Exhaustion not from the students themselves, they are usually still pretty happy to be at school and are not complaining too much at this point, but exhaustion from being torn in fifty directions. I live in a rural community and my family is involved in agriculture. As you can imagine, life in my house from the months of August-November are just insanely busy. My husband is extremely busy and I end up running my household as almost a single parent during these months. I'm sure you can imagine (if you don't have children) just how fun and simple that would be (those of you who do can likely relate well). But looking back I do recall school start up to be a thorn in my side from teaching year one. As I am entering my 8th year of teaching I hate to admit out loud but it isn't getting any easier (sorry new teachers, it's the truth). 
The question then becomes how the heck can we fix this? How can we manage work, kids (if applicable), house, lawn, personal maintenance, exercise and general health? Oh the answer is easy, quit! Ok, just kidding (sort of). A person needs to really get a handle on the things that matter the most. Does tomorrow's laundry need to be done? Yes. Does getting a turkey for thanksgiving need to be done in September? No. Do you need to feed yourself (and family or kids) a healthy meal every single day? It would be nice to be healthy every day but the reality is "lets just eat food" most days.To summarize, pick you battles. Choose where you attention really needs to be that day and what matters the most right now. The rest will fall into place. Let's face it, we can all multi-task when we need to and as we need to, the things on our list will get done. Put your feet up tonight because school start up days are winding down and it is time to settle in for the long haul. Enjoy your night
