17 March 2008

Future Days

Today is the first day of Spring Break and both of my kinder trundled off to karate camp this morning not to return until late this afternoon. Both were out the door by 7:45 and I was alone in my house.

It was weird.

And as I was picking up the family room it occurred to me that in a few months this is what my days will be like - not empty, per se, but certainly not filled in the way to which I've become accustomed. No more mornings spent volunteering at preschool. No more racing around trying to cram in one more errand before picking up my daughter at noon. No more preschool board meetings. Flynn will be entering kindergarten in August and I will not have a child in the house during the day, a first in almost 8 years. Sure, I'll occasionally babysit a niece but my children will be off in school.

What the hell am I going to do to fill these days? Not just the days this week. I have a boatload of projects to do (a few quilts to make, toys and clothes to sort through for an upcoming yard sale, get the Easter crap together, laundry, etc.) after my daily workout. But the days to come? I've come to that fork in the road that I was putting off thinking about until later.

Well, it's "later" now.

One solution to this conundrum is to substitute teach. I subbed for both Champaign and Urbana school districts the semester after I finished my student teaching and never had a hard day (and I was at the high schools). I figure I could sub a few days a week at my kids' school so we could be on the same schedule and my guess is they could use a new sub for the higher grades (6-8). So for now that's my plan.

As for the present, though, I have to get a move on if I'm going to make any headway on my "to do" list.

No comments: