End of the School Year Craziness

                It has been insanely busy around here the past couple of weeks. My oldest daughter is apparently preparing for a lifetime in the spotlight. On the 19^th, she had a performance with the acting class she was in on Saturday mornings. It was her first experience with theatre, and she received about four lines in a sweet and short show, and she rocked every single one of them! (Not biased at all, of course). Then her and her best friend decided to try out for the talent show, in which she played piano and they both sang. Surprise, surprise, they made it! So we went to that last week, and then were back again today for the 2^nd grade music program. Oh yes, and she had her piano recital on Wednesday!

                Ah, but don’t forget my other sweet little girl! She just finished her last week of preschool, and today was the last day, which involved a very special visit to the fire station. She was thrilled because she had been wondering if there were any girl firefighters, and what do you know, the firefighter leading our tour was a girl! I think Mr. Hubby and I enjoyed the tour just as much as she did, and our little guy was completely content looking at all the bright red trucks.

                The past week was also spent winding down our Girl Scout year. Last week, we took them (all 13 of them!) to the local bounce center, as was their request with their cookie earnings. You don’t often think of girls being sweaty creatures, but I was certainly proven otherwise that day. And today was the final meeting of the year. I have really enjoyed this year, and am going to miss them all over the summer. I think I am actually looking forward to next year! Hopefully I can hang on to some of that enthusiasm…

                Oh yeah, and on top of all that, my summer semester classes started up a couple of days ago. I am taking two three-credit courses, condensed into one month. It is a brutal schedule, but it gets me ahead so much faster, and when they’re over I will still have a whole month to truly enjoy the summer. I can’t wait!

PANIC

Okay….so now that I have gotten past the initial thrill of getting this wonderful position, and being accepted not only by the Minnesota Reading Corps, but from the public school staff as well, panic has officially begun to set in. How am I going to handle working full-time, taking classes part-time, be a good mom, take care of the house, keep everyone fed and clothed and fairly clean, but most of all….how am I going to leave my baby?!?!?

When I agreed to this it somehow seemed so far away; next school year. We always refer to it as “next year,” and this school year hasn’t even ended yet. But next year doesn’t seem so far away when you realize that preparation for it begins in less than three months! My little guy is still breastfeeding exclusively (thanks to a formula allergy) and is heavily dependent on Mama….as he should be. I can’t help but have this conflicting feeling of doubt nagging me about whether or not I am doing the right thing.

Yet I know that I not only want to do this, but essentially I need it as well. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s more than I’m making now (nothing), and I could really use a confidence booster. This is something I can feel really proud of and it is certainly worthwhile. I also know that my husband and I cannot do the opposite shift thing again; it’s so hard on our relationship! I just hope that I can come to terms with the guilt before too long. I just need to figure out our daycare situation and have everything set up to the utmost degree of certainty before my start date looms much closer. Hopefully then I will feel prepared.

But even despite all this heavy guilt (and fear), I still feel twinges of excitement when I think of the year to come….wish me luck!

Exciting News

 I am very excited to announce that I will be working, or rather volunteering, as a literacy tutor for the Minnesota Reading Corps this coming school year! This is such an amazing opportunity that I just kind of stumbled upon…apparently that is how I find my best positions. I will be working one-on-one with Kindergarten through third-graders on their reading skills to help get them up to grade level. It is called a volunteer position, but there are so many great benefits; a living stipend to help with bills, tuition reimbursement at the end of the term, which is 11 months, and I also qualify for daycare assistance so I don’t have to worry about that! On top of all these wonderful bonuses, I will be at the same school my daughters are at!  So every day when I go to work, my girls and I will all be going to the same place. I have been very anxious about my little girl starting Kindergarten this year, and knowing I will be in the same building has really helped to alleviate some of that.

I begin in August and will attend a four day training program in St. Paul; they bus me there, pay for a hotel room and all my meals, and then bus me home when it’s over. Then I will begin working at my “site,” which is the school I am assigned to, by getting to know the teachers; I am so grateful they let me choose to be at my daughters’ school because I already have a relationship with several of the teachers already, which should really help. When school is back in session, I will tutor fifteen to twenty kids each day, five days a week until they “graduate” the program. I am really looking forward to this position and all that I am going to learn.

I strongly encourage anyone looking for a rewarding experience working with young children to check out the Minnesota Reading Corps. They need to fill over a thousand positions before August, and there are still many spots open.

I am going to miss being at home with my little boy, but I am at the point right now where I feel like I need to do something outside the home for awhile. I have essentially been a stay-at-home mom for about eight years now, and I think a change of pace will help me be a better mom right now. It's also a huge bonus that this will greatly help me in my ambitions towards becoming a teacher. Eleven months seems like the perfect amount of time; it's long enough that I will feel like I am out in the world, but not so long that I feel I can't handle it. I like to I know that I will be home again after that time.

Thanks for sharing in my excitement J

Long Day

                What a long, unproductive day. I’ve given up. There is no way I am going to get anything done. Madison has contracted the ever-traumatic pinkeye infection. What started in one eye has now spread to both, with fierce itching, watering, and crusting over at night that only viral conjunctivitis can cause. With no hope from the help of antibiotics, all we can do is wait it out.

                Madison cried hysterically yesterday morning when I made the all-important decision to keep her at home to prevent the wrath of the entire second grade population’s parents. I somehow felt that I would be providing a major disservice to everyone if I gave into her pleas that “no one will notice.” Sorry dear, but there is no way to hide the obscenity of pinkeye, unless of course we somehow fit it into the theme of a Halloween “costume”, but considering we don’t celebrate anyways, I hardly think that is appropriate either.

                Not only is she being held captive against her will, she is also banned from contact with her little brother. The poor thing; you’d think I was the evil stepmother locking the princess in a tower for all of eternity.

                Add to all that some boredom and an irritating little sister and it’s made for some heated moments around here. I’ve done really well at not yelling too much lately, but today I threw in the towel and bellowed about the ridiculousness of their actions. After I got that off my chest and the girls commiserated together about how crazy their mother is, a sort of peace followed for quite some time.

                So for the rest of the day, I am allowing myself the freedom to stop worrying about the dishes in the sink and the unfolded laundry and the toys on the floor….ugh, I better stop talking about it or the battle in my head is going to start all over again.

Back to School

School mornings are hectic! It doesn’t help that I am a night owl and mornings come far sooner than I am ready for. Or that my seven year old second grader has an extreme sense of fashion that typically goes against the current day’s weather patterns and school activities. Shorts when it’s 50 degrees? Dress with high heels on phy. ed day? To her, it makes complete sense; to me, it makes for a loooong morning that usually results in yelling (on both sides), pleading (also from both of us), tears, and running a good ten minutes behind schedule without breakfast.

Throw in a stubborn four year old who refuses to leave the house without a proper bowl of cereal and milk, and a newborn baby who needs to be nursed by the frantic mother trying to corral everyone out the door. Thank god my husband has the rest of the month off…. I think I would be crying in the corner without him, and nobody would be going anywhere, and we certainly wouldn’t be on time!