For a long time, summertime didn't mean much to me other than it would be hotter than Hades outside. Now that I have children in school, summertime has a whole different connotation.
You may have noticed my lack of Blog posts during the summer months. That is because during the summer, not only do I have my 3 children (ages 5, 4, and 3), but I also have my niece and nephew (ages 7 and 10). During the summer break, my house is chaos. Some days we would just hang out at the house and play. Other days, we would try and get out and do fun things. We would go to the movies, go swimming at my best friend's house, go to McDonald's PlayPlace, or go bowling. Any outing with 5 children in tow is sure to bring chaos with it. So, for the last 3 months, there has been too much going on for me to even consider posting on my Blog.
Most of the time, I write when my two oldest are at school and my youngest is taking a nap. However, right now my oldest are at school, and my youngest is hanging out on the potty with my iPhone. He likes to watch animated movies while sitting on the potty. I don't mind. Anything to keep me from changing stinky pull-ups is alright with me. If he wants to spend 30 minutes on the potty trying to poop, I won't complain.
The beginning of summer break is exciting. The kids are excited to do fun things and I look forward to spending time with them. By the end of summer break, I am worn out and praying for the first day of school. There is only so much "together" time a Mom can take.
School is back in session and all is right with the world (for now). I'm sure once my youngest starts school, I'll be lonely. At that point, it will be time for me to find some sort of part-time work. I won't be able to sit at home all day with no one to look after. That's not my style. My problem will be finding a job that will allow me to be home in the mornings and afternoons to get my kids off to school and get them off the bus in the afternoons.
My oldest son, Brennan, has ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Impulse Control Disorder, and Anxiety. He doesn't do well with changes and transitions. When I was working and Brennan had to go to daycare in the morning before school and in the afternoon after school, he didn't do well. He was getting in trouble both at school and at daycare on a daily basis. After evaluating our budget and determining that we can scrape by on my husband's income and our adoption subsidy, we decided the best thing for Brennan right now is me being a stay-at-home Mom. This prevents him from having too many transitions during the day. It also provides me the opportunity to spend time with my children while they are young. Brennan will be in 2nd grade when Jordan (3) starts Kindergarten, so perhaps he will be better equipped to deal with the transition from daycare to school back to daycare. Only time will tell.
I have always worked. I started working when I was 16. I was laid-off from work in 2009 for one year. The first few months were very difficult for me. However, I settled into a routine and things got better. I read a lot of books during that year off. That was the longest period of me not working.
At the beginning of 2014, I was let go from my job. I was absolutely heartbroken as I had worked there for 10 years. The workload there was lessening up and my boss had some sort of prejudice about Foster Children, so, he let me go. I honestly think his opinion of me changed once I took in Foster Children. I was still working my butt off, but his attitude towards me changed completely. From that point on, nothing I did was good enough. He began nitpicking at everything I did. I am a perfectionist and a hard worker. I did everything to the best of my ability. During the first six months I had the children, there were many days I had to be home because the kids were always getting viruses from daycare. I would often work from my home computer while dealing with vomit, diarrhea, runny noses, fevers, infections, etc. That still wasn't enough for him. In February 2013, I came down with pneumonia and had to be put in the hospital. He was blowing up my phone while I was in the emergency room. When I told him they were admitting me for a few days, he actually asked if my husband could bring my laptop to the hospital so I could work from there. There was no regard for my well-being. I was too sick to even contemplate working. It was ridiculous. After the first six months with the kids, the illnesses slowed down and I was at work every day. This still wasn't enough for him. So, when the workload changed, he let me go. I still keep in touch with some of my former co-workers (but not my former boss, he got deleted from my friends list).
So, now I am a stay-at-home Mom. Although I was really hurt about being let go, I know that God's hand was in it. As they say, when one door closes, another one opens. Being at home has been the best thing for my kids. They are the most important thing in my life right now.
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