Musings of a Mid East Mom: Changes

All of my studying paid off. I was accepted into nursing school and will start in just 3 weeks. This acceptance brings with it a lot of changes and challenges. I will be at school or in clinicals 4 days a week which means I'll have less time to be with my kids for homeschooling. Because of this, we've decided that both DDs will we doing a high school correspondence program on-line while helping my 2 youngest DSs when I'm not here. Oldest DS will now have to be up and out early so that I can drop him at college 2 days a week-a big change for him since he's used to sleeping in. He's also going to have 2 classes that go until around 10 pm-another change. Since he's still not driving yet, this was the only way we could work his classes so that someone could drop him off and pick him up on time. He'll be spending a lot of down time on Wed. between classes, hopefully studying but more likely goofing off. He is a 17 year old boy after all.

Speaking of driving, DD 1 S will be going for her learner's permit today. I think now it will be a race to see which oldest will get their license first. M is a very cautious driver (unusual for a teenage boy, I know). Because of this, he's been reluctant to get behind the wheel to build up the required 45 hrs. of driving time. We have three weeks (pre-start of school for everyone) to get as much driving time as possible for both kids.

The program I'm going into is a 12 month intensive program. Because of the pace of the program, I'm going to have to spend a lot of time both in class and studying. This means less time to get things done at home. I've set my oldest three the task of making dinner three nights per week, their choice for the menu. I remember when I was in high school, my sisters and I would be responsible for making dinner at least a couple of nights each week, so I'm pretty sure my kids can handle it. Three weeks to teach them how to make a wider variety of dinners than mac and cheese, spaghetti, hamburgers or pizza.

The prospect of having little free time for the next year has me trying to get through a mile long "to do" list. If I can accomplish what I want to, I should have 2 quilts to share pictures of as well as a linen closet redo, along with a whole lot of rearranging/straightening/cleaning/pitching out the junk. Fingers crossed I can get everything done.

In the meantime, here is a pic of DDs and their two best friends working on a physics experiment from about about 2 1/2-3 years ago. All but the youngest are now teenagers.