July 7, 2012

Have I really thought this through?

I've just realized that I'm a little over a month out from starting my new job.  This is going to come with some serious changes in the FarmFamily house hold.

First of all, I'm giving up my morning duties and Husband will be taking over.  He will be in charge of getting the FarmHands up and ready for school. He will be making breakfast, brushing hair, and running them out the door to the bus stop.  He will be kissing good-bye and making sure everyone has their back pack & lunch box.

While he's doing that, I will be making breakfast for 20-40 children.

I'm going to have to re-work when  and how I cook at home.  For the past 15 years lunch has been our big meal of the day.  I've cooked what most would serve for dinner at noon so Husband would have a good meal before he left for the day and there would be leftovers to send in his "lunch" to work.  Now I'm going to have to cook of an evening or make serious use of my new, uber-fancy crock pot Husband got me for my birthday.  I cannot leave the poor man to live on frozen pizza and pork burgers for weeks on end.

With BabyGirl in cheerleading, we'll have to accustom ourselves to numerous trips back in to school to pick her up after practices or drop her off for games.  She'll have to learn to get her homework done in study hall.  Late nights after basketball games will become her norm.

But the thing that concerns me most (at the moment) is how I'm going to adjust my sleep schedule.  I'll still have to accomplish everything I've always had to do in the few hours after the FarmHands get off the bus before they go to bed plus some extras what with cheerleading tossed in the mix, but I'll need to get my self to sleep hours earlier than normal.  I can't be up until 11:30 folding laundry and still be at work by 5:30 the next morning.

Things are going to be different.  It's going to happen rather suddenly.  We'll all have to make serious adjustments.

I guess it's not just Mom who's returning to the work force.  It's a family affair.

2 comments:

Mim said...

Just a suggestion but maybe you could do some freezer cooking. Then you would have meals that just needed set out to defrost & then put in the oven or dumped in the crockpot in the AM.

Kork said...

In addition to freezer meals - write out a plan - that way, Husband will know what else he can do to help.

And you're right! IT IS a family affair - the kids may have to take on some tasks to help out...my mom worked full time outside the house from the time I was in 1st grade, until shortly before Captain was born...and we ALL pitched in - we helped sort laundry, we helped fold the laundry, we put our own away. We helped strip our beds, we helped do things like sweep/dry-mop the hard floors, vacuum, dust (or undust, as Amelia Bedelia would say), we helped set/clear the table, and we helped wash up. As we got older, we helped prepare food also, and began doing things like actually DOING laundry...
Have a talk with the kiddos, and let them know you NEED their help in doing things so your Saturdays aren't spent cleaning and washing and the like...if you can get them to buy in NOW, before school starts, with a few small things, it's huge!

OH - when my friends travel and leave their husbands to fly solo, they make a list of the routine tasks to do, and somehow, their husbands manage to get it all done...

You can do it!!!!!