Ephiphany

Several things have been swirling in my poor little brain lately. One of them is how to get housework done while student teaching and going to school. Last semester, I only student taught two days a week. This semester, it is full time. While it is giving me a wonderful feel for the reality of teaching, I am having to schedule things differently.

First of all, Keegan is now in daycare. This was my one hardest development for pursuing a teaching career. I feel very blessed to have been able to stay home with him for his first year, but it simply breaks my heart to drop him off in daycare every day now. The original plan was for Keith to stay home with him during the day and then he'd work swing shift. This proved to be too hard for the entire family. Keegan got to see his Daddy and stay home in comfortable surroundings for the two days a week I was gone, but the entire rest of the family did not get to see Daddy, nor did Daddy get much rest! So when Keith was offered a job working on a project, we decided it was best for him to go back to working days. I think we're all happier for it, except for me when I drop off the Little Man early each weekday in a stranger's arms. Sigh.

Second, is the ongoing saga of the laundry. I have come to an epiphany about the laundry. It started out with just getting organized to go to school five days a week. I needed all of my clothes ready. No time to do a quick emergency wash or iron or fiddle with finding a matching dress sock or shoe. Everything had to be ready to go! Then it occurred to me that I needed to do the same thing with Keegan's clothes (and everything else he needed for daycare for the week) and Keva's clothes. That meant that all laundry had to be done on the weekend.

Now I can see everyone rolling their eyes right now. "Really, Jackie? Laundry on the weekend? This is your epiphany?" Yes, it is. Up until now, laundry has been something to be done on the weekdays when time permitted. I didn't want to cut into weekend activities. Little did I know that it is actually quite nice to have not only laundry done, but major household chores done over the weekend as well. Which leads into my third thought, that I can declare clean-up time on a Saturday morning (gasp!) and tell beloved children that they cannot go play or do anything else until the house is in order. So far, it's taken just a couple of hours to clean up and then everyone disappears outside or to friends' houses or to do homework. Again, you all might be saying, "Duh! Jackie! Haven't we suggested this to you a dozen times before?!?" But again, I say that this idea of not doing chores during the weekend is a result of having been a stay-at-home mom for so many years. There is always time to clean on the weekdays!

All of this is a work in progress. I have done Keegan's, Keva's and my laundry for a whole two weekends in a row with resounding success. Now I am working on getting the rest of the kids to do their laundry over the weekend. Konner decided to stay home with me right now on this fine Sunday morning, while the rest of the family went to church, since Keegan is still sick, and I told him to get a week's worth of dirty clothes to get washed and dried and folded and ready for the week. The exact words out of my mouth were, "And you won't have to do a load of laundry all week long!" A little light bulb went off over his head (similar to my epiphany) and he went running upstairs like a soldier on a mission. I called upstairs to see if he wanted any sausage for breakfast and he told me, "No, I've got things to do." A few minutes later, he was back down with not one but TWO weeks of laundry to wash!

We shall see how the it goes as the months wear on. I will be student teaching all the way to the beginning of May. It is going to be a long haul, but organization is the key.