Our family has gone through a new dynamic this semester with me back in the residential classroom. I have worked from home throughout my time as a mom, and so has Chris (after Eliot turned six months old). It has been an incredible blessing. Chris and I could take turns watching the boys for each other to work, and the flexibility of Eliot being in preschool and then my mom watching them once or twice a week was amazing. I frequently took the boys on adventures by myself so Chris could work in the morning while he was "fresh". This semester, though, since I finished up my dissertation in the fall, I taught a few classes at a local community college. I wanted to expand my experiences some, and I truly enjoyed it, but I knew we would have to change our schedules.
Chris watched the boys through the morning and afternoon three days a week. Two days a week, they went to my mom's house. And then we tried to strike a balance on weekends. Chris had some special time with the boys and I kept up with both jobs, but it did make everything more fast-paced. When I came home from work, I was more tired and Jack was napping, so I'd just try to play with Eliot some. Chris did almost all of the grocery shopping, and the dinners I made were uninspired. These are all simple challenges that working mothers face, and while I have been a "working mom" as a parent, I was experiencing it all in a new way.
I have new respect for moms who work outside the home. It's not that I didn't respect them before, but now that I have been both a work-from-home mom and work-outside-the-home mom, I can see how hard it is to leave your toddler crying at the front door and then give it your all at work and come home feeling hungry but without an idea of what to cook for everyone (and feeling like it is asking too much to try to haul everyone to the grocery store).
So now that the community college semester is over and I am just teaching a few summer courses online, I am excited to get back to similar, old routines. I am feeling more free in my schedule. Eliot is in his last week of school and Jack is seeming like he "needs" to nap less. Over the past few days, I have taken the boys off by myself on adventures again (just the three of us) like I used to in order to give Chris time to work. We went for a walk at the arboretum. The next day, we went to eat lunch at Fazoli's (kind of like "fast food" Italian) followed by Italian ice and then we played in the pool. Then I took them to a splashground after Eliot got home from school.
We've had some fun adventures as a whole family too. We took Marlowe to the beach for the first time and we also went strawberry picking, our annual tradition.
Over the past couple of months, we have all been working very hard on the yard as well. It all starts with the constant clean up of pollen and the weeding and the trimming, but then eventually we get to the fun part: the planting. This year, we planted more bananas, canna lilies, elephant ears, flowers, and then some tropicals that will stay in pots. I love watching the elephant ears and bananas come back--it's my favorite time of year. The boys love working in the yard with us. Eliot has a blast picking out plants while Jack loves to run around. They're both eager to help us plant or dig holes or spread mulch or whatever needs doing. Last week, we worked to spread mulch to give it that clean look. And while we're always going to need to weed and clean up the yard, I think for the most part, we have all the planting done.
This time right now (somewhere inbetween spring and summer) is my favorite time of year.
No comments:
Post a Comment