Thomas and Nanci Kuykendall

Then I need time to myself to just wind down from the
>day. Of course, this is the time that my husband wants my attention. Has
>anyone found a solution to this type of situation? Is this a
>common problem for home/unschoolers, when mom's time comes last at the end
>of the day?
>
>Olivia

I often have insomnia, which I think may be partially caused by the need
for down time at the end of the day. My children are 1.5 and 2.5 and
really are exhausting. They cannot even get a drink of water or use the
toilet by themselves at this age, and it just is really draining, the
neediness. Since I am usually up late, my DH gets up with the boys in the
morning, changes diapers and gets them breakfaast during his morning
routine. Then he sets them up with a movie or Sesame Street, etc and gets
me up before he leaves. In this way I get my time to myself in the
evening. While not a perfect solution, it works for now.

My DH is happy in his job, but it took a lot to get there. When we met (at
work) and married he was the lowest man on the totem pole at work and was
way underpaid for his job title. He took a promising "temporary" position
(per diem with the same Co.) two states away from us in Idaho (we were in
WA at the time.) Even though I was 5 months into a VERY difficult
pregnancy and had a hyperactive 10 month old toddler in tow, I agreed to do
this move for his career. After many difficulties, and me taking care of
all the move details, as he had to start work right away, I began pre-term
labor at six months. I managed to hang onto the baby despite almost
continous labor and other problems through that long first Idaho winter and
he was born healthy the following spring.

We then recieved news that his name was on the team for the three year
contract extension. We figured if he could not find a permanent position
with his current company in that time, he could find work with one of the
other companies on the site here. So we looked for and bought a house.
Six days after we closed and moved in, his contract was cancelled due to
internal politics. Our only choice was to move AGAIN, this time back to my
parents' home in WA (picture "The Scream" painting.) The biys were about
18 months and 3 months old at this time. After nine months of extreme
stress, during which time we held onto our house despite my mother advising
us constantly to sell and DH looked for work long distance, he finally
found work back here and we were able to move back into our house (which
was still full of our things - mostly still packed) in March of this year.

He is now enjoying his position and making much better pay. But, like I
said, it took a lot to get here. He is still looking into home based
business, just because he would like to spend more time with us at home.
However, his schedule is pretty flexible, and that allows us to spend more
time together (occassional long lunches during nap-times, working from home
once every week or two, etc.)

Nanci K. in Idaho