Making Plans

The other day, I mentioned that there were some "financial options opening up that we'd not thought about" but was rather coy about the specifics. I'm ready to talk, now.

What I was referring to was some number crunching that we'd been doing to figure out how much money we could save, in various ways, and how much money I might be able to make if I were only working part-time, preferably from home, and whether those two things might add up to enough to pay the mortgage and such.

Over the course of the discussion, some additional savings / income options came up, and we saw that the numbers were starting to match up.

I haven't actually secured said part-time work, but it looks quite promising, and today I bit the bullet and told ED1 that we're almost certain that I won't be going back to work fulltime after Peeper is born.

Yikes!

I'd not planned to tell them this early, but they need to line up someone to cover for me as center director while I'm "on leave" so, after much discussion with both Shrike and Anonymama, I decided that it was best to let them know now, so they can go ahead and find someone to take over for me permanently.

What really precipitated it is that ED1 and I had discussed yesterday that they would offer a "long-term sub" position to one of the associate directors of education, who will do a great job, but doesn't actually have a teaching certificate, which is required for at least one director. (And right now, we only have one - me.)

So, I talked to ED1 about it this morning, and she was very understanding, which I really expected, but I was still nervous about making it pretty official this early.

In formulating her plan to offer him that position, she was assuming there was a possibility that I wouldn't be back - and she was very appreciative that I was upfront about it, so they can move forward with plans, knowing what the situation is.

I apologized for not saying something yesterday, but that I just didn't feel like I could make it "official" without discussing it with Shrike. She was very understanding about that, as well.

So, the plan is that, unless my doctor or Peeper or my body tells me that I need to call it quits sooner, I will work through November 21 (the Friday before my due date), and will then likely be officially "on leave" for six to twelve weeks, for insurance / AFLAC purposes.

(Maybe also for their purposes, if they don't have a certified director on board at that point,)

As long as that's the case, I can just pay them for my insurance premiums, then COBRA after that, and when the COBRA runs out, I can switch to Blue Cross. I've already checked that all out. It won't be cheap, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared it might be.

Of course, if Shrike could insure me, that would be all the better, but she can't. She will be able to insure Peeper though, so that helps alot.

Our plan, overall, is that when Peeper is born, we'll both be off work completely for about three weeks, then Shrike will do some part-time work from home (not a long-term option with her job, unfortunately) until Christmas - while I'm still off work and recovering, of course.

December 26 - January 5, we're going to Texas to visit my family, and a couple of days after we get home, Shrike will go back to work full time.

My goal is to start working myself the following week. What we're hoping for is a work-from-home tutoring position with the online division of the learning center.

The thought is that I will work 15 - 20 hours a week, in the mornings while Shrike is home to be in charge of Peeper. I can't do that kind of work when I'm the only one home with her, because I can't have her crying in the background, but if Shrike's here, she can handle her unless she's hungry. In which case, I can mute my microphone til I've got a boob in her mouth and she shuts up, right?

That money won't be enough to cover everything, but I also make a bit from my freelance web development, and I'm looking into a couple of other options of things that can be done online/remotely on a less scheduled basis, even when I am the only here with Peeper.

It's all very scary - especially the part where it's kind of official and point-of-no-returny now - but we really do think that my being home is the best thing we can do for Peeper, and for our family.