A change in the program

For me, there's something about leap years. Maybe it's that extra day. Maybe it's the excitement and energy of the Summer Games. Maybe it's the intensity/insanity of a Presidential campaign.

Or maybe it's just that every four years I am ready for something new. A  brief history:

2004 - I became an elementary school classroom teacher.

2008 - I left teaching to run an in-home daycare.

2012 - I left in-home daycare-ing to return to an elementary school - this time as a JV Librarian. (Oh, yeah. I had a baby in 2012, too, but we aren't focusing on that right now.)

And now...

2016 - I am leaving the library to work in the administrative offices of Lakes Region Community Services.

And while a change in my occupation comes along at very even intervals, this is by far the biggest change I've made since I left Los Angeles for New Hampshire. And the enormity of the changes affect my husband and kids almost as much as they affect me. Maybe more. A brief list of how this new job will turn out world upside down:

1. Elliott will go to a new elementary school.
2. Gabe will go to a new preschool/child care facility.
3. After 12 years of me being the keeper of kids' schedules and notebooks and mittens and homework, Scott will be carrying the load of transporting all the kids to and from school/daycare. (Tom is going to a new school, too, but it's middle school and that would have transpired no matter what happened with my worklife).
4. I will go from a 30 minute commute with 3 kids in the car to a 50 minute commute solo.
5. I will not have summer vacation.
6. I am not sure when or how I will train for races. In fact, there are currently ZERO races on my calendar.
7. I have not auditioned and will not audition for any plays or musicals for the bunch of months.

All of the fellas at my life - as well as all of the people in my life in general - have been complete rock stars about all of this. My husband is ready to juggle the life of the primary point person for the kids during the school day. He is so happy for me because my 'career' in the last 16 years has not been what I dreamed it would be. (LOVE kids and LOVE the people I work with in education ,but it is just not my calling.) In fact this job seems to be very similar to the nonprofit gig I had in Los Angeles before our big move. And I REALLY loved that job and was not entirely ready to let it go when it was time to go.

Elliott in particular, who faces maybe the most drastic/unexpected change, is just AMAZING. I know he's sad and nervous, but he was dancing around almost as much I was when I got the call about the job. I swear I do not know how we managed to have such a sweet and empathetic child.

In a few short minutes I will be heading out for an afternoon of HR orientation. I have lots of questions for them about policies and culture of the organization. (For example, I have been offered the opportunity to squeeze in the 37.5 hours into 4 days a  week instead of 5 and this is HUGE. Imagine, a day during the week to keep Gabe home, do the grunt work of the weekend, and prepare to have a relaxing time on Saturday and Sunday... ) And although I know some of the work I'll be doing includes fundraising, donor data base maintanence, correspondence, grant applications, publicity, events.... I really don't know the scope of everything I'll be doing. That will become more clear when I start the job in earnest on Tuesday, Sept. 6. Coincidentally, the boys' first day of school, too!

Finally, I now have a FABULOUS story to tell if I ever got on stage at The Moth. I can't do it justice in the seconds I have left here, but I will share it. Maybe I'll make Scott video tape me telling it... It's a doozy!

Ch ch ch changes

It's been a long while since I last posted. And boy, howdy! there's plenty to report. So, I will do an injustice to all the excitement in my life by summing things up here.

We had Gabriel's baptism last Sunday. It was FABULOUS. Our rector is retiring from our parish as of July 1st so we feel very lucky he was able to squeeze us in. (I, in fact, scheduled the dunking of #3 before he was even born... which I thought of as bad luck for sure... but it looks like everything worked out!) Randy has been leading our church since just after the Resurrection (or maybe 1978?) so this is a HUGE change (#1) for the congregation. He also happens to be (along with Bishop Robinson) THEEE reason I found myself back in the pews after so many years away. My father-in-law, a non-church goer himself, says if he lived here he'd go to church, too, because he admires Randy so much. THAT'S sayin' something!

Gabe likes Randy so much he'd like to nurse!

We had a pretty big crowd: Scott's parents (who were meeting Gabe for the first time), my parents (my Dad meeting Gabe for the first time) and my sister, Heather, and her family (all of whom were meeting Gabe for the first time). So, obviously, this was a "big reveal" for the little dude. He was SOOOO happy to have so many eager, loving arms to hold him. His days were exceptionally peaceful, as were mine, since I basically just had to feed him when he got hungry. He's definitely a snuggle bug and happiest when his in the arms of an adore-er.

Hail, hail the gang's all... (well, not even CLOSE to all... but a nice subsection of the gang's) here!

My sister brought her 3 youngest kids (her eldest is in college) and I get a little choked up just thinking about how amazingly the kids get along together. We lucked out weather-wise so the 5 of them (Gabe was not game... spoil sport!) spent allll day outside creating Zombie-Proof forts and playing hide 'n seek and swinging and generally have a fantastic time together. I think it helps that I have boys and she has girls (twins Annie & Sophie, age 9, & Tessa, age 8) as I think this removes some of the one ups manship that might occur if they were the same gender. Although.... maybe it doesn't matter. All I know is that they adore each other and it gives me no end of pleasure to see them romp around.

Cousin fun at the playground.

Cousin fun on a mini-hike. They're all so reserved and shy....

Happy as he was with all the lovin', Gabe still seems to have tummy troubles. So, I have changed (#2) my diet fairly drastically, based on Dr. Sears' recommendations. (Thanks to Bobbi for the web link!) I have eliminated dairy, caffeine, soy, peanuts, chocolate, citrus, wheat, chicken, beef (as a vegetarian, this is obviously not a sacrifice!), eggs, nuts, corn, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, green peppers, and tomatoes.

WOW, right? I had to make a list of foods I COULD eat in order to convince myself that I wasn't going to starve to death. I have been eating Rice Chex, coconut milk and fruit for breakfast. For lunch and dinner I've been eating quinoa, brown rice, sweet potatoes, avocados (with apologies to Barbara Kingsolver and all she taught me in "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"), peas, sunbutter, chick peas and all manner of fruit. I am sprinkling chia seeds on and in as much of my food as possible in order to get the nutritional benefits it offers.

I think, by the way, that he is feeling a little less gassy: he still HAS plenty of gas but it doesn't involve as much pain and pushing to get it out. I am on day 3.5 of this and need to maintain this strict diet for 2 weeks. Then I can work foods back in and see how he reacts. While I would love to head back in with chocolate first, I think I have to give wheat a chance... living without bread and pasta is tough around here! (You gluten free folks have my sympathies!)

As far as my own feelings, I am surprisingly un-hungry. As in, less hungry than I am when I eat whatever I want. I have sort of an "empty" feeling, though that is almost certainly psychological. And I know my legs don't feel very fresh, even after a rest day. I have lost a pound or two (not that I'm really trying) but I'm kind of surprised I haven't lost more, given how low-cal my diet is now compared to my normal carb/chocolate fest! We'll see how things look in 12 or so more days. I am a little concerned about getting good fueling for my long runs, but thankfully I don't have any scheduled beyond 8 miles for the next two weeks. Trying to crank out double digits with this diet would be very hard for me.

As of now I would, by the way, kill for a hot fudge sundae.... but maybe this break from crappy food will get that monkey off my back. Oh, and at least I can drink wine. One glass with dinner makes me feel like there are still some fun things I can have.

Only in my dreams....

On Tuesday, Megan and her kiddos, Max (age 3) and Sydney (age almost 5 months), visited and bore the gift (well, a loan, anyway!) of a Moby Wrap. Holy schmoley. We are changing (#3) from using the sling, (which was useful and fine but he seemed to slip out of place a bit) to the Moby Wrap and life.is.GOOD! Gabriel totally digs being snuggled up (as noted during baptism weekend) but this Mama has got STUFF to do. The Moby allows me to be hands-free and do (almost) everything I need to do... minus the fussing and crying that would pop up when he was on his own in the bouncy seat or on the play mat. (Lookitme bein' all Attachment Parenting and junk!) Will this indulging his need for contact bite me in the butt later on? I have no idea... but for now, I am enjoying the peaceful baby that rests comfortably with me for long stretches during the day.

MC Phoebe be Baby Wrappin', wickedy, wickedy wack. Yo.

Sydney's totally over her Moby and lovin' her Ergo Ride... Thanks, Syd!

I tried to make my own Moby Wrap by buying material at Joanne's and wrapping it following YouTube instructions. Don't bother. This is a much cheaper option but you will never find the soft, stretchy, SPF material Moby has and you will just wind up cutting it into pieces and dying it to create Ninja costumes for Elliott's 6th birthday party. Well, maybe you won't do THAT exactly, but you get the idea. (It was a great party, by the way! We celebrated a week early because of so many family members in town for the baptism.) I guess you could say Elliott is changing (#4) into a 6-year-old on Saturday.

Of course the 40-ish moms are the ones who most enjoyed the ninja get ups. We got the moves like Bruce Lee.

Finally, tomorrow (or maybe next week... jury is still out if I'll be needed) is my last day as a daycare provider. This is by far the biggest change (#5) in my life - other than the birth of Gabriel - in almost 5 years. I told myself from the start (fall 2008) that I would do daycare until Elliott was in school full time. The birth of #3 makes sticking with it more appealing, but I need to make a change. As a dear Mother Runner friend said (I'll keep her nameless in case she doesn't wish to be quoted here), "It seems like running a daycare makes you hide your light under a bushel." I'm grateful for social media because I definitely wouldn't have felt I was shining ANY light if it weren't for my online nonsense over these 4 long years.... but she did sum it up fairly well there.

Two of my original daycare buddies with T & E. Winter 2009. They were 4 & 2 at the time. How far we've come!

So, while dropping a job that would allow me to stay home with my little baby seems straight-up stupid, the opportunities that I am pursuing would resolve a few challenges my family faces right now... But I won't go into that unless and until I have a position lined up and the ink has dried.
 And certainly there will be posts about the changes we will be facing after that gets resolved!

Tomorrow is the last day of school and kindergarten promotion. Hopefully I'll blog about that before, say, September!!

Hope your changes are going well. And a final shout out to Dede, who's changing into a Warrior Goddess as we speak. Way to go, Dede. You ROCK!

Totally On Purpose: "Waiting for Giessler"

Dear Baby TOP,


(Who am I kidding? I'm not writing this to Baby TOP anymore. That would take too much brain power. Here's my verbal diarrhea for the day...)

"Waiting for Guffman" is the best movie ever. Hence the title of this blog post. If you haven't seen the movie and you have any kind of sense of humor (a soft spot for community theater doesn't hurt either) you have to check out this movie.

I don't have a new baby yet. I DID have some, errrr, stuff last night that led me to believe I would have a baby. However, here I am. An ultrasound yesterday shows that all is well with TOP. He's considered small for his gestational age (7lbs) but that's certainly big enough for arrival! My amniotic fluid levels were fine, too, so life is good.

Yesterday afternoon I went into Tommy's classroom to help 6 of the kids write scripts for a project they are working on. It's been quite a while since I've done the Hard Core Teacher Thing. It was fine... I THINK they get the gist of what I was trying to have them accomplish - but it was also good reminder of why my "talents" might lay elsewhere. (Bickering about inconsequential subjects I expected, but I had no idea the talent of time wasting was established so young!)

My leisure time is being spent remembering a seemingly endless list of tasks that need to taken care of... and attempting to get them accomplished. ("Dhuuhhhh, George, do ya think we need to get the car seat in the car?") Also trying to re-arrange some things so we can have baby items at-the-ready. Would hate to be "bored".

The Great and Glorious Gungah has taken some pictures of Team Giessler as we await the arrival of Baby TOP. So, here they are...

39 weeks. Ready. Really really really ready.

Palm Sunday at our church. Some people are so darn talented... we had to take a picture!

Da best! What would we do without Gungah??

Mom worked on making the light better in this photo of Scott. (Here he's taking a picture of one of the boys). We think it's almost ultrasound-esque in style.

He will never have to defeat anyone in karate. They'll just look at him and want to squeeze him!

Tommy found an inner "Handsome Beast" (or "Blue Steel") pose for a series of photos my Mom took. I've NEVER seen him sit so seriously for pictures. Thought he was getting angry but, in fact, he was acting... And finally started to crack a smile with photo number 5 or 6 - here. 

 

 

 

Parents v. Activities: How do you do it??

I am the proud owner of two of the least-scheduled kids in the world. Well, not always proud, as sometimes their lack of interest and enthusiasm for extracurricular activities embarrasses me.

Last night my boys had an introductory class in karate and they really enjoyed it. They were pretty funny, actually, as my FB status update and follow-up comment show:

Karate + Giessler Boys = hilarious. Wish I had video taped their intro class.

This was just the 2 of them and the sensei. They both let their quirky stream of consciousness roll through out AND couldn't take their eyes off themselves in the giant mirror... Fancy new "gi" and all! I'm surprised they want to go back, as I think they expected to come out of it as Ninja Masters!

 

The sensei would like them both to start up on Mondays & Wednesdays at 4PM. A not unreasonable schedule. School gets out at 3:20 and this dojo (is it really a dojo? is that how you even SPELL dojo?? I'm going with yes to all...) is only about 10 or 15 minutes from school, depending on ice and frost heaves and mud. (Ahhh, New Hampshire in springtime!) But when I found out their classes start at 4PM my palms started to sweat and my heart began to race. 

 

For me, 4PM is too early. I began to think, "I wish I was like all those other parents who have no problem getting their kids to after school activities." And THEN I began to think, "Wait a minute. How the hell DO "normal" parents get their kids to after school activities like this??" 

 

Because here's my understanding of what "normal" parents have going on:

• Normal parents work until a lot later than "after school"... don't they? 
• Normal parents have a nice-sized commute to their jobs.... don't they?
• Normal parents have to put their kids in after school care.... don't they?
• Normal parents work all summer and during school vacations... don't they?

 

So I re-thought my racing heart and sweaty palms and felt thankful that I merely had to send a long, convoluted email requesting early or alternate pick up locations for the daycare kids. It's still a huge pain in the ass for me and especially for the parents whose kids are in my care, but they help me out. (Or, so far they have, anyway!) They give me the go-ahead to drag their kids to my midwife appointments and to my own kids' appointments. They give me the go-ahead to drop off their kids at school (where they, thankfully, work as teachers). They have busy lives with busy kids and understand how it is.... So I remember how lucky I am.

Maybe my perception of the world is wrong. Maybe there is a quiet army of stay-at-home parents who are readily available for any and all activities their kids want to do. Maybe this same quiet army is secretly wealthy beyond my dreams ('cuz just karate alone is a serious strain on our budget!) and money is no object when it comes to activities. 

I'm not an idiot. I know there's no such thing as "normal" parents. Each family figures this stuff out as it comes in a way that works for them. Maybe most families have a stronger support system around them with grandparents or other relatives who can do some of the toting from place to place (Oh, the envy I have for families with nearby in-laws!!) Maybe most families have made better use of their social skills and have connected with willing carpool-ers. 

But really.... REALLY!.... How do YOU do it? Or, how DID you do it?? Because I can't imagine this facet of our lives getting any LESS busy.

P.S. Baby TOP will graduate from high school in 2030. Talk about a long-term problem!!