Life these days

Many kind friends have asked how I'm handling the "back-to-school" craze as I am not going back to school, for once. It's a strange mix of emotions to be utterly consumed with gratitude that I have this time with Charlotte, at the same time that I'm kind of mourning the loss of my teacher life. So far our days have been pretty busy so I don't have time to sit around thinking about what I might be doing in my classroom right now if things were different. Plus, Charlotte is at an incredibly darling, explorative age right now so she keeps me on my toes. (Don't worry, I haven't gotten teaching out of my system quite yet- I'm still occasionally pinning literacy ideas to my Pinterest boards... )

Here's a little glimpse into life these days. 

We get up and play before Charlotte takes her first nap. During that nap I either try to do administrative tasks for the junior high, clean up around the house, wash diapers, take a shower, make our bed, do laundry, put the dishes away, or just rest. Every once in a great while I take a short nap while she sleeps, but this is very rare. 

Charlotte's next awake time is usually when we run errands, go to the grocery store, or have a meeting with my boss at church. It's sooooo awesome that we can walk there. I put Charlotte in a carrier and we are outside for three minutes before entering the church building and walking upstairs to the youth ministry office. Sometimes Charlotte sits on the floor and plays with her toys. Other times she takes a cat nap in the Ergo. 

During Charlotte's afternoon nap I often do more work for junior high. I sometimes do dinner prep or finish the laundry I started in the morning. A couple of times lately we have hung out with students in the afternoon, which throws off Charlotte's nap, but is fine overall. On Wednesday we took two girls to the zoo, which was awesome. 

The best part of our day is when Joel comes home from work!! We usually hang out as a family or Joel plays with Charlotte while I make dinner. Yesterday we went for a long walk to drop off books at the library. Charlotte LOVES being outside so she "talked" happily the entire time she rode in her stroller. Sometimes Joel and Charlotte watch the Tigers' baseball game on TV or sometimes we sit on the front step and watch the cars go by. 

 

Our days are simpler with a baby. Little things can take a long time and we have lots of breaks for nursing and diaper changes throughout the day. But these simple days are so life-giving and I'm forever grateful to have them.