180 days as a teacher

Where did the time go? I thought I would have time to do all sorts of planning and thinking, and all the grading that had to be done... and here we are. Friday night - school starts on Monday and I have not tackled the research project grading yet...

We had a party - well, OK, let's call it a "get-together" because the term "party" would imply lots of booze and loud music, and someone inadvertenly revealing some dark secrets that spills out thanks to the alcohol level in their blood. What happened at our place was nothing like that.

My oldest friends from childhood and high school (why am I even stating both as if there was a difference?) started arriving around 4PM, lugging around booster seats, diaper bags under one arm, and kids stuffed into their snowsuits under the other... 4PM was a strategic time - not only did it give me most of the day to get the house in decent order, but all the toddlers and babies were able to nap either before coming over, or in the car on the way here.

Once the last guests made it over the threshold, the house was pretty full of action, with 11 adults and 14 kids, ranging in age from a couple months to 9 years old. If you've ever been to the zoo, and seen the monkeys all get excited at the same time for no apparent reason, you have a pretty good picture of what was transpiring at our place. Parents of the younger mobile kids were trailing them closely, monitoring the stairs and the coffee table corners while other ran constantly to the fridge for milk, or to the diaper bag for another diaper.

I was tired just watching them tend to their kids - slipping in a two-minute conversation here and there before dashing to some corner of the house - and I didn't realize how crazy the whole evening was until everyone had left.

And let's be clear - we kept the last guests in our doorway until it was 10:00PM sharp - because we couldn't let them leave at a single-digit time (what kind of party ends that early?????).

We debated having a 4th child (a while back, not during this party!). We decided a little over a year ago not to have anymore kids (let's remember that our baby #2 turned out to actually be #2 AND #3 in the form of twins) and once hubby took care of making that permanent, I was haunted with some regret.
I no longer have ANY regret about this decision. Things are JUST starting to get easier with the twins who are now 3 1/2 years old. Watching the breastfeeding, the diapering, the running around and the constant worrying that something dangerous was about to be swallowed, I can't help but think that we made the right decision.