Last week was Audrey's first full week of school. She is just going three mornings per week, but it still is an adjustment for us. We are used to having freedom to do whatever we want most days, so having to get up and out the door three days a week is sometimes a challenge. And next year we will have to do it every day! Yikes!
I also started my fall piano teaching schedule last week. I have 15 students! That is a lot for me, more than I have ever had before. I had 9 last year. I'm excited to have some new students, and I am really excited about the extra income generated by 15 students. But...I'm not excited about my schedule. I have lessons scheduled every day, Monday-Friday. I used to try to cram all my lessons into two or three days, so I could have a few days off. But that didn't work out this year.
So I'm teaching in the after school/early evening hours, which is also the time when I would normally fix dinner. In our old house, Daniel would sometimes fix dinner while I was teaching, which was very helpful. In our new house, the piano room opens into the kitchen, and it is far too distracting to have someone in the kitchen cooking while I'm teaching. If our family wants to eat at a decent hour on piano lesson nights, then I have to be really smart in my planning and get the food prepped and ready to go during the afternoon. Then I can just stick it in the oven while I'm teaching, and we can eat shortly after I finish lessons. I did that last week, but I'm not sure I will be able to stay on top of the meal planning and prep all year long. I need to look into some crockpot recipes and freezer cooking ideas.
I also felt the need to have the house perfectly clean last week for all my piano students. Which meant that I had to have it all clean every day! I like having a clean house, but I don't always keep it perfectly clean on a daily basis. (Ok, I never keep it clean on a daily basis!) As a teacher, I like to have the house looking nice to maintain a professional appearance for my students and their families. Sometimes I have siblings and other family members who hang out at our house during lessons. In this house, our living room, dining room, kitchen and piano room are all visible to those who come for lessons. Plus I feel like the bathroom needs to be clean for anyone who might need to use it. So last week, I felt like I was spending WAY more time than normal cleaning my house every day.
Besides teaching, I have a couple of other small part time jobs. I do some work for my dad, and I take some portraits for people. Last week, I also had work for both of those jobs on my to do list, and I was not able to get it all done. That was frustrating to me!
And most importantly, I have two little girls to take care of every day! =)
None of these things are really that big of a deal; they probably just go along with being a responsible adult and parent. I'm sure there are many people who can juggle all those things much more easily than me. But for me, it is all just putting me on edge. I need to figure out how to balance parenting/teaching/meal planning/cleaning/working/having fun and how to do it all without feeling like a mess most of the time.
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