it's coming

My return to work, that is.  It's coming.  I feel it looming, hanging over my head.  I guess I shouldn't say it that way.  I DO love my job. My staff is an amazing group of people, those kids rock, and I enjoy coming up with fun and creative lessons.  I also love this at home life though.  Sometimes I wish we could make it work for me to be home all of the time, but then I think that my perfect world would be me working 2-3 days a week.  As a high school English teacher, however, that is tough to come by.  SO, I work.  I could go into the whole daycare/home debate, but that isn't really what I want to get into right now.  I will just say that I am so incredibly thankful that Canada has a system that gives me a year at home with pay to spend with my kids after they are born.  It is a leg up on what a lot of people I know get to experience.  So, I'm thankful.

As I look to going back to work in about 4 months, there are things that I want to do to get ready.  I think they will make that return to the working world a little easier.  Maybe I am delusional...maybe they will work.  We'll see.

• First, I know that soon I need to start getting up earlier.  This is tough, because Rocky is still waking up one, maybe two times a night for full feeds.  He's a big eater, this one.  Kev's work is a bit more flexible than the normal teacher, and right now I am usually getting to stay in bed until 8 or so while he watches the boys, has his breakfast, etc.  When I am at work, however, I have to BE there by 8, and it is about a 20 minute drive away.  So that means getting up, getting breakfast, showering, getting ready, helping get the boys ready for daycare, and getting out the door before 7:30 a.m.  That is my target leaving time.  That is when I was leaving last fall and it usually worked out pretty well.  SO, that means getting up earlier...like probably 6 if I really want to get things done.  It would give me time to do some dishes or something.  Hmm...I think I will give myself until the end of the month before I start easing myself into getting up earlier.  This morning I had to get up early, because Kevin had to be at the hospital for some tests by 7:45 a.m., which meant him leaving the house by 7:20, and you know what?  It wasn't THAT bad.  
• Another thing that needs to happen will be weaning Rocky a bit more.  I didn't really go back to work full time until Rusty was over 2!  That made the whole weaning thing much easier.  He was still nursing after 12 months, as I think Rocky will be too, but that means that he needs to learn to drink milk from a bottle or a sippy cup!  I have been trying to introduce the sippy cup to him.  His brother figured it out pretty quickly and I think he will too.  He seems to enjoy playing with it.  Moms that work, any tips would be great!  I want to keep nursing him as long as I can, definitely at least to 12 months if not longer, but I will have to go on a five day sailing trip with my school in March so that means he will probably have to be fully weaned by then.  There is no way I will be able to pump on that trip.  He will be 14 months then.  Help!
• I need to get meals and such under control.  Since I have been off, I have taken a more healthy approach to how we eat, and that involves making a lot more food totally from scratch!  That means more time is involved.  I have to figure out a way to make this work with the busier schedule. I won't have the afternoons and/or mornings at home to cook up my tomato sauce, etc.  I think this will mean doing some BIG batches of stuff like tomato sauce on a weekend morning while playing with the boys and having Kevin around to help me out.  I think that will help.  I planned meals a lot when I was working before, and have already started getting back into that mode in order to prep myself.  It takes so much stress out of things!  I also know that I can make up big batches of things like the homemade goldfish crackers we made and fruit leather to use for Rusty and Rocky's snacks during the weeks!  It doesn't have to be hard, it just takes planning...and a big deep freeze!  Kev and I are researching deep freezers.  This will revolutionize things for me.  I will be able to cook up meals ahead of time, such as lasagna, and keep them in that deep freeze.  We are looking around at different upright freezers, because I feel like the regular ones just make you lose everything in the deep abyss. 
• I must make sure that my coffee bean canister is always full and I always have coffee filters on hand.  In fact, I think I will invest in one of those good reusable filters just to make sure that I never have the issue I had this morning, which was opening my cupboard and realizing that I had used the last filter yesterday and forgot to buy more at the grocery store.  Plus hey, the reusable ones are MUCH more eco-friendly.  Better get one of those ASAP.  Coffee will make my days go much, much better.  I am so very thankful for the wonderful coffee bean and the lovely blends that Starbucks creates.  Mmmm!

It's coming, and it will be okay, I just have to get ready...and also enjoy every last minute I have with my two sweet boys!