hello? is this thing on?

Um, I need to start off with an apology. I have been massively absent from the blog world. Really from life in general. As you can imagine, I'm trying to juggle my new full-time teaching gig with being a mom (which has turned into a part-time job. How is THAT right????) AND travel planning. I'm sure that by now, there are literally crickets chirping on the other end of the screen, and that's just fine. I'm just going to keep on blogging when I have time and I'll consider it to be like a diary of sorts. If no one reads it, it's still therapeutic for me.

So far, I'm not doing the greatest job with the balance aspect of my life. But it's still early in the game. I have hope that I can get this thing figured out before school ends in June.

I did have a sad revelation tonight though and I need to get it off my chest.

Any stay-at-home parent, really ANY parent will tell you that 5:00 pm is the Witching Hour. Kids are getting bored and moms have to start thinking about dinner and this is usually where trouble ensues. There were countless days in my Mommyhood where we'd be fine until 5:00, and by the time Jeff showed up for dinner, one of the kids or me would be collapsed in a motionless heap, beaten down by the madness of the 5 o'clock hour. Can I get an Amen?

Imagine with me for a minute that said Witching Hour was basically the ONLY time you get to spend with your kids on a daily basis. Sad. Super sad. I HATE that. Neither the kids nor I am at my best at this time of day. I need to find a teaching job that goes from noon-7pm so that I can be with them in the morning when they're fun and happy and generally less sucky. In the meantime, I need to learn to deal and make the most of the time that I DO spend with E & P.

What am I moaning about, you ask? Aren't you out of the house ALL DAY and ready to face the 5:00 hour head on when you get home, you may wonder? Um, well, sort of. I mean, I really do want to spend time with the kids and play and read and cram 8 hours of mothering into 2 hours before bedtime. But sadly, someone does need to make dinner. We can't eat out of the crockpot EVERY night. It's just really hard to come home to kids who've missed me all day and tell them "Mama can only play for a few minutes before I need to start dinner."

Still working this out. Open to any and all suggestions that you may have.