Change Is The Word

Good morning, everyone! I hope the first two weeks of 2020 have been kind to you. Around here we are just now settling into the new year. Around here, our regular activities have only been back into full swing for a week. We took advantage of the extra time off by taking a short trip with my two adult children. “ROAD TRIP!!” When they were all young, and all lived at home we took a lot of road trips. We still do take a fair number of weekend road trips with the two who are still at home, but I very much miss having all the kids in one place. So, it was pretty special for my adult children to fly in for a family road trip.

However, now that the older kids have gone back to their lives, and the younger kids have resumed college classes, work, homeschooling and band, it’s time to focus on what 2020 brings us.

This is a year of… reorganization and change for us, I think.

• Our youngest will graduate high school, and start college this year. Since she’s only 14, that brings it’s own set of challenges. She’s chosen a college roughly 2 hours away from home, so we’ll be finding the best ways to make that work. Our current plan is to buy a good used travel trailer and for my husband and I to alternate our time between home and the other city. It will be less expensive than renting an apartment, and truthfully, my daughter and I both prefer being in our own space, rather than renting someone else’s space. Plus, we’ve been talking about upgrading the pop-up camper to something a little bigger. We all enjoy traveling, and a camper will get a lot of use.
• As far as kiddo’s last couple months of high school go, the high school band she plays for is now meeting in the afternoon, instead of the morning. So, we’re having to adjust to a whole new and different daily schedule.
• My husband is settling into a new job, and a new job role. And he’s getting used to working from home.
• My husband is also taking a tri-level certification class for a database language. This is a requirement for the new job.
• Starting next week he’s also taking a second database language certification class. This one is the database language used by Amazon. He signed up for the class before he landed the new job. He didn’t set out to take two database certification classes at the same time, but that’s how it worked out.
• I’m deciding what my life looks like after our youngest graduates from high school. Sure, I’m going to be going back and forth between home and the town we’ll be living in for kiddo’s college, but what will I DO. Who am I when I’m no longer “full-time homeschool mom”? I’m doing a lot of journaling to figure that out.
• I’ve gone back to school part-time. I can’t see clients here in Alabama as an ND. The super-restrictive laws regarding all things natural health here have been a huge stumbling block for me. To get around that, I’ve decided to practice as a Health Coach instead. But, in order to do that, I need to graduate from a certified Health Coach program. So, I’m taking the next year to complete IIN’s Health Coach classes. Doing so will legally allow me to help people achieve their health goals.
• Along with that, I’m thinking, and planning what I want my Health Coach business to look like. How many clients do I want to see each week, how much writing do I want to do. Eventually, I want to travel and speak around the country, but that will wait until my youngest two kids are adults.
• My 17 year old son turns 18 this year. He should also be very close to completing his bachelor’s degree by the end of this year. He’s planning on continuing on for his master’s degree.
• Same son is also getting ready to test for a promotion at work. They want to make him an entry-level manager. When he takes, and passes, the test, his work schedule will change.

Wow! Reading that over, I realize that is a whole lot of change. So, how are we going to deal with that?

Communication and self-care. Everything comes back to these two things. Each of us must take the time to check-in with ourselves so that we know what we want and need. And, then we absolutely must communicate those needs with those around us.

For me, I know I need to carve out time and energy to meditate every day, to practice my flute, and clarinet, to walk, and to complete body weight exercises. For my kids I need to attend community band rehearsals with my daughter. I need to make the space to play role-playing, and video games and watch specific YouTube shows with my son. We are also planning a whole family trip to Philadelphia next December to watch the Mummer’s Parade. It’s up to me to make that happen.

During times of stress, or change it’s important to know yourself well enough to be able to identify what has to stay the same. What activities, people, meals, routines do you need in order to feel safe, grounded, and confident in times of great upheaval?