Life just hit the gas pedal at my house. Instead of playing at home and thinking of reasons to get out of the house we are suddenly out of the house Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. I've spent so much of the last year sitting nursing Anna or recovering from some illness or injury that I am in shock - and so are the kids.
This summer I worked out a preschool co-op with five friends from the ward. We are each taking turns teaching in our own homes Tuesdays and Thursdays. I planned the curriculum taking lesson plans from a few different preschool books. A friend who has been homeschooling her kids for a few years added a nice way to teach math concepts using the calendar and we are in business. Michael went to school in his pajamas yesterday. "Hurry" is not in his vocabulary. He doesn't like leaving home for any reason and resents the lost playtime but he does enjoy being at school, a huge improvement over last year's anxiety each time he had to go to school.
Mondays and Fridays I am teaching dance classes in a friend's garage! It actually looks pretty cute. She has a carpet, mirrors and a barre. Mondays' class is ballet for six year olds. It is exhausting but fun. At the end of class I gave the girls a chance to get up and do some "freestyle" ballet one at a time. Half of them did. Then I got up and did a few things I didn't know I could still do! I haven't had that much SPACE to DANCE in since we moved here. Their naive jaws dropped and they thought I was a great dancer. They all stood up and danced and twirled around until their moms came to pick them up. That's what I want them to get out of this - the joy of dance. I have to have dinner going in the crockpot because we get home at 5:30 on Mondays but it went well this week.
Fridays is a ballet/jazz split hour of dance for 10 & 11 year olds. They are easier to teach and I don't have to help them pay attention. They are all trading me free babysitting for their lessons! The trouble is that they're so young it has to be daytime babysitting and I don't really need that. With preschool and dance I am suddenly savoring being at home trying to give equal attention to everyone. I'll have to think about how they can help me. Some of the other mothers are watching Sam, Michael, and Anna in their homes while I teach.
I am also the new ward nursery leader. I have lost all of the other three workers and am begging for substitutes until some get called. We had twenty kids there last Sunday and I came away exhausted. Josh leaves home after breakfast and I get everyone ready for church, keep them all within arms reach during sacrament meeting, then go off to nursery for two hours. When I get home it's dinner time and I'm scrambling. I'm trying to get make ahead meals for Sundays too. Two busy days in a row is hard but we'll see how it goes next week.
All of this leaves Wednesdays. Blessed Wednesdays at home. I want to get my housework done other days so I can spend this one having fun with the kids. It's a big change from sitting on the couch waiting for something to heal and I love it.
I have promised that all dance proceeds will go to food storage so I don't have a pit in my stomach every time someone says "Food Storage" or "Hyper-inflation." I've only committed to teach through mid-December so we'll see whether anyone wants to continue after that.
Wish me luck and all of us good health as I try to become organized and efficient overnight . . .
Pictures to come.
