My children were most confused this morning. After traveling for the long, holiday weekend and spending Memorial Day enjoying the blessings of both the beautiful weather and our backyard, today was our first day of certified, Daddy-is-home-for-the-summer Vacation. And then I left “to teach” but was not wearing yoga pants or an UrbanHalo (totally wishing that was a paid sponsorship; it is totally not) and was not headed to the studio or the gym, so therefore my poor children were all whaaaaat? 

You see, normally when I teach at the college, it is a night class that once-a-week sends me out to campus to do my thing, meaning that my kiddos are used to seeing me leave in the evening; but even that did not happen this last semester due to low enrollment, so they are totally out of the habit of seeing Mama dressed and ready to go in teacher clothes. Throw in the extra twist of witnessing this in the early morning hours, and yes. Confusing.

Raegan must have asked me at least ten times, “You go to school? And Harrison, too?” because when Daddy leaves for school in the morning, so does Big Brother. So at least ten times, I explained, “No, just Mama.” and that I would be home by the time she was up from nap.

Perhaps you are confused at the moment, too. Fair enough, as it is not often that I actually write about being a college writing teacher, even though my bio/About page mention that I am in fact that. That most likely stems from the Littles and yoga taking up the majority of my focus and time, but also from the fact that what is there really to share about my teaching other than grading papers and the funny typos that occasionally end up in student writing? Not that the work is not valuable and there aren’t lessons to be learned; however, unless there are major un-ravelings, my blog antics come from my home or my mat, not my classroom.

Let me take a moment for honesty, here, and make a teacher confession – this adjunct life of mine was a lot easier when I only had the one babe and husband to juggle; so perhaps if I were to write about it, it would mostly sound like me whining about balancing another commitment as I try to squeeze in everything required for it (grading, reading, prepping) around naps and meals and activities and yoga classes. And how exciting is it to read a complaint list? I’d rather not, and so even though I do not write about it much, I focus on the gift of being able to be in the classroom part-time and how I am able to balance it all because I have such great support at home and a strong partnership with my tag-team-partner-extraordinaire husband.

Just as my hubs gets to go to school each day knowing I’m here running herd on the herd, it is because of him and our creative scheduling that I get to do the same – at least in the evenings, on weekends, and in the summer. We have always scheduled my classes to coincide with times that he is home so that the money I earn through teaching does not have to go directly to childcare that would be needed in my absence.

Does that mean that on certain days or weeks (or in the case of teaching a three-week summer session, months) do we feel like we are the proverbial two ships passing in the night? Very much so. But thank goodness for flexibility, both in our schedules and in our minds, for with it we are each afforded the opportunity  to extend ourselves outside the home and also within our own family, too.

The tag-in/tag-out system may get a little frantic at times, but I wouldn’t trade it or the person giving me those high-fives for anything.