With kids back in school, I've had a little time and energy to think about "the next step." There's always one of those, y'know. And I like to be prepared.
The "next step" for me is a day when all of my kids are at school. I've been thinking about this step for a long time, watching how other moms navigate it, asking them about their experiences.
Recently, I had a little test run with some time completely on my own...
Bobby took the kids camping last weekend and I had almost 24 hours to myself at home. I spent a lot of it working on projects and responsibilities, but it didn't feel NEARLY as rewarding as usual. I had to think about it a while to figure out why. Here's the bottom line: I felt so inefficient! Usually, I would grocery shop and prepare a lesson and work in the yard while running a household of 4 kids. That's a really big challenge! Accomplishing all that on my own without my entourage was no big whoop. It was a sweet dream come true (quiet, uninterrupted peace...NPR and I got reacquainted...extended, focused think time...serving all the vegetables I wanted for dinner without a single complaint) but not exactly challenging.
So, in three years, when the morning routine involves walking all three boys to school (R in 5th, J in 2nd, M in Kg), I've got to find something else besides full-time childcare that can convert mundane chores like grocery shopping and lesson preparation into heroic feats of multi-tasking efficiency. Ahhhhhhh, so rewarding.
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| Alice doesn't mind coming up with new challenges: she took up face painting this week. She's not half bad, considering we lacked the right tools and she only had 4 colors to work with. Library books rock. Matthew is a puppy dog with a tongue sticking out of his mouth. |
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| Alice turned James into a vampire. He was THRILLED! |
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Nice work, Alice! Is there anything she can't do?
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