Surviving August

As many of you know I work in the field of residence life aka student affairs aka higher education aka my life doesn't exist in August. It's a lifestyle that I have been accustomed to since I started going to college in 1992. But with kids that lifestyle gets challenged every year. Karl is used to "single parenthood" during this month. He knows the crazy hours and training schedule we crazy ResLife professionals come up with. But how do you explain this to a 5 year old and a 2 year old? You can't and why try. All they know is that Mommy is at another meeting or that she isn't putting them down to bed. So we really tried to carve as much family time during these 140 hours plus work weeks.

Hall director training started Aug. 5th. HD training isn't too bad with work. I managed to get all my work with my HDs done during the day so that my evenings were reserved for my family. I am lucky to have very competent hall directors who didn't need my attention every moment. So the weekend of Aug. 14th I got family time and we headed to the beach (see Last weekend with Lulu post) but it was back to work on Sunday evening.

Then RA training started Tuesday, Aug. 17th. Daily schedule from 9am-5pm and then evening hall staff meetings which allowed me to have some family time. Karl took the kids into daycare every day. I had to pick them up some days due to Karl's night work schedule. I would rush from the last training session, drive all over town, and take the kids to the dining hall. Due to training we get to eat in the dining hall all month, which saves on food expenses but also food prep time. The kids love eating at the dining hall. All they can eat and all the people they can meet. After dinner we get home, baths, story time and then bedtime. Then off I would go to a meeting or prepare for the next day of training.

Sometimes I didn't see the kids at all. Thursday of this week I had a half hour with them at the dining hall before I had to run off to safety training night. Then came RATcamp which is 2-night overnight retreat we take the RA staff to. Saturday through Monday I was away, conducting team building, dancing, and doing lipsync rehearsals while Karl managed at home. He took the kids to the pool alot and tried to get afternoon naps in.

Once back, the second week of RA training is more intense. Getting up early to start at 8:30am, going full force all day, and then evening training sessions. We had to prep the halls for early check-in and then for the full blast of move-in. Karl did a wonderful job managing the apartment and the kids.

The students moved in and opening weekend events came and went and the first day of classes started. But the work doesn't stop. Now we have roommate issues, new student team development, and random student issues that arise. We are getting re-adjusted to not having this whole place to ourselves. Kids can't run around at whatever time they want. Karl is getting used to again students knocking at our door at all hours of the night. And I'm getting back into the habit of evening meetings. I'm going to try to limit those or balance that with no meetings on the following day to allow me more balance and time with the kids. But we all survived the August madness for one more year. Now the true craziness begins.