penn

Life Lesson

I saw this on a reddit thread today and had to share.

A wise teacher once had this conversation with me:
WT: Do you know what all martyrs have in common?
Me: No, what?
WT: They all died for their cause.

Life with a Toddler

Today, I had a morning science program from 9-noon at my school that I helped run. I snuck out at 7.45 am while everyone else was sleeping to go set up. By the time I got home at 12.30, I was pretty tired. I tried to get Julie to nap, but she obstinately didn't want to; perhaps that's the reward for letting her sleep in. Our living room is fairly toddler-proof, so I let her play and watch SuperWhy! (her very favorite show on Netflix from PBS kids from which she is learning the alphabet and perhaps even how to read). I relaxed on the couch. I dozed off but thought I was keeping an eye on things.

Tonight, I decided to get the diaper bag all set up for our visit to the Minnesota Children's museum in St. Paul tomorrow. I noticed Julie had been playing with it. Obviously, I slept longer (and deeper) than I had realized. Not only did she play with it; she repacked the diaper bag for me. I was hilariously surprised to find that she had shoved all her diapers into the front pocket (where we keep snacks) and zipped it back up. The entire body of the diaper bag itself was empty, and every other item had been stashed in another pocket somewhere.

All is in order now. We are repacked with items in the correct (for Mama) pockets. Extra snacks, two changes of clothes, and a few distractions are ready to go too. I'm excited to venture up, meet some friends, and have a great time.

Passion

One of the blogs (The Frugalwoods) I read just achieved one of their big goals; they bought a homestead in the woods. They currently live in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They're moving there soon to pursue a simpler life, according to them. They have been able to do so due to extreme frugality and high levels of savings. Their most recent post is describing the homestead they just bought and some of their plans. At the end, they pose the intriguing question: what would you do if you didn't have to earn a paycheck?

This is an excellent question with no easy answer for me. It's something I've pondered on and off over the years. I think the key part is not needing to earn. I've been unemployed before with lots of time on my hands, but the stress of not having a job and possibly running out of money was distracting. I am a good saver and have a solid cushion set aside, but it's not enough to retire indefinitely. So, when I didn't have a job, what did I do? I played music (mostly ukulele), read books, meandered on the internet, and ran more often. Nothing major but mostly fulfilling when I wasn't stressed about not working.

There's a big part of me that says I would continue teaching. When all is going well, I truly love my job. Interacting with students, sharing my excitement, and seeing them geek out about learning is wonderful. But then there are the stressful times, when I have too much planning, too much grading, and not enough motivation to get it all done. I often feel overloaded. But then summer hits. While I enjoy doing nothing for awhile, I really appreciate the structure and focus that my job brings to my life. Without it, I start to feel diffuse, and there's not much pressure to get anything much done.

My hope for this summer is to work on planning for one of my classes. I teach three different classes. One is mostly planned and just requires little tweaks from year to year; that is mostly not stressful, although there is a lot of grading for that class. The other two are less well-planned. My hope is to get a second class to the "well-planned" stage during three weeks I have slated for pure work this summer. I am curious to see if getting more planned helps me have a bit more time during the school year. I think I would enjoy my job even more with a bit less planning and a little more time for family and myself in the evening.

I am glad that I have found something I truly care about to do as my job. I don't have the patience to simply punch the clock for a paycheck. I enjoy doing something fulfilling. But maybe just a little bit less of it some of these weeks.