Alone time. Today I am spending 6 hours alone. Alone people!! I will admit I took my alone time for granted in the past. But today I am cherishing every moment. And this long overdue post, on the blog I was going to update twice weekly (ha!), is brought to you by today’s “alone time”. You see I homeschool my two children. Not only am I schooling them, but I am “raising” them too.  I am their primary … everything. I am teacher, counselor, cook, housekeeper, confidant, mentor, disciplinarian, photographer, and sometimes even playmate. We have thankfully made friends and acquaintances here. More than we ever thought we would. But without school and hockey and neighbors… without that structure and the myriad of unique humans that form that structure…my role as mom has taken on a whole new identity. Our circle got smaller moving here and therefore all four of us are wearing more hats for each other and fulfilling more needs for one another than we previously needed to. And this is okay. This is temporary. Truthfully I really enjoy being around my kids. They make me laugh, they challenge me, they impress me. But when I am teacher, and they are students, occasionally I want to slap them. Hard. So while my tendency is to feel guilty when I leave them (for the gym or the grocery store as that’s the only time I leave them!) because I am their everything, today I know I have earned this little break. I am spending the day poolside at a nearby hotel. The sun is shining which requires frequent dips in the pool to cool off and the Tradewinds are blowing. Life is fabulous.

I have been delinquent in my writings due to this lack of alone time, but also because we have been SO busy. I thought I’d have all this down time here. I had planned on 1)playing tennis twice a week, 2) spending a few hours each week working on my dietitian certification course work & taking lots of classes to keep my RD status from expiring, 3) surfing every day, 4) taking online continuing ed classes for my pilates certification 5)blogging regularly.  None of this has happened! I was naive to think I would have an abundance of free time. I have a full time job now!  On a typical school day the boys work for about 4-5 hours. During that time they have questions, and need my guidance off and on for most of those hours. Before and after and during school is cooking, eating, chores, surfing &/or beaching depending upon the day. Often its just a sunset surf session with dad while I cook dinner. In the evening before bed I do their lesson plans. The kids watch TV, read, and play board games. I am usually too tired after correcting their work & doing the next days’ lessons to do any of my own work or reading. Often I am in bed by 10 or 11 the latest – not long after the boys turn in. We don’t set an alarm clock for the morning. (This has been one of my most absolute favorite things about our life this year!!). Sometime between 7:30 & 8 each morning my consciousness notices the cacophony of chirping birds & the cows in the back begin to MOOOOO in earnest. The roosters join the chorus and often there is a random dog or two barking in the distance just to make sure we are fully awake. I love it. To wake to nature in that way just feels like its how we are suppose to greet the day. I get between 8-9 hours of sleep each night. My kids get about 10. Every day I feel well rested. I never get that afternoon slump that used to plague me in my previous life. I am energized and my mood is even. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times….sleep is everything! Yeah the sun helps for sure. But sleeeeeeep…. Now I know I could set an alarm, get up an hour or two earlier and do all those things on my list that I said I was going to do. But knowing that this is the first and likely last time in my adult life that I won’t have to be a slave to that predawn alarm, prevents me from setting it time & time again. So school days are very busy. Never stressful, never rushing, but busy nevertheless. On non-school days we are adventuring or we are hosting guests. We have been invited to do so many unbelievable things on this island. And we say “YES” to all offers! We have been boating (both sail & motor), snorkeling, surfing, cave exploring, & sightseeing. Today the boys competed in their first local surf contest! They did well and loved the welcoming spirit of the local surfing community. We have also had lots of visitors! Since we returned from New Jersey over Christmas, we have had three sets of company, back to back, for 20 days straight! We loved our time with everyone and enjoyed sharing our little island with our loved ones. We have many more visitors coming our way between now and May. I will admit I am stressing a little on how to fit school in with all the company staying with us. I plan to take it day by day, make a schedule and try to stick with it, and generally just navigate this with trust that it will all somehow work out. This is a special year, one to embrace, one to cherish. Often it is hard to put worry about their education aside and just go with the flow. I will always worry about it. I think the goal is to balance the worry with also being mindful of all these special moments we are sharing during this amazing year.