We are super excited about the first day of school around here. And, it’s not just Sky going back to school…I’ll be going back to school as well…as a substitute (clerical and para educator) for the school district!

Gosh I can’t tell you how exciting that is to me. It’s been over 20 years since I’ve had to apply for a job with a new company! I was overwhelmed with the prospect to be honest. But, this went so smoothly and I was offered a job without even being interviewed!

I really hope this works as well for our family as I think/hope it will. I just really want a job that offers me as close to the same start and stop time as Sky, and the same Holiday, late start, early release, snow days, and vacation as Sky will have.

I distinctly remember a moment when I was 8 or 9 when I realized that my family was not “normal”. Both my parents were school district parents, and had all the same vacations/breaks I did. I really thought that was how the whole world worked, and when I realized it didn’t work that way for everyone I was thankful, and felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

One or the other parent was always home when we got home from school and we took extra long road trips during the summer, because we all had the same time off. We got to run wild on our property all summer long, riding horses, playing in our tree house, and just enjoying our 6 acres of woods.

Sky likes us right now. She thinks Mommy and Daddy are pretty cool, and wants to spend almost all her time with us. If we can make that happen, then my goodness I’m going to do whatever I can to be there for her. We get one shot at raising this amazing little person, and I want to make every effort to do what I think is best for her, and Mark and I.

Please note, this is not a judgment for or against other ways of working/parenting. The world would be a boring place if we all did things the same way! And, different things work for different folks..I’m pretty shocked with myself that staying home was what I wanted to do…it’s not for all and pre-Sky I had no intentions of being home with her. Had I not been laid-off it probably wouldn’t have happened, so no judgment from me at all!

This is simply me, (becoming my parents really ;-)), making an attempt to do what’s best for Mark, Sky, and myself…period. I don’t think I’m a better parent or putting more effort into my parenting than anyone else. I’m really fortunate to be in a position that we can live off of a single paycheck, so I have the freedom to work non-tradition hours for less pay if it means I’m home with Sky when she’s out of school. Actually it’s not fortune or luck…we work really hard to manage our money (as I know others do, not saying they don’t) and make purchasing/credit decisions based on a single income. Even though I’ll be working we are still going to be making very careful money choices to make pursuing a non-traditional and lower paying job than I had before work.

Having grown up in a school district family I know the behind the scenes stuff that can go on, the challenges of educating the youth in our community, and I really want to play whatever part I can in supporting the school district, the staff, the students, and parents. I think this is something I can be really good at, and am so excited to see how it unfolds. I’m crossing my fingers it works out well for us, and makes for a happy Team Yeatman!

First day of school is Sep 6th…can’t wait!