Okay, yes, it’s been a while.
When I left off, Sarah was amidst her bedtime fiasco. We are pleased to report that she has gotten a wee bit better. Now she will go and lay down and not scream her face off as long as we leave the door open. We have been doing this routine for a while and she instead gets up and down quite a few times but she isn’t screaming so we just deal with it. Of course, now she also gets up sometime during the night and crawls into bed with me and Steve, which is getting frustrating because waking up with a toddler scrunched under a back/shoulder/neck is not very comfortable. We had finally gotten Stephen out of this habit and now his sister is doing it. Ugh, to say the least. In other bedtime fiasco news, Stephen and Elisa have apparently giving up sleeping past 5 or 6am. They get up and insist on waking everyone else up by being loud. Playing quietly or looking at books until the sun comes up seems to be too big of a request, so as we sit here I have been up since 4:45am while they fought me about how it is okay to wake up before the sun. Man, it is going to be a long day. We are going to be switching everyone around once we have the funds to get some decent bunk beds for the girls and will see how the night times go at that point.
The holidays came and went for our family and were nice. We had fun with our family and I hosted Christmas here at home for the first time in a while. Thank goodness for crock pots. Everyone really made our Christmas special and were very generous to our children. It was a hectic, fun time. I do admit, I am glad it’s over though - Christmas with four children and divorced parents on both sides of the family can be exhausting.
I made a decision back in November that I never shared. I decided to return to college and obtain a degree so I can teach school. My goal is to be degreed and certified to teach by the time all of my children are in school (even if Maria is just in preschool) so that we can keep the same schedule and I can be with them as much as possible during their childhood years. I was accepted to UCF and chose History as my major so that I could have a flexible course schedule and because I truly love history. I knew I needed to pick something I loved so I could get good grades and be excited about the classes. Education majors have to do internships and lots of other requirements that would keep me from the family too much. I can obtain a history degree and then take the steps to become certified to teach once I am closer to completion. Returning to school was exciting and nerve wracking. I feel old and out of shape, but I have a determination I have never had about school in my life. I see these people whose full time job is just to learn and have fun and I am in awe. I have to not only learn but take care of a family as well and it’s a big responsibility. I am hoping that I can handle my courseload and job as wife/mommy this semester and then continue on towards my degree. We’ll see, I guess.
One thing about going back to school that I really needed - it’s given me something that is just mine. I have new experiences and things to do that I didn’t have before. One might say I should have done this sooner, but the kids needed to be more manageable and a little older before I tried this. Who knows when the time is or isn’t right - so I just went for it. Anyhoo - even just navigating campus is a whole ordeal that I could write an entire entry about (maybe later) but it’s something I am doing for myself and feels kind of weird. It is hard to blend the jobs of student and mother and I am doing the best I can to balance it. Still, it is surreal to sit in the student union and study while I am paying someone to take care of my children, the chores sit and wait, the bills need to be paid, there is laundry to be folded…but it will get done and I needed to take this step. A weird blend of worlds, I guess.
That’s all for now and I will try to be more routine about posting as 2008 continues on.
