I’ve mentioned a couple times here and there that I used to be a teacher. My husband is still a teacher. His mother is a teacher. His cousin and his wife are teachers. My mother is a retired teacher, as well as her best friend/my godmother, and one of my aunts. And since I used to be a teacher in a number of different schools and went through education programs in college and grad school, my facebook feed is filled with teachers. Are we noticing a trend here?
Back in the day when my husband and I were both teaching, we kept similar schedules. We both went to bed early on weeknights. We both had summers off (minus music camps and continuing education and whatnot). Now, not so much. I work year-round, and since I rarely have to be at work before 10:00 a.m., I can stay up later at night, as that’s what works with my natural body rhythms.
There’s a commercial that my mom and the other retired teachers in that first paragraph love. I forget exactly what retailer it’s for, but it comes out at the end of every summer, it’s set to the song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, and has parents frolicking through the aisles, picking out school supplies, while their sullen children look on with a decided lack of enthusiasm. From what I’ve heard from my friends with school-aged kids, it is 100% accurate.
And now that I’m on a non-public school schedule, I have to admit – I LOVE this time of year as well. Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband and everything, but now every summer is an adjustment of having him home and here and I have to feed him and, well, he is all up in my business. By mid-August, I’m usually all GET OUT OF MY HOUSE. (Said with love, of course.) It’s just that the rest of the year I’m settled into my own routine, and all of a sudden, there’s another person in it. Nobody likes change, right?
But now we’re about a month into the school year. My husband usually goes to bed around 11:00 on school nights, and since I can sleep later than him, I usually go to bed between midnight and 12:30. And let me tell you, that hour to 90 minutes late at night is blissful. The house is quiet, I know there won’t be anyone or anything bothering me, and I can wind down all on my own. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I usually get some of my best writing done in that block. It’s amazing. I love it. And it’s a looooooong way to June! 😀