Processing… - The Glorious Mundane

Phew, it has been a hot minute since I’ve posted here on my blog! Honestly, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve had a chance to even think through what has transpired in our lives in the last month or so.

I am sure that most of you saw my blog posts announcing our big life changes. Here is Part 1 (Theo started grad school). Here is Part II (Theo resigned as a police officer) and Part III (Theo is named Executive Director of CHESS Christian School).

I feel like I need a space to kind of “verbally” process all of this, and my blog is kind of that place for me. However, this new job also calls for a new layer of decorum, professionalism, and confidentiality and I have been unsure about how much I can truly share publicly. Since our family now officially represents the school, I need to be careful that we are representing well in all ares of our lives, including on my blog. I’ve always been careful about what I write, but I have also been accused of “oversharing”, so….its sometimes hard to know if I’m making the right choice by sharing our lives in a public space.

However, I am still me, and I still have this platform, and I still enjoy writing and I am always an open book, sharing about our lives. So I’m stepping carefully into the water of beginning to “verbally process” all of this.

ANYWAYS…can I just share about May and how crazy it was, and how Theo and I both crawled across the finish line? May TOOK US OUT. And here is why:

Wednesday, May 4th Theo signed the contract and was officially the new Executive Director of CHESS Christian School. We were THRILLED but also sworn to secrecy and could not tell anyone because the news needed to be told to the appropriate people first. We really wanted people to find out officially and not in a rumor mill sort of way. Still, it did not feel real because literally no one knew.
Friday, May 2 Theo turned in his resignation as a police officer. Once his resignation is turned in, he still had to work two more weeks. The next two weeks were hard for me as my anxiety skyrocketed over him getting hurt or injured. I also think it’s so hard to work with heart when you know you are done doing that job. Transition is just hard!
May 2-4 was my half marathon weekend and we had out of town family staying with us. So much fun, but also so exhausting!
Monday, May 5th Theo was announced to the whole community as Executive Director. The emotions were HIGH for me. I had to turn my phone off and just *breathe* so that I could perform normal household chores while it felt like everyone else was finding out that our whole lives were changing. As soon as the announcement went out, he started receiving meetings, requests, and paperwork to begin his new role, even though it didn’t officially start until the 19th.
Wednesday, May 7th we hosted my Mom’s birthday dinner
Thursday, May 8th, we all went to a Dayton Dragons Game
Friday, May 10th Theo and I went to a gala for Center for Christian Virtue
Sunday, May 11th was mothers day and we got to have dinner at my parents house! This was also the night that the stomach bug round 1 struck our house.
Monday, May 12th Theo started two grad school classes to get his masters degree in school administration. Stomach bug round 1 continued and round 2 began that evening.
After round 1 and round 2 cleared out, we continued the rest of that week as normal.
Friday, May 16th stomach bug round 3 hit. This was also Theo’s last official day as a police officer. He went to work, turned in all his paperwork, turned in his gun and his badge, turned in all his gear and was officially done as an officer. He left work and went straight to school to serve at graduation. He stayed to help cleanup and got home around 10:30. He was gone 6am-10:30pm.
Saturday, May 17 he went to work as a police officer (he would just work at a desk and take phone calls), but I called him and asked him to come home and help me deal with the incredibly sick kiddo we had. He came home and I was able to run some errands while he stayed with the sick kiddo. Sunday Theo also went to work and that was his last day to work for Dayton Police Department.
Monday, May 19 Theo officially started his job as Executive Director, even though he had already been doing much of the role for the past two weeks (in addition to his full time hours as a police officer). Thankfully, he no longer had any police hours to work and was able to focus directly on his new role, in his new office. This day was such a relief and it felt like a million pounds was lifted off our shoulders.
Unfortunately, tummy bug round 3 was still lingering and that child wasn’t able to go to school on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I could not take that day off so Theo ended up taking that child to work with him and having a child in his office all day on his second day on the job. It wasn’t ideal. It’s not the industry standard. But, honestly? It’s our school. No, teachers and employees aren’t allowed to just bring their sick kids to school. But the staff and administration truly see employees as members of their families first, and are quick to accommodate the way that parents need to take care of their children.
Wednesday, May 21 was field day and it was not a great day for me. I was so burnt out and exhausted, and it was just overwhelming to be there all day every day that week. I went to bed that night just knowing that we only had one day of school left, and I just had to get through it. Well, unfortunately tummy bug round 4 hit me so hard that night. It was awful. I was so sick, and then having panic attacks on top of that almost all night long.
Thursday, May 22 was not only the last day of school, but also my birthday. My students had a performance first thing in the morning and each of my kids had a performance and received certificates, and Ezra had his Kindergarten graduation (thankfully first thing in the morning), so I got myself to school and survived through the morning, but then took myself home to bed and CRASHED. I mean, crashed and burned. I could not have gotten out of bed if I tried. My parents brought dinner over and I just stayed in bed until they asked me to come open presents. I did get out of bed for that haha 🙂
Friday, May 23 was supposed to be classroom cleaning day, but I opted to skip and Theo and the kids went to school and cleaned my whole classroom for me. Bless them. I rested all morning and then decided I felt well enough to travel that weekend to a memorial service for a friends Dad. I drove by myself to SC (about 8 hours) and managed pretty well.
Sat was the memorial service and some quality time spent with my friend. I spent some more time with her on Sunday morning before driving back to Ohio and crashing so hard. Poor Theo had spent the whole weekend solo parenting while also feeling sick (tummy bug round 5, canthispleasejustend)
Monday, May 26th was our 13th wedding anniversary and our gift to each other was being alive :). No, really. We had zero energy or desire to do anything else. We were just so grateful to be through the worst of the sickness and to have made it to the end of the school year.
Tuesday, May 27th we attended a farewell reception for Tara, whose role Theo is taking over. It was an emotional night as Tara has been an incredible pillar for this community. Saying goodbye is always so hard, and this one was especially hard. At the end of the reception, everyone in the room surrounded Tara and her husband Jeff as well as Theo and I and prayed over us. It was a very powerful moment for us.
Wednesday, May 28th we hosted our annual end of the year bonfire. We invite all of my class, and all of my kids invite their classmates. There is usually well over 100 people there. It’s my absolute favorite night of the year. It was raining ALL day and we were unsure if it was going to let up in time for the bonfire. But about half an hour before people started to arrive, the skies cleared and the sun even came out. It was perfect.
Thursday, May 29th we got up and got packed to head out for the weekend to my Grandpa’s funeral. The drive was about 10 hours, but we decided to split it into two days and make a pit stop at Niagara Falls. We drove 6 hours the first day and stayed in Niagara Falls. We got to see the falls in the evening and then went back in the morning for another visit. On Friday we finished our drive to NE Pennsylvania where we met up with most of my extended family staying in a hotel.
Saturday morning was my Grandpa’s burial and memorial service. We had a small luncheon afterwards, and then we loaded up in the car and began the drive back to Ohio. We managed to drive all 10 hours on Saturday and got home around 11pm.
Sunday was the first day that finally felt like we were able to breathe. We are now almost all the way through this week, and I feel like I’m finally able to think and process, and even relax a little bit. Mostly, I’m catching up on house chores that haven’t been done in WEEKS.