Well, I’ve officially been back to work for one full week. While I can honestly say it was good to get back to work, this past week has been utterly exhausting. There’s very little downtime in my days anymore. I get up at 5, make a bottle, take it upstairs to Matt who is changing Parker’s diaper, snuggle with my little man for a few minutes, and then hop in the shower while Matt feeds him and puts him back to bed. I leave the house about an hour later and then leave pretty much as soon as I can. Once I get home, I get to hang out with PJM and Jillie until Matt gets home and then its time to make supper, clean up, bathe Parker, and put him to bed. I usually collapse into bed about 10:30, only to start all over again just a few hours later. It’s hard to be needed so much during the day. I meet the needs of 170 students from 7:00 AM -2:30 PM and then come home to the demands of being a wife and mother. As hard as it is and as tired as I am, I love my life, I love my job, and above all, I love my family!
Leaving for work last Monday was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I kept finding other things to do before I went upstairs to kiss my baby boy bye for the day, but eventually, I had to just do it. I had picked up the living room & kitchen, made my lunch, put my stuff in the car, dug out pictures to put on my desk, etc…just trying to put off the inevitable. When I finally trekked up the stairs, I found him bundled up and snuggled next to my mom on couch just as sweet as ever and I hugged her goodbye since she was leaving that afternoon before I would be home and then kissed my little angel goodbye for the day. The tears were just a flowin’ as I walked back down the stairs and got in my car. It was a hard day, but it was so wonderful to get home and get sweet little smiles from that bald headed cutie!
My classroom and my desk were a wreck when I got back on Monday, but thankfully I planned everything and went back on an in-service day, so I was able to clean up and reorganize everything before the kids came on Tuesday. They seemed happy to have me back and from what I can tell, my sub was pretty much horrible. My kids learned very little in the last 3 months and from what they’ve told me, he let them watch alot of YouTube videos. Awesome…just awesome. I’m glad they had 3 months of relaxation because now we’ve got twice as much work to do before the state rolls out the new standardized End of Course exams in May. Oh boy…
Coming home from work is definitely the highlight of my day. I love the look on Parker’s face when he realizes that he hasn’t seen me all day and I’m finally there again…it’s just priceless!