September 2023 – Back to School!

Hello! It has been a while.

This is my first week with all four of my children in school, for their full days that we are going to have going forward. I have a Junior Infant so she has been on half days until this week – and now she is in until 2pm. I now have two in primary school and two in secondary school.

Yesterday when I got home my husband was here, so I didn’t have the house to myself and it didn’t feel like a proper first day of the week. So today even though it is Tuesday, was my first day to come home and have the house to myself and to look at my time and think about how I should be using it.

I have put a lot of pressure on this time in a lot of ways – I keep jokingly saying “I’m going to sort my life out” now that they’re all gone to school and I will actually have a small amount more time to myself, but then also I’ve signed up for a number of courses – two smaller ones, and then a larger one Life Coaching, which I can’t wait for but I am also expecting to be a lot of work. My time will become very short and very busy with all the work I will be fitting in to it!

I am just so excited though, because for years I have thought about what will I do next. From the time I had my first child 17 years ago and didn’t go back to the job I was in after maternity leave, my mother has been asking what I am planning on doing and what I am planning on working at once the kids are old enough – I think in the early years she was suggesting life coaches and career consultations, as well as discussing other courses I could do or add on. I did do a qualification between child 1 and child 2, but it turned out that it wasn’t the right direction for me so after child 2, over 13 years ago, I have a full time stay at home mum (with a bit of book-keeping thrown in), but always wondering at the back of my mind “what can I do that I enjoy?” because the reality of things is that I can’t go back and work in a job that I don’t enjoy somewhat.

So this week really feels like the start of a new season, a new phase of my life – that I am so ready to jump in to.

A lot of people expected me to be emotional and to find it difficult with my youngest starting primary school, but I think that after 13 years fully at home, I am ready for it. I am ready for the next chapter. And of course it helps that my 5yr old is fully ready for her next chapter too. After the first morning, she wouldn’t let me walk in and now a week in and she doesn’t want me to walk her to the gate anymore – she wants to walk up with her big sister. I suppose that is the joy of being the youngest and having watched her big brother and sisters going into that school from the moment she arrived.

I have always found that September is like a “new year, new me” type of time of the year – once the kids go back to school and you have a new schedule and routine, and so setting up new plans and routines around that makes sense. This September I have the added bonus of a whole new season of my life, with all the children in school, all in some sort of routine and structure and so I can carry that through the whole household, and use it to motivate me too. Already in the last week I have gotten so much more organised with my dinners, school lunches and laundry. Which is amazing. I think also I know that thinks are going to get busy busy from about 2 weeks time and I want to be ahead of the game in some shape or form in some areas.

It is an exciting time in my life, and this week is just the start of it!

How about you – do you find it is that type of time of year? Are the routines and structures being set up in your lives and homes? Have you any exciting plans for the coming year?