Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Job Share Part 1

Hello!  It has been awhile since I have actually gotten a chance (had the energy:) to sit down and write a meaty blog post.  This year it has been mostly random sale posts!  I've planned this post out in my head several evenings as I am drifting off to sleep, but haven't actually gotten it typed up until now!
If you don't know I have almost 4 year old twin girls and an almost 2 year old son.  They are the most wonderful part of my life and are definitely the apple of my hubby and my eyes! Our world is busy, busy, busy, but so much fun.  There really and truly  is never a dull moment!

The reality of teaching, even after 14 years in the same grade level, is that it is exhausting!  You are just truly mentally and physically exhausted at the end of every day.  Since my girls were born I have been so completely torn.  We couldn't afford for me to stay home at that point, but I came home exhausted every day to newborn twins.  I don't feel like I got to enjoy them as much as I wanted to!  My hubby was able to be home with them 2 days a week and my parents watched them the other 3 days.  So really the only days I got to be mommy 100% was on the weekends.  I couldn't have asked for a better situation than to have family watch them, but I was miserable.  I felt like I wasn't good at anything that I was doing! I wasn't the teacher I wanted to be or the mommy I wanted to be.
Then 2 days before my girl's 2nd birthday we had our little guy.  Now I was a mommy of 3!  Even more exhaustion and mommy guilt followed that first year of his life.  So my hubby and I decided we needed to figure out a way to allow me to be mommy first and teacher 2nd.  We spent the 2013/2014 school year scrimping and saving and following the Dave Ramsey plan so that we could afford for me to be home more.  It was, and still is, a ton of sacrifice, but soooooo worth it!
The timing was perfect because a good friend of mine had come back to teaching fourth grade after spending many years home with her own kiddos.  It was a rough start back to teaching and she was ready to do something else.  We chatted and decided that we would love to job share in second grade!  Our district is very job share friendly and our principal totally supported us staying at our school and job sharing!  We were approved at the end of last year and this has been our first year job sharing.  It has been amazing!!! 
After the first week of school this year I went in to my principal's office and thanked her for allowing me to love my job again.  I was able to be the mommy I wanted to be and also to continue doing what I love...teaching!  I come to work every day excited to see my kiddos and to teach! 
More to come on the logistics!!!! 
Lisen:)

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