home front

Law school starts in six weeks.

My biggest concerns at this point are getting things organized at home. I am repainting my white kitchen cabinets–a job ten grubby years in the making. It’s not a terribly difficult task, but I am doing it piecemeal, so it’s taking weeks. I removed and painted upper cabinet doors and did several sections. I still have to do the lower cabinets plus window and door trim. Thanks to the demands of my 10-month-old, I only have about 3-4 hours to devote to this project each week. On top of this project, my husband will repaint the dining room while the kids and I are away at the end of July.

For the first semester, my husband (J) will be taking care of the baby pretty much full time. He’s a real estate agent, so his schedule is flexible and he can work from home. I think, though, that he will be shocked to find how difficult it is to get things done. Two weeks into the semester, I suspect he’ll be making a balls-to-wall effort to line up some childcare. We shall see.  We are crossing our fingers and hoping the baby will have a full-time slot at a nearby daycare in time for second semester.

I am also counting on J to do some of the cooking around here. This is what worries me. I don’t think he realizes the amount of time I put into planning menus, creating the shopping list and cooking from scratch. All of this is necessary for economizing, and economizing will be more important than ever with me in school. On Sundays, I’ll be with the kids while J works open houses. Most likely, I’ll have to devote a big chunk of that day to grocery shopping and cooking meals ahead.

Cleaning isn’t my family’s strong suit, but anything beyond the minimum will go right out the window until X-mas break.

In short, our household division of labor is about to get interesting. Hopefully, we’ll make it through this intense year without biting each other’s heads off.