No Boring Weekend Planned This Week

I'm starting to think that it will be quite possible that I start every Friday post between now and May with... Is it Friday already?

Another week almost gone, in the blink of an eye.  Where does the time go?  

My first week back has been amazing.  My kids are finally breaking out of their shells, and the noise level in my room has gone from crickets to a low hum.  Slowly but surely the kids are starting to find their voices, feel a little more relaxed in my presence, and are actually answering questions and talking among themselves when I give them that option.

Their behavior is fantastic.  If I step out in to the hall for any reason, or if my kids come in to the room before me, I have found that they sit in silence waiting for me.  I've actually had other teachers think that my room is empty because they are so quiet even when they think I'm not paying attention.

Despite how quickly my days have flown by, and how much fun I've had with my kiddos each day, I'm still exhausted.  The first full week back is such a transition... and not just for the kids.  I'm finding that the piles of paperwork are growing larger by the second, and even though I have two and a half hours after school each day to work on it all... There's still so much paper EVERYWHERE.

This weekend, I'm not bringing any of it home.  I've made the executive decision that I will NOT spend my weekends doing any work.  I'm in my classroom until 6PM each and every evening, and if I can't get it all done then... it will be waiting for me bright and early the next morning.

This weekend, unlike last weekend, I will not be sitting around the house all day doing nothing.  I will be getting out and doing our weekly grocery shopping.  We are desperate for groceries.  For the past few days, we've been scrounging up whatever's in the freezer to come up with dinners for us each night.  Thankfully, I'm blessed with a Hubby that can get pretty creative with a very limited supply of ingredients.  

Also, the weather this weekend is supposed to be back in to summer-like temps, so I'm hoping that Hubby will clean up the pool so that we can all go swimming.  He's been running the pool pump each day to keep the chemicals up, but there's a lot of debris that needs to be vacuumed out of it.  

I have a lot of laundry that needs to be washed, and a house that is once again in dire need of a scrubbing.

Going back to work has jolted me back in to the realization about how little time I have to get my normal "mommy" jobs done throughout the week.  Poor Hubby has been doing the bulk of the cooking and cleaning of the kitchen each night.  When I don't get home until 7PM, he has dinner waiting for us..and I'm just too exhausted after eating to even think about washing dishes.  

Even though I'm putting in 12 hours a day, I forget that Hubby still works.  All night long.  I just expect, because he's home during the day, that he'll pick up the slack of the work that needs to be done around the house.  And it's not fair.  

I have to come up with some kind of plan so that he's not playing housewife all week long... just because I don't get home until late.  I'm also not holding my children accountable for anything - and they are the reason I'm not getting home until 7PM each night.  There's no reason they can't unstack the dishwasher each night..even if that's all they do.  Hubby can cook, Peanut or Butter can unstack the dishwasher, and I can restack and wash any leftover dishes.  

That takes care of the kitchen, but the rest of the house... even though Hubby is the only one here during the day...gets so darned messy going a whole week without any love.  

The bathrooms end up looking like disaster zones.  The living room gets caked in dust and cat hair.  The hallways are covered in dirt from sweaty, dirty kids coming home from sport practices each day, and the laundry hampers are bursting at the seams.  

There's just not enough hours in the day, is there?

It'd be nice to think that I could come up with a way to not have to spend a good part of my weekend cleaning... but the truth is, that will never happen.  I just know that there's no way in Hades I'll come home from work and start cleaning my house.  I'm just too dang tired to even consider that a possibility.  

So, if each and every weekend I have to spend a couple of hours deep cleaning my house.. so be it.

My parents are going camping this weekend.  We could have gone.  It would have been nice to get away for the weekend, without having to worry about anything.  But, the list of stuff that has to be done around the house and the empty freezer and cabinets trumps the desire to have a weekend away.  If I went away for the weekend, I'd come back to no clean clothes, a still dirty house, and no food.  Can't have that!

So, we will have to sit that excursion out.  This time.  

But, it's OK.  I'm perfectly content making small sacrifices like that for the sake of having a clean, happy home.  I'm perfectly content with working long hours all week long, coming home exhausted, but then spending my weekend making up for it.  It's the life I chose for myself.  I'd much rather have my kids play their sports and keep me at school until 6PM each night and spend my weekends making up for it, than keeping them from doing what they want to do.

It's the mother I always said I'd be...and I'm keeping my word.

I will make it through today.  I will wake up tomorrow morning whenever I feel like it.  I will spend the first part of the day cleaning, and scrubbing, and washing.  I'll spend the rest of the day out grocery shopping.  And then it's home to the pool and some quality family time.

See....there's still enough time to enjoy some family time!

Right now, though, I need to think about getting ready for work.