sleep schedules, Dave's job, and cobwebs

Well, I claimed Febraury to be the month of redemption for the pathetic and sick January we experienced.  So far so good.  Everyone is healthy and happy, especially my little roly- poly- Robyn.  I have been lucky that Robyn continues to sustain a great sleep pattern and habits.  She still pulls out an 8 hour stretch right off the bat at night, and a few times a week makes it right until 5 or 6 am for me. 

The downside of this “early awesome sleeper”, seems to be that she is also “early” in needing her crib to sleep.  She is no longer very portable while she sleeps.  She fights hard to stay awake in the car, but will often fall asleep if she is really tired.  However, as soon as I stop and start jostling around the car seat, she wakes up wanting to see the world and what is going on.  Even if I take her out of the car seat and see if she’ll pass out in a sling or if I soothe her, she is just too interested in what is going on around her.  So, we are sort of stuck in the house for a good chunk of the morning and afternoon. There are 2 opportunities we have to get out.  One is right after her morning nap for the hour before lunch time, or right after her afternoon nap (the hour before supper).  These are tricky times as in the morning the other kids are hungry and getting tired for their naps.  And in the afternoon, I’m trying to make supper and get things ready for Dave’s arrival home. 

So, any outings we have are brief:  a trip to the grocery store for just a few ingredients, a power- play date, a drive to do some banking and then pick up Dave from school, that sort of thing.  Which is fine with me, actually.   It is hard managing the 3 of them in public for too long!  More often than not, though, I have been asking people to come over here to hang out.  That way, Robyn can sleep, and the kids can get longer visits in with friends.  I really appreciate people coming to hang out at my place these days.   Life feels a bit slower with spending more time around the house, and much time nursing, but still full of life.

The nice thing about nursing Robyn and slowing down these days, is the chance to watch my kids play on their own.  Previously, I was either doing my own work and asking them to play by themselves, OR right on the floor playing with them.  When I nurse Robyn, I snuggle on my favorite chair near the toy corner.  The kids realize I’m busy and don’t bother me for things or to play, but often will play with toys near my feet.  I just sit there and watch their little eyes and brains light up while I feed the baby, and it’s really nice.   They can be totally whiney and seemingly needy for attention while I’m doing work in another room over, but just having me there keeping an eye on them, often seems to satisfy their need.

I’m reading a really interesting book called the 5 love languages of children.  It’s co written by the author who wrote the popular one on love languages in marriage.  It talks about identifying what ways make your child FEEL most loved. We all love our kids and often express it to them in the way that would make US feel loved, but often a parent and a child speak a different love language.  Do you know yours and your mates?  I am a physical touch and quality time person.   Dave is most definitely words of affirmation.  There is also acts of service, and gifts.   The book has been reminding me of how important it is to “fill up their tanks” with their love language so that they can be at their best.  

Anyways, it’s been really enlightening in certain ways, and a great refresher of simple things as well.

 The other thing that has been really exciting is my life is SEMSETER 2!  So, this is Dave’s fourth year of teaching.  We heard that by year 5 you have your stride and things are much easier, and we’re finally feeling that light at the end of the tunnel with this new semester.

I heard several people talk about year one of teaching being very hard.  Many people likened it to hell.  Well, it was certainly a challenging year for Dave.  Having to prepare units and lessons from scratch for HOURS every night, along with the endless marking involved in his subjects took up ALL OF HIS TIME!  Add in the stress of trying to figure out his teaching style and finding his groove with the school and extra-curricular activities, it was pure NON ENDING WORK!  This was the year we just had Jesse as well, and I was adjusting to mommy-hood and sleep deprivation.  The whole thing is a bit of a blur.  My most vivid memories are the times Dave would come home and start researching other career options: could he go to school for a year and be a librarian?  OR do tech support?  Maybe he could get a job with OC transpo??  He even considered one day, calling back the church to see if he could get back his part time custodian job....Oh how we longed for time together.  Dave longed for doing something either than school for  16 hours  (literally) of his day.

Year 2 was a bit better than the first.  However, he switched from teaching mostly history to mostly English.  So, it was still hours and hours of work for all new courses.  I think that year he talked about getting his doctorate and switching to teaching “more interested” university students.  We considered moving back to the Maritimes and crashing with our parents while he found different work.... However, we both thought that if he could stick it out a few years, he would love it and be great at it.

Last year, year 3, Dave had mostly the same courses.  He went from  16 hours of work a day to maybe 12?  It was still a lot with now having 2 kids, and less sleep and all that jazz.  He worked hard to take the lessons he’d already thrown together and make them better and more useable and all planned out for the future.  I think he only had a few days of considering alternate work that year.  Teaching missionaries kids in Africa was something he’d bring up.  Or teaching younger kids with less prep work up north all came across the computer screen a few times.  

This year, Dave has not had ANY “Let’s switch career days.”  He had a few courses last semester that he continued to work many hours tweaking so that he felt good about his material.  He also spent lots of time developing some new units within his courses....but nothing that had him up all night (aside from a few days nearing the end of exams)  This semester he is doing courses that he has been teaching since year 1 and 2, and so he has lots of practice teaching them, and is happy with the lessons he has from the past.  He can literally just review what he needs to do for tomorrow, and make some photo-copies and go! 

I really have felt this extreme shift in our lives just this week.  Dave took Monday night off entirely for his small group, and then last night he told me we were having a date night at home with some wings and Friday Night Lights.  He left all his lap top at school even!  We have not watched a show together in months, and on a school night?!  It was incredible.  I forgot how much I liked this guy and spending time with him DAILY!  I had gotten used to spending time with just him on Sunday nights.

I’m so happy for him right now.  All his hard work is paying off, and some much needed time to himself and for us, is currently possible!  Now, he is a perfectionist, AND he believes in continued learning and education.  So, he will definitely be tweaking his courses as he can, and there is tons of marking and extracurricular work to be done.  But, I think it’s something that will take just an hour or so nightly, not the whole evening.  So excited for him!!!  I am also so proud that he stuck it out!  I don’t think I could have...

I’m also excited for myself.  Getting more time to spend with him, but also a little more help around the house.   Dave works so hard, that I hate to ask him to do much around the house as he has so little time to himself.   But, this week, Dave, on his own accord, replaced the 8 burned out bulbs that we’ve been missing around the house the past few weeks. 

Actually, my initial reaction was “thank you- but can you please turn around and replace all those with like  40 watt bulbs instead of standard ones??!!!”  You see- we’ve been without hallway lights for a while now...and before that, some of the bulbs were burned out inside so the intensity was way less.  Once he put in these new beasts, I could SEE ALL THE DIRT AND DUST that was previously hiding in the shadows.  Oh my...the cobwebs, and dust, and grimy fingerprints along the walls.  It was enough to make me keep the lights off for a few days until I had time to tackle it.  I cleaned up the hallways today while the kids were sleeping, and now I can use lights again!

I always think of my good buddy, Leah.  I nannied her kids for a year, and they had a glass table at their house where the kids did most of their eating.  All her friends always commented on how brave she was to have that table with the 2 young kids, as you could See every spec k of dirt and grime so clearly.  She would always say that she liked the glass table because she COULD SEE everything that was there, and therefore, clean it properly.  You wouldn’t imagine the amount of food and slime and dirt that gets caked on the BOTTOM of your table from toddlers.... If you don’t regularly clean there, you might want to check that out.   Although...maybe you don’t.

Anyways, enough of my rambling for now.  Thanks for reading, I’m out.