You just have no time? No time for anything. B has officially started kindergarten (more on that later), and with Suchona - my helper - here to take care of everything in the house and watch K, you'd think I'd be bored out of my mind. And strangely, I find myself swamped. Literally - and yes, rainy season is drawing to a close - thanks for asking :)
With B starting school, I decided it was high time I make use of my Post 9-11 GI Bill and go back to school. My options are a bit limited by the reality of my life - have you noticed that we move a lot? So, I decided to do the easiest thing and go for an all-online program. Since I didn't make the decision to at least get one semester under my belt (hopefully two) before we move again, I had only about a week or two to find a program, register for classes, apply for my GI Bill benefits, and order books so they would be here before classes got underway. In the end I decided on UMUC. Not to knock their program, but it was simply the most convenient. Plenty of programs to choose from, all programs are completely online (no random seminar that must be attended in residence), and best of all, no entry requirements other than an undergraduate degree. This last one was key since being overseas limits me even more than usual in my ability to take any of these tests.
I have been fairly pleased by my ability to keep up with coursework while not being totally absent from my real life, but having Josh out of town for the past 2 weeks has also helped. It's given me the opportunity to totally devote myself to classwork every night after the kids go to bed. Hopefully it won't always be like this (since my husband might eventually notice that I'm not around), but it's been helpful to get me back into the school routine. Um, and as a side note, I totally hate being back in the school routine. I think I must be getting too old for this. Or maybe it's just my impatience with people taking graduate level classes who can't (or can't be bothered to) use proper grammar when posting on the classroom conferences. <sigh> For those curious, the program I chose is a Masters of Management with a focus in Emergency Management. I'm still not exactly sure what I'll do with that, but it seemed like a good combination of my human bio undergrad degree and my logistics work experience.
As I mentioned, B has started school now. There's a part of me that's super-glad he's finally out of the house - and I'm totally guilt-free about feeling that way. He's getting too old to be entertained sitting around. He needs the social interaction with other kids his age, and I just can't give that to him at home - especially not here. So we had a great start, a minor setback, and now we seem to be back on track. After being really excited and (strangely for him) eager to go to school and try something new, B suddenly developed a fear of school. I got a letter from his teacher (naturally while Josh was gone) that he had not even entered the classroom to attend class for several days. Instead, he was choosing to sit outside his classroom in the hallway. Several days, he ended up sitting in the office reading books rather than going to class. Sadly, this was much more the behavior I was expecting when B went off to school the first time. He is generally very reluctant to try anything new, and definitely does not care for new or unexpected social situations. So after a brief meeting with the school counselor (who advised putting B on a half-day schedule until he could figure out how to assimilate) and his teacher (who felt this was just a phase and B was going to work through it naturally), we decided to do nothing and wait to see what happened. Well, I'm happy to report that B was apparently afraid of one of the kids in his class - for a reason that no one really knows - and after they painted together the other day, B has been a totally different kid. He's happy and has lots to talk about when he comes home now (instead of looking like he's seriously going to break down sobbing during his every waking hour - you think I'm exaggerating - I'm not).
So many things are really working out well for us. K is thriving with more one-on-one attention, B is now back to thriving at school, I am enjoying (reluctantly) having something intellectual to do again with my time, and Josh... Well, he's happy for all of us :) And he's been gallivanting around India for the last 2 weeks, so even if he's not super happy, my sympathy level is very low.
But, as I mentioned before, I feel swamped. I've been getting involved more with social activities and there are lots of new families with kids that have arrived recently. It has made life here a bit more enjoyable, but busy as well.
A good sort of busy. Naturally, we're on the downhill slide although we still have no idea where we're going, or when, or for how long. I have to share something from another wife posted a few days ago. The unwritten beatitude - Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not break.
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