- Reorganized my kitchen
- Took part in a research study at the UW and earned $75
- Volunteered at the "balloon drop" and "move-a-thon" events at my boys' school
- Continued to update the school's web calendar as part of the web team
- Went one time to Louisa's to try and write with the writer's group I used to write with
And let's not even start on the self-help books. I have OD'ed on them. I have tried to do the quizzes and yet I can't get past the "what did your 10 year-old self enjoy" part. My ten year-old self was as fragmented as my 40-something self is. Let's see, she liked roller skating, being the fire-starter at camp-outs, watching the Muppets, reading, writing bad poetry and imagining herself as a teacher of the blind. (I read the book Follow My Leader by James Garfield and wanted to raise guide dog puppies.) I still would like to raise a guide dog puppy.
I also don't want to work full-time. While I don't enjoy being the whip-cracker for homework and Japanese workbooks, I realize that I'm the only one who will do it. This means I need to be home at 4:00 p.m. so I can do the snack, homework, reading, feeding, bedtime routine. I am also the homekeeper. I do the laundry, the doctor's and orthodontist visits, the grocery shopping, the toilet cleaning, the cooking and the bill paying. In short, I have become my mother. She also had a college degree which she did not use in a professional setting. Instead, she was an Army officer's wife and kept our lives together through the chaos of constant moves. I admire her sacrifice, but I want to leave more of a mark on the world than that. Talk about cognitive dissonance, I want my kids' to have that same stability, but I don't want to be a stay-at-home mom.
