Day Thirty-Four - Nervous Energy - How do you Destress?

So, I destress, mainly, two ways - running or writing.  I am a writing teacher and yesterday I gave my class a writing challenge:  a 24-Hour Short Story Contest.  It began yesterday at 12pm and will end in about 45 minutes.  Since I am judging this competition and my kids are competing, I have not allowed myself to proofread or even know any of the details of their stories. 

I have been so anxious for them.  Watching them type for hours on end.  Stay up late and wake up early.  I am thrilled to see the absolute sacrifices that are being made in the name of writing, but I have so wanted to help that my anxiety grew to a point that I needed to escape.  So, I took off down to the Rec Center.  Since I did 2 miles yesterday I only wanted to run one mile today and find someone friendly to walk and talk with the last mile.  So, with all the anxiety on board I began running.  After awhile I realized that I was running faster than I normally do.  I clocked myself and when I sprinted the last lap I was surprised to find that I had run an 8 minute mile.  I was so pleased.  There were many older people there this morning so I found a nice petite German lady and we did a couple of rounds talking, until she had to go off to her class.  Then I walked with a school teacher and we talked about homeschool vs. public school.  That was fun!!

Now there are only 30 minutes left to the competition.  I hope my efforts helped them (it helped me destress =>)  Is this what you feel like when you're an "empty nester"?

Jacob and Joy after a night of writing - 24-hour Short Story Contest -  Let's do it again!

Day Thrity-Two - Nothing (Wednesday - my busiest homeschool day)

Day Thrity-Three - 2 miles, running @ Rec Center

Day Thrity-Four - 1 mile running/1mile walking @ Rec Center