Planning and Planning

Today was terribly hot and we went swimming at two different pools between nap times. We're all so tired.  I think this one is the good kind of tired, though.

I am planning and planning. Planning the programs that I'm going to offer at Masonville up through the end of December, including what I'm actually going to do at each one (so that I can write the description for advertising which is the whole point of planning this far ahead).  In addition to my usual sprinkling of random Green workshops and nature topics, I'm doing two series of programs. 

One I'm calling Green Team (how original, I know.) and it's a curriculum I'm designing based on the book "The Everything Kids' Environment Book". This book looks impressive, but when you put the pages into practice, it would end up being a lot of lecture with very little activities or action steps.  So I'm trying to spice it up a bit and also boil it down to be serviceable to any random number of school-aged kids. Random number is a bother to program planning bc you might waste resources if only 3 kids show up. School-aged is another bother bc there's a big huge difference in what and how you teach to  a kindergartener and a teenager.  But that's what I'm tasked with in making programs accessible to a nebulous group known as "the community". 

The other is the series of Itsy Bitsy Yoga Community Classes that I'll have to teach during this timeframe as part of my IBY teacher certification program. I don't know all of the rules for this so it's kind of hard to plan it and advertise it now. But in 12 short days I have my first certification class and then I hope I'll know what I'm going to do!

I'm also trying to plan my fall according to preschool and MOMS Club activities and a theoretical babysitter (I haven't found one yet).  All of this information isn't available to me yet and still I feel like I need to know it in order to schedule other things like my weekends and work meetings and family trips. 

But my best plans come next year, when I'm planning to get pregnant, drop back on my work hours to be part-time instead of full time, and start teaching IBY at studios around town. Though less lucrative, these future plans bring me great joy.  It's like, I just have to make it through one more year and then I can start doing easier and more fun stuff!  

(which, I understand is very crappy of me. I have a great job. They do nothing but care for me and are flexible towards my needs. And it's what I really do care about and generally I have fun. It's totally, "it's not you, it's me." I just want something new! I'm such the selfish little girl, not caring how good she has it. And in this economy!!! Next February I'll have been there 7 years. I must have the 7 year itch.)

Best Moment of the Day: Watching J. doggie paddle with swimmies on by herself for the first time ever. She is so proud of herself! We've been hoping for this next growth of confidence all summer long!

Worst Moment of the Day: More work-related emails after bed time that I feel make me look like an idiot even though I don't think it's my fault. (perhaps related to the sudden wistfulness for this time next year)

Thoughts of the Day: I have to find a babysitter for the kids for the fall. Two days a week and it's got to be Monday and Friday bc I'm watching a friend's daughter Tues and Thurs before preschool until late December. Wednesdays are not an option to work bc that's the playgroup day and the MOMS Club monthly meeting day and generally when a lot of fun stuff happens in the neighborhood that I don't want us to miss out on.  

Currently my MIL watches them two days a week for me, but she'll be in NC from early October until late December and then again from Late January until early May. This coincides with my FIL's teaching schedule at a college in NC so she'll be staying with him at their house down there. 

After maternity leave with J. , I found a very nice local Grandma-type woman to watch her.  She was great but I won't go back to her now. Now both kids need somewhere with more stimulation and ideally, other kids around. 

Then I had a friend watch J. for me for a few months until C. was born and she had a daughter who was a few years older than J. That was wonderful for J. but now that daughter is in school and so that situation no longer exists.

Then I had a friend watch both kids for me for a few months and both kids loved it.  But she had a second child and now it might be too much to coordinate all 4 kids and their needs. Especially since Fridays J. would need to be taken to and picked up from preschool and my friend can't hold 4 carseats in her car!

Then I had another  friend watch both kids for a few months and she had a daughter who was one year older than J. That was wonderful for J. but now that daughter will be in school so that situation no longer exists. 

You can see that my old options aren't viable any longer. I need to find someone new. But they need to be perfect (which includes inexpensive). What I'm most scared about is that they won't click with C., who is very hard to get along with if you're not on her short list of favorite people. As J. sympathetically tells people who try to babysit C., "She cries a lot." (which she delivers with a comforting pat on their hand.)

And you can see that the stress of contemplating a new sitter adds to my desire to just say "F it" and stay at home all week with the kids, only working on weekends. I tell myself, "just hang in there day by day and next thing you know, it'll be this time next year and you can be home all week long."