A glimpse of the future

Starting in June I will be homeschooling and apprenticing and in midwifery school. This week the kids are all on spring break and I'm planning to enjoy it and catch a glimpse of what our life will be like when the kids are done with school this year. (So far, that glimpse involves going to the library, coming home and having quiet/nap time, and then the kids running off to their friends' houses, not to be seen since. Homeschooling is great!)

I feel very confident about the decision to homeschool. I have given school a fair shot -- I dutifully get the boys out the door at 8am every morning M-F and pick them up at 2:30pm. I have only pulled them out of school once for a midwife-related endeavor, and that was to play with the other midwives' kids at a monthly meeting. I've done homework and sent in snack and paid for all the extracurriculars and attended Spirit Nights. I'm still not sold on school. I'm not anti-school, I just hate the bureaucracy and the rules and the general institution-ness of school. I don't like a schedule. This is yet another reason midwifery appeals to me; it's not going to be a 9-5 thing. I know that prenatals will be during business hours, but I also enjoy Leigh's late night prenatals.

I'm trying to find someone I can pay to be on-call for me for babysitting. I have two friends, Leslie and Ana, who are willing to watch the kids, but I don't want to burn through the friendships with unreturned favors, and I want someone who has a real incentive to babysit anytime I need a sitter, even if it's early in the morning or late at night. I met one woman who lives very close to where the birth center will likely be located, but if the birth center ends up not being at that location, she's far out of the way. And I'm just not 100% certain about her. I'm supposed to meet another woman this week; she lives very close to me but her email address includes the phrase Jesus Loves You so I'm not sure that will work out either (aside: I've been studying Paganism, upon recommendation from an administrative person at AAMI who I told me sad plight of being currently religion-less. Paganism very interesting, but I'm also not sold on it because it's all about nature and earth, and I'm a bug-killer and always will be.)

Today I requested my AAMI prepak, which is... okay I'm a little confused about the way AAMI works, but everyone says just to do it and I'll catch on as I'm going... I think it's like my orientation paperwork and assignments. It should take a few months to do. When I've finished that, I can request my actual curriculum, but not until I've paid AAMI $750 toward my tuition, which means it will be several months, and I'll need to make an extra payment or two. But I'm progressing along on time. I had to complete 15 assignments before requesting my prepak, which I've done. They included things like getting CPR certified, writing a few papers on what kind of midwife I plan to be, writing a summary of a Midwifery Today article, interviewing my mom and Oma about their births, and starting lists of midwifery-related topics I want to learn about/learn more about.

I'm trying to get more and more into the midwife frame of mind. The other afternoon, when I was picking the boys up from school, we stopped at the park on the way home and stayed for an hour or so. Meanwhile, I missed a bunch of calls from a midwife who plans to work at the birth center, and also from Leigh (when the midwife couldn't get me, she called Leigh. Leigh in turn called Emily, my bff, and then Dustin). Finally I got home and straightened everything out but I told everyone, "I don't keep my cell phone on me when I'm not on call, and I don't have anyone due until mid-May." (And that's as a doula; currently Leigh doesn't have anyone due til early July.) But Leigh told me I was thinking like a doula; a midwife is always on call. A client can always call with prenatal support issues, and I have to answer. So now I'm going to get a holder to clip my cell phone to me so that I'm always near a phone!