Naptime Blog

I am such a proud Mama today (well, I always am, but today is an extra special day!)  My daughter has been working on her Science Fair project for the last few months, and she she came home today with the news that she won second place!

Juliana has been having a big interest in plants.  I am not quite sure where she gets it from as I do not have nor have I ever had a green thumb.  But when we were looking through the project ideas in the fall, she kept going back to projects with plants.  She decided on experimenting on how milk affects the plant’s growth in place of water.  After a few days of thinking about it, she decided she also wanted to try to experiment on how salt water would affect the plant’s growth.  Honestly, I was not sure how the outcome would be.  I was thinking that both of these variables would quickly kill the plants, but Juliana had some pretty good arguments.  She thought that the calcium and vitamins in the milk would help the plants.  And while she did not necessarily think that the salt water would make the plants grow, she had a great theory.  One day, while driving home from school, she turned to me and said “You know, Mommy…  some plants live by the ocean and there is salt in the air and they get wet from the salt water in the ocean.  So maybe the saltwater might work!”  I was very intrigued myself!

In the end, the plant with the milk thrived.  It grew bigger and fuller than even the water plants.  And within a few short days, the plants with the salt water died.  The funny thing is, the plants with the milk, while beautiful, stunk beyond belief from the milk.  And the plants with the salt water developed salt crystals on top of it.

Juliana’s project really came out amazing.  She was proud of herself too!  We’ve already started talking about next year!

Recently I made a switch in my work, leaving the foster care job I really enjoyed going elsewhere to make more money and have better work hours. And I was very unhappy with that decision. The work while doable was simply too demanding and draining. Besides that, the environment was very negative.

I left a job that I had been mostly happy with because I needed to take care of my son financially (my salary had been frozen for a couple of years & it took a toll on me). My previous job wasn’t perfect, but I really benefitted from it – earning my degree, my licensure, getting great support from my co-workers and feeling very fulfilled by the work.

In leaving that job for the other one, it took me back to my first “real” job. I began as a temp and impressed the managers so much that I was offered a permanent, union job. Then I found out I was pregnant. So I stayed there for seven long years. The first five were the worst because my talents were being wasted, my mother passed away and there were serious problems in my relationship with my son’s father. Through it all, my son was my motivation. He became that beautiful face that I studied day in and day out when I felt like I’d be stuck there forever.

After three years, I was able to go back to school to finish my undergraduate degree and get tuition reimbursement. I had to keep a promise I made to my mother to finish and one to myself that I’d be a role model for my child. I graduated and continued on to get a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling.

The three years of graduate school were some of the most stressful in my life. I worked full-time, went to school full-time and provided for my son full-time with my son’s father dragging me down emotionally. I barely slept and earned the best grades of my life. And who did I do it for? My son. He was my motivator. I needed him to see me graduate and go into a career that I truly enjoyed.

And here I am again, working to provide for him and not satisfied. The great thing is that my son wants me to be happy in the work that I do. I’ve got a great kid there. Must be doing something right. Parents, what kinds of things do you do for your children?