And the world is new!

What do you do when you are laid off after 7 years at your job?

In my case, you become a stay at home mom. A job I never thought I would have.

I am not quite unemployed yet, I still have 12 weeks remaining on my contract. This is good. We are also moving very soon. We are hoarding as much money as we can in the next 12 weeks. The goal is for me to stay home for one (school) year, re-evaluate, and go from there, without burning through our savings. The two other teachers in my subject are very close to retirement so I could get called back anywhere within the next 1-3 years.

In order to keep some kind of structure over the summer, I plan on homeschooling-lite with my 3 year old son Jack. He has already started pre-K due to his speech delay. I have ordered a few supplies (all found on Pinterest, of course.) He will likely be in pre-K again next year since he only started halfway through this current school year. We do not want him in kindergarten at <4 years old either. While I am a qualified teacher with k-12 certification, I do not feel going whole-hog homeschooling would be a good idea in our situation. He gets speech therapy at school and has been thriving. He has only been in pre-K for 3.5 months and his expressive and receptive speech has exploded. Now if only he would poop on the potty, he could rule the world!

We also have an almost 10-month old daughter named Lila. She is sweet and wonderful and I could not have asked for a better baby. Jack adores her. Although I have actively discouraged it, she is a big time mover. My guess is that she will start walking within the next few weeks. She has incredible balance. With her, I have become a believer in extended breastfeeding. With #1, I had to heavily supplement and he was always a poor eater. Lila is not. She has never had to supplement and she is an excellent eater, I see no reason to stop nursing any time soon. While I don't plan on going until she is 3, I do plan on making it to at least 2. I will be drop-kicking all 3 of my pumps as soon as she turns 1 though! The idea of child-led weaning scares me just a bit, because the idea of nursing a 4 year old scares me. A lot.

When we finally move (onto a property with 17 acres) I plan on gardening, something I have never done. I also plan on composting, crafting more, refinishing furniture, getting out more to make some friends, sewing more, possibly learning how to knit, exploring nature with my kids (I am INCREDIBLY indoorsy, so this is a big deal for me), basically doing the finding myself that I never did as a 20-something. I literally have no hobbies. I would LOVE to get some. I just want to be passionate about something. I used to be passionate about music, but since that has been my job for so long, it has FELT like a job for a long time.