My brain-switch is on again!

Towards the end of my pregnancy last year, I made a comment on this blog about my inability to think. I couldn't study. I couldn't contribute to Sunday School because I had no good thoughts to share. I just passed away hour after miserable hour doing Sudoku and Ken-Ken puzzles. All of my energy was in making a baby and keeping us warm and caring for the kids.

Fast forward a few months. Klaus was still fresh out of the oven but enough time had passed that we were going on a family outing to the library--all of us! I remember talking to Matt on the long drive there, and then seeing something on a passing car which triggered a thought. I remember thinking about that thought, really actually thinking about it, analyzing it, pondering over it, and then coming to a conclusion. I remember sharing it with Matt. It was my first real brain-powered thought since having the baby! I was so pleased with myself. It was reassuring to know that I was capable of having my own thoughts.

Fast forward to the present. I have recently found myself yearning, praying, researching for something to do that will be a break from my life as "Mommy"--a hobby of some kind, a service project, an outlet, an escape, a change, a class, something that will use the part of me that is not Mommy but Rhyetta.

Maybe it's because we've started kidschool again and we're studying and reading and learning again. Kian and I are reading a biography of Benjamin Franklin. And we're reading "Robinson Crusoe" which takes a little mental exercise to understand. Abby and I are reading "The Secret Garden." Matt and Kian and I are reading "Plutarch's Lives" which takes a lot of mental exercise to understand. And we'll be starting Dickens and Shakespeare this year as well. It's turned my brain on and I like it! It's felt so exciting to read something, have to think about it to understand it, then explain it, then question it, then do a little more research on it which leads to learning about something else. I suppose it's the learning process. It's not just my kids learning, it's me too! And I can THINK again!

I smiled to myself yesterday during the briefest of moments on a quick kidschool break when I glanced down the hallway and thought to myself, "This afternoon during quiet time I'll be able to study something!"

I've researched Masters Degrees in Library Science (cost-prohibitive). I've thought about becoming a Master Gardener through the local Extension Office (should help my gardening skills). I've pondered institute classes, part-time work, exercise classes, anything really that might be the break I'm looking for. I don't even know what yet. But I'm so happy just thinking of the possibilities.