Phew! We have had a lot going on lately. So, first off, Dylan quit his job on Monday. Despite all the times over the last year that he thought about just walking out for one reason or another, and all the imaginative ways we had discussed him quitting, he just ended up telling his boss and giving his 2 week notice. So, his last day is October 1st. He's been surprisingly sad about it the last few days. This is because he knows that all the work that he has done to build a productive water department will be undermined and result in a return to the mess that he started with. He will also miss several people who work there. However, among other things, he is tired of being unappreciated and unsupported, and feels like he couldn't take the abuse much longer and stand by while such poor decisions were being made. He will most likely be doing some consulting back to them on some issues that he is most familiar with, so I expect we have a little while before he becomes the city's worse nightmare at city council meetings and turns into "that crazy guy" who is always getting up at meetings.
The job he accepted is with a consulting firm called Water Systems Consulting. It is a small engineering firm that is based in San Luis Obispo. He is quite familiar with them, since they have worked with him on some projects while he has been at Morro Bay, and the owner has actually offered him a job several times over the last year or so, so as Dylan was nearing the end of his patience, he talked to him seriously, and got an official offer. He will have to do some travelling, which is painful for us, but seemed inevitable for his next job. Whatever it was going to be, there was no real way to beat a 2 minute walking commute! So, I am sad about that. But, he looks forward to the job; the work will be more focused on construction than at morro bay, which he does great at. Click here if you want to read about the cool giant dam removal project that he will be working on, as long as the company gets the job. He is hoping to take some time off in between, so hopefully that works out!
The other thing that has been keeping me up at night is Carter's school. We have switched him out of the school we started at (Ethan's school) and into the Family Partnership Montessori Charter school. Ethan is still at Del Mar, and I am planning on moving Carter back for 1st grade. I need to be careful with how I talk about the reasons for the switch, for the sake of my little readers. I will just say, I insisted on a more nurturing environment, and the principal was not interesting in accommodating my request, so we looked into the charter school. I am really happy about the switch (and Carter is happy too). The Montessori school is right by our house (even on the same street), so it is actually easier to have our kids at two different schools, even though you wouldn't think so. And the school day requires no driving, which makes me happy.
The Montessori school is a public charter school that has 4 days a week in the classroom and then one day at home learning. His class is a combined kindergarten/1st grade classroom with 20 kids, and then the 2nd-6th grade are in a different classroom. So, it is endearingly small. I don't know how much you know about Montessori, but it is a very different classroom environment than a typical classroom with a focus on allowing the children pick what they want to be working on, with some direction from the teacher. I have some concerns about that, but since Carter is really motivated right now about learning reading and writing, that is what we are working on at home. And I am really enjoying my time with him. I give him some "bus stop work" to do while I take Ethan to the bus stop and then we work together in the afternoon too. This is a very comfortable halfway point for me between public school and homeschooling.
I have been thinking a lot about homeschooling, particularly because my two friends Karisa and Stephanie are planning on doing it. And this is one of those things that Dylan is graciously kind about. It is like Trader Joes. You see, for years, when we lived in Sacramento, I never went to Trader Joes, even though Dylan told me that I would love it and should go. But I just thought, whatever, honey, it's just another grocery store, I might as well go to the one close to my house. So, I never went until after I came back from Arkansas. And I had no idea what I had been missing! It is not just another grocery store!! In fact, I don't know if I would have even wanted to move to Arkansas if I knew I was going to have to live without Trader Joes. He was right all along about what I would like; I just was being stubborn about it for no legitimate reason. Well, homeschooling may end of being one of those things. Dylan, for basically our entire marriage, has gently expressed his desire for me to home school our kids, and I just have rolled my eyes at him over and over. I mean, I still feel like I have legitimate reasons for not homeschooling, but I have softened some in the last few years. I have to say, having Carter at a school where we are more in control of the curriculum has been a game changer for me. With Ethan and Carter up to this point, as sick and sad as this may sound, I didn't want to work too much with them on learning at home because I didn't want them to be super bored in school because of it. But now, with Carter, I don't have to worry about it. And I am really enjoying it. So, we'll see where this leads us. If I did end of doing home school, I would be super excited about me kids being able to do things like this.
P.S. Katie, I will get the perfected blueberry muffins up here soon.
