It's been a while I know, and I would apologize only I'm not sorry that I took a good break to focus on my new role as a mom. I could have done what the people in my shoes seem to do and blog the entire journey but to be honest that wouldn't be me. While I like to keep people in the loop with my family and what's going on, I wanted to have an organic experience as a mom. I didn't want to worry about getting enough activities in for the day so I have some epic blog post to write. I wanted to worry about whether we watched elmo or curious george in the morning. (I'm not kidding you gotta feel how the morning is going on that one. Like did I get enough sleep to tolerate Elmo's voice?)
Anyways, I am back and I am here and I have fun recipes, stories, and uplifting messages that I have been storing up in a journal waiting for when I would feel the time is right for me to return. I think that time is now and I am so thrilled and excited to be back. My daughter will be 10 months old tomorrow and I am just shocked at how fast time really has flown by. Labor was intense I will share more on that in another post, postpartum wasn't as terrible as I was expecting it to be, and breastfeeding was far from what it was cracked up to be.
My biggest reason for posting is not just to say "I am back" but also to say "I got some things to share." Before you ask or assume- NO I AM NOT PREGNANT! It seems when you have a baby or just get married and you say "I have something to say" the first reaction is pregnancy.
Since having my daughter and working with her next to me (yep, she went to school with me every day while I taught part time and yes it was a blessing and no I do not hope to do it again this year. Mama needs time to feel like an adult without someone meshed to her hip) I came home from school on the last day and sat. I just sat and thought about how the year had gone, comparing how I as a teacher had failures and short comings and how I was successful, what I want to implement next year, and what I want to remove from the program next year (for the most part what most teachers usually do).
However, there was one thought that stood out to me "In the year of teaching with a baby I don't believe I have challenged myself mentally, spiritually, or even physically." This stuck out to me. So what do you do? Well, if your me, you jump in full throttle planning how to get back to challenging yourself while also being a dedicated stay at home mother and wife. Just because I am at home doesn't mean my brain needs to only have interaction with Elmo on the tv or a babbling adorable baby. So I sat down and prioritized where and how the rankings of those three things rated to me and I came up with a plan to counteract where I felt I had shortcomings. This was not easy and I certainly am not perfect or have "Fixed" everything yet.
You can expect these next few posts for me to talk about how I am challenging myself in each of those three aspects of life, How I am balancing a one income home with a very crazy spunky infant, and where did my little Darby fit in the mix of all of this. I will end this lengthy post with the way I prioritized it. I won't give my solutions though because to be honest this post would turn into a book trying to cover it all. So check back and I look forward to sharing as I go.
- Spiritual Life
- Mental health/strength
- Physical health/strength
