While Mommy is Gone

When Eric and I first moved to Ohio, I wanted to find a job doing what my college degree prepared me for: teaching private flute lessons. It just doesn't seem right to work at Target when you have a college degree.... I checked into a couple of local schools and talked to a band director, sent some emails and tried to make some contacts. But, nothing really panned out. I made a good friend and got the chance to accompany some girls for their juries in December, but no students.

A couple of weeks before Mierae was born, Eric was helping some friends move into a house. The husband did music at OSU and had some music friends there helping out as well. Eric started chatting with one of them and somehow found out that this guy's girlfriend was moving to go to graduate school and needed to find a teacher for her flute students. Eric gave him my name and our number, and a week later I got a call. Thirteen flute students would fall into my lap three weeks later. I didn't think it was the best timing since Mierae was two weeks old when I started, and I was expecting to be finished teaching by then.... But, we really felt like it was a blessing, and I've been teaching ever since.

So every Monday Eric has some Daddy-time with the girls. Their activities are limited because I have the car. But on occasion they will drop me off and do something in Grove City while they wait for me, or Eric will take the girls on the bus. It is always a highlight of their week.




Sometimes they go to storytime where Jolie enjoys doing gymnastics on the playmat.


Sometimes they go to the park.


Several weeks ago Eric took the girls to a princess storytime. I had put forth the effort to call and sign Mierae up for it, so I didn't want her to miss it. He walked in the heat all the way there and back so that Mierae could do this:


But little did I know that after Dad was finished with craft time there, our family would look like this:



Thank you, Eric, for letting me have the time to be the "me" who isn't just a mom.