Call me Susie Homemaker... and the mother of a clutz.

Haha - okay so I never in a million years would have ever thought of myself as even coming close to "Susie Homemaker" and really in truly I still don't. BUT, I do have to give myself some props for the moment. In light of my current insane schedule (17 credit hours at school, five classes total and soccer 6 days a week with the kids) I seriously started to panic about how on earth I was going to manage all this. Of course, my wonderful hubs to be has been 100% supportive and there to help all the way but you know how it is. Us moms, we think we have to do it all. The laundry, the dishes, the cleaning ... I leave the cooking to him usually, but this past week I sat down and did some serious planning. I needed to make life a little less crazy for us around here. So, I made a menu of 18 different meals that I can make in one cooking sesh - and then freeze to either pop in the oven and bake up in 20 - 30 mins or put in the crock pot and cook up through the day. So I have an entire grocery list of ingredients and a scheduled day to spend doing nothing but cooking. Hopefully this works ... if not I will cry!!  I also made up my second batch of homemade laundry detergent today, so far in the past 6 months I have spent a total of $12 on laundry detergent! I also found split chicken breast on sale this week for $.99. Just a little side note, I hate raw meat with a passion ... especially when it has bones. Yuck. So this morning I pulled out my pack of chicken and plopped it in the crock pot. Almost threw up having to touch it, but I did it! Yes I realize that I am weird. Once the meat was done I shredded it up and made chicken taco's for dinner tonight, and still have meat left over for chicken and dumplings tomorrow and another bag frozen for later! Three meals worth of meat for $5.00 - not to shabby! I also took the stock and bones, put them back in the crock pot and have my own little batch of chicken stock simmering away! I am stoked :) lol

Now for my dear clutz of a son. Yesterday he decided that he was going to turn around backwards in his seat on the bus, sit on his knees and talk to his sister. When the driver hit her brakes he toppled into the floor and busted his head open. An ER visit and two staples to the back of the head later, he will now be buckled into his seat on the bus! He was a tough little trooper though and barely even flinched when they put the staples in. My little guy is gonna be the death of me! 

Life is amazing, even on days that make me want to scream ... I wouldn't want to be anywhere else than where I am right now!

Changes

After many failed attempts, mind changes and brick walls - I finally walked back into a college class this morning. I never saw myself creeping on my 30th birthday and starting back to school, I never saw myself as a nurse, but both are the case now. To say I am nervous would be putting it mildly. I had always focused on the non-clinical side of health care. Then when I was laid off I saw it as an opportunity to finish my teaching degree. Finances would prevent that from happening and so after many sleepless nights I finally made my decision to pursue my nursing degree. I am nervous about the decision, but it seems to be the best choice for my family and myself at this time. So, I drive to school this morning and have the usual "new student" butterflies. I couldn't find the building that my class was in, couldn't find student parking, my financial aid is messed up and so my teacher wasn't even sure that I was supposed to be in her class! She opened by saying, "If you are not planning to give 100%, to exceed at every corner, and to put every spare moment of the next two years of your life into this degree then you need to leave now. You are in one of the most competitive programs offered. There are 127 in this class and only 30 of you will actually receive the letter to attend the actual program to become a nurse. The 30 nursing students that started this fall all had GPA's above 3.82." Wow. That is all I can say. Wow. I am nervous beyond belief. I am trying to keep telling myself that I can do this, but in the back of my mind I am wondering if I can really do it. It's a lot of long study hours, hard curriculum, traveling and crossing some roads that I am worried about. I don't really like patient care, I have a horribly weak stomach, I don't like to even touch people! I have children at home who need me as well, who play sports and do other things. I wonder if I am going to be able to even make ends meet long enough for me to return and finish school. Brandon is also in school, and we are planning a wedding in October. So yeah, I am nervous! But I am a firm believer that I can do anything that I put my mind too. I have been at points many times in my life when I thought that I wasn't going to be able to make it, or get through it, but I did. I have struggled and barely covered the bills before, and I made it then too. So, yes I can do this. And yes I can make it into that 30 that get into the program. I can survive for the next two years on barely making it by, very little sleep and limited time for anything else. In the end it will be worth it and I will look back on this road as just another bump that I made it over. I know that in the end this is something that I can be proud of, that my kids can be proud of and something that will be good for them! I just need all the prayers along the way that I can possibly get.