Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Never Say Never...

My poor, poor neglected blog. So many things to write about, absolutely no time. Well, I'm taking the time tonight even though I know I have 10 million things to do on the to do list.

You may be thinking, "Why so busy?" After all, the moving is done, the short-sale is just about complete, and the kids are about to celebrate the 100th day of school. There's no more yard to work in, no seed catalogs to pour over, and the holidays are over. Why so busy? Low and behold, I was offered a real job. An honest-to-goodness art history teaching post at a college in the Chicago suburbs. Get this---my students call me "Professor". I'm still reeling in shock, since it was the one thing I always wanted and its the one thing I gave up.

So first a big thank you to my dear friend David who was kind enough to offer me the position. I guess it really is all about who you know! But at this point I do have 5 years experience, and there is no way a newbie could step in at such short notice and teach four new classes. I found out I was officially hired in the middle of December, and its been nose to the grindstone ever since.

I am overwhelmed--OVERWHELMED--by the new responsibilities on my plate. I now have over 100 students!!! And juggling kid schedules has become an Olympic sport. It's been a lot of change for all of us. Days of getting up with the sun instead of an alarm are a thing of the past. I'm up at 5am to put on business clothes (no more pj days). I wake the girls up at 6:20, breaking rule #1 of the house. Oh goodness they can be stinkers in the morning. Nora can't stand it; she moans that she needs more sleep, that she's too tired to move, that I've made a mistake and it isn't actually morning. Sometimes I get frustrated, because the good Lord knows we're always running late, but I laugh too because I am ever so aware that I'm standing in my mother's shoes, and I'm seeing a 7 year old Ivy.

Emily loves the early mornings, because she has been enrolled in daycare. She goes off to what she's dubbed "Apple School", so she joyfully bounds out of bed each day. She's dressed (and its not hard to pick out clothes for her since she recently outgrew her entire wardrobe), and ready to leave in a matter of minutes. Daycare makes life for a working mom a piece of cake. They feed her breakfast and a snack, and they even have a bus to drive her over to her Early Childhood program in the afternoon. She loves her teacher Miss Carrie, and she learns so much! They do science and math and art everyday. Its unbelievable. Its more like a private school than a daycare. She loves it, and I'm not sure, but I think she actually has a boyfriend. Not too bad considering its only week three!

Ryan is adjusting to our crazy new schedule as well. His once doting wife has been replaced by a zombie whose only function in the world is to make power point presentations. The house? Its a mess. The fridge? Its empty. The laundry? Its in two piles, dirty on the floor and clean in the basket. Poor guy can't win. He's been really sweet though, helping me make Excel sheets, keeping the printer running, making dinner out of thin air, etc.

I feel like I'm on a different planet. I never thought I'd be a working mom. Some days I'm so in love with teaching, other days, as I drag my butt home, I wonder what the hell I got myself into. I miss sleep, that is for sure! I miss cooking too. But my plan has always been to work more once Emily started kindergarten, and she starts in the fall. I really had no choice but to take this opportunity; otherwise I would have had to beg Starbucks for a job. And even though a master's in art history makes me the perfect candidate for 'Bucks, I do prefer teaching. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out. I'm hoping the extra work now pays off, so in the future I can simply work when I'm at work, and return to my regularly scheduled life as Mom in the evenings and on weekends.