15 Hours a Week

I heard a quote this morning on our announcements that said, "If you want to go quick, go alone and if you want to go far, go together."  It kind of struck me as odd.  When given the option to work in a group or work alone, I would choose alone, due to being done wrong so many times in groups.  But I understand that later part of that quote, that if you want to go far, go together.  But I want to go far with my family.

This past weekend at my church we had a community outreach as a Halloween alternative and as my husband and I served together to man a game booth, my children got to visit the games on their own without Mom or Dad.  It really reminded me that there needs to be a balance between what we do for others and what we do for our first loves, our first ministry, our family.  Am I going far with my family or just giving them leftovers from my days?

My school is 22 miles from home.  I've been there 13 years now and each year it seems like my drive has gotten longer and longer due to construction, growth, new homes, etc.  The number of stops I make each morning has not increased, but the time to do these often takes 90 minutes in the morning and just as long in the afternoon to get back home.  I can count at least 6 routes to school, but none is direct.  So, when I add it all up, it takes me 15 hours a week to commute back and forth to school.  In all these years at my campus, I've been tremendously blessed with Grandma care for the last 11 years as I've had a little one and for that I'm eternally grateful to have had one on one, loving care.  It's been a choice to drive this distance for my kids and my family.  It is very important to me to give my kids a stability in their education and as my oldest nears her senior year and begins driving, while my last one moves through Kindergarten, it leaves me in a quandary.  Do I pursue the admin route with all my education, certification, and training in place or do I go back to the classroom and implement so many things that I've had the opportunity to observe and learn from others in my support roles?  In either event, I am certain of only one thing and that is that I want my commute to be no more than a total of 5 hours a week.  I want 10 hours of my life back each week to put that time into other parts of my life outside of school.  I want to be home before dark so my kids can know our neighbors, can spend time together (outside of our van) as a family, with extended family, and with our church family.

So this post may not be encouraging to anyone in particular, just simply a reflection of my current state.  If anything can be taken away from all this, is that we all have choices.  You, me, we, are not stuck in any particular situation.  No one is guaranteed tomorrow, so how will we choose to use the time we have on this planet?  Who will get your time?  I only know that I don't want driving to get my time.  I want my family to get more of me.

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