working hard??

Okay, I broke down and asked my boss at the daycare if she'd be willing to let me work "full time" so that I could earn the money that I'm in need of...

she was more than willing!! She's also a friend of mine, so I really didn't think that she'd tell me no. Since I don't have the state mandated 45 hour training classes done (that you need in order to work in a child-care facility) she has put me in the kitchen. I get to be the daycare cook... which is very good for the ego! Every day I am hearing "wow, this is the best hamburger I've ever eaten" or "I've never had spaghetti as good as this" and my favorite "I usually hate this stuff, but you make it taste really good". All I am doing is opening the box of hamburgers and baking them... (yum) or pouring ragu sauce over some spaghetti noodles... it's not rocket science, it's something that they could do themselves... but somehow, when I'm cooking it, it's the best, the greatest, the most wonderful tasting food they've ever had! LOL Kids are so funny!!!

Here's what I am doing: I go in at 9:30 am, 3 days of the week... and it's my job to cook lunch for the entire daycare. THEN after giving a couple of breaks to teachers in their classrooms, I head off to pick up my daughter from school. I get her home, get her homework finished and then she and I head back to the daycare to work the closing shift. She helps me do much of the end of the day cleaning and tidying up (she's a really big help! and because she does such a good job, I give her a "paycheck" also when I get mine... that's makes her super D duper happy!).

two days each week, I start at 8am (right after I drop my daughter off at school) so that I can still do the grocery shopping for both daycare centers... and after I pick my daughter up from school, we go to another grocery store (those same two days) to finish the shopping at the other grocery store we purchase from.... so on these two days we add about 3 hours onto my workday.

then after I get off of work, I get to go home and try to get dinner ready for my parents and the two of us... then it's bath, brush teeth and bedtime stories (for my daughter)... now that we are working until 6:30 (or later, occasionally) she's getting to bed later than usual. So she's been tired in the mornings... her bedtime is normally 7:30.

I'm also super tired in the mornings, even though I am actually getting more sleep now that I normally do... it's strange. I've been sleep deprived for about 5 years now and now that I'm actually getting more sleep (a bit more than usual... going to bed at 11pm rather than 2 or 3 am) I'm feeling worse than I did when I was barely getting any sleep. How is that possible? Is my body saying "ooohhh... I remember sleep, give me more of it!"

I'm hoping that eventually I will get caught up and this feeling will subside... but if it doesn't then maybe I need to try to get into bed when I put my daughter into bed... perhaps that will help.

Another added benefit to this job, is that I'm getting a pretty good workout in the afternoons when I'm there doing the cleaning. I've lost a bit of weight - this is going on 3 weeks now that I've been doing this and I'm down about 7 lbs. Sure, on it's own it doesn't seem like much - but I'm hoping that in another couple of months I can tell you it's 30 lbs or so... that WILL seem like much! :o)