive home made the cranky creep in again. I had wanted to leave on time so that I could get home to clean the mound of dishes that had piled up and scrub the bathroom which I wouldn't get to this weekend since we'd be gone. Events ensued, and I left work an hour and a half after having clocked out.

Oh, the cranky.

But God reminded me of my plea for His grace. I came home to find that my husband has washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. He'd also cleaned some of the bathroom. Then he took a break long enough to lay down on the couch with me until I could sigh out all the cranky.

Buh-Bye, Cranky. God reigns.