New Role

For the last six and a half years, being a teacher was a part of my identity. It wasn't just my job, it was who I was. Even when I spend time with my friend's kids, I still retained my teacher identity, and felt the need to impart some wisdom, even as we had fun together.

I know that at the core, I will always be a teacher, and as soon as Grace comes home, part of the role of a mom is to teach your child. Not just academic things either, but how to walk, talk, be polite, etc.

Trouble is, as of tomorrow, my role is in limbo. My teaching job is done until I am ready to apply to be a teacher again a few years from now. My mom job doesn't start until Grace comes home. So until then, I am a stay at home wife. I hope to make Blake proud, and especially while I don't have another role, I hope to have him feel like a lot is getting done each day (though I fear my summer habit of wasting days will come back and be my daily foe).

It is truly a strange feeling to have nothing to have to be planning for in the classroom. Even summers and breaks had a component of anticipating the next part of the year, or the next school year.

I am truly excited about my next chapter in life, but at the same time, it was a very strange feeling to have someone else teaching my students, and even stranger to turn in my key at the end of the day Friday.

Reading over this post, I can tell it is more disjointed than most of my posts, but I FEEL disjointed. I am sure I will adjust, but for now, it is like waking up in a strange location and having to get your bearings, remind myself where I am, what I am doing.

I think one of the biggest challenges our family will face from this is figuring out how to adjust to being a one income family. Towards this end, we are looking at where we can cut out, and making more items from scratch. I got a great book called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter where someone already did the grunt work to find out if making your own items is both cost and time effective. Some items she recommends making from scratch, and some she says not cost effective or are such a hassle, they aren't worth it. It is a well written book, and I recommend it.

Last week, we made our own bread:

It was surprisingly easy (with our bread maker), tasted great, and as an added bonus, made the house smell AMAZING! It saves a bit every week that we make it, and we hope to make it a habit. Plus, as an added bonus, I found a recipe with more protein than the bread we were buying, which Blake likes. 

This week, we will make our own bread again, and also try making our own yogurt and tortillas!
 
We did the price comparisons to decide what to buy in bulk, and from where. We are cutting out most of what we can (while keeping a few "luxuries" to keep us happy) in hopes of having the combination of savings and Blake's paychecks carry us until I go back to work again. I feel confident that we can do it!