Yay May!

Welcome to May! To me, May is Hope and Smiles and Joy and Anticipation and Love. I just love May!
This year, the first day of May marks an occasion as I'm now counting down to my last day of work. Later this month when we have our closing program I'll be done! That's right, I'm "retiring"! :-) I love what I do, but it's time for me to be done.
Why quit if I love it? Working with children is tiring! When I take care of children, I give a myself to them... I care about their growth and development, their home life and parent's concerns, and that they're eating their veggies at lunch. I'm coloring and building with blocks, showing how to share, teaching about shapes and numbers and letters, and potty training a room full of kids. Don't throw toys! Get off that chair! Don't pick your nose! Don't lick your friends!!
Then when I get home I am tired and hardly have enough in me to get through the rest of the day. I can play OR clean OR do laundry/dishes. And on good days I can do those things with patience and joy in my heart. I'd love to say I could do it all, but I can't. That's ok, I'm human after all. There's definitely a balance to having a happy family and home life, and I had to find it.
After months of praying and discussing with my husband, the balance for our family is for me to quit working and stay home. After all, if I give of myself to other people's kids and my duties at work, and then don't have enough left for my own kids, family and home, what's the point?
Staying home with my children was always what we had planned for our family. I had promised my husband one more year of work to help pay off debt. Now, the credit card that my paycheck was going toward is paid off! Woohoo!
I'd say all kinds of sentimental things about missing my coworkers, but they're not letting me get away that easily! I'll be subbing, and I was "convinced" to sit by the pool this summer and be a lifeguard. They really had to twist my arm...
The kids will also be going a few days a week to give this momma some much needed time to do personal things, like go to the gym, or go grocery shopping without extra items ending up in the cart. :-) My hope is a less stressed momma = more patience = happier family. Sounds good right? Right.