Day 112

Singing those House Husband Blues:  The not so inspiring confessions of a French Class dropout.

It is the way of things, I suppose, for all of us that endeavor to make a living in the service of our families.  The thankless hours of toil.  The inability to quantify your successes and failures by Dollar or, in my case, Euro.  The lonely hour when you realize that your career will last but 18 years at best.  No gold watch to be received, no plaque hung in your honor.  Lonely days spent under a cloud of self doubt.  The never ending cycle of cleaning and cooking, only to find your home a mess once your hungry hoard returns from work and school.  So, why do we do it?  Why would one punish themselves in such a way?  Why spend your days mending scraped elbows and bruised egos?  Why endure wailing tantrums, dirty toilettes and snotty noses?  I will tell you why . . . because it is the best damned job on earth.  Let's face it, most of us dislike our job in some way.  Perhaps not in its entirety, but certainly in part.  There are very few people in the world that get to live their dream day in and day out.  Most of us brave the daily commute just to earn enough scratch to afford to spend a moment or two in the company of our loved ones.  I myself get to spend most of my waking hours with my loved ones.  While many days it seems like a nightmare from which I will never wake, it is close to living a dream as anyone would dare imagine.

My morning started in a depressing fashion.  The daily onslaught of domestic life is starting to bring me down. Hours trapped inside tending to the same subjects that I tended to the day prior.  Living the life of a postal worker without the luxury of opening fire on a crowd of innocents.  The day in and day out will never end.  Then, as if struck by a bolt of lightening, I realized that despite my many sorrows and aching soul, my family needs me.  I am the silent glue that binds.  The one that makes this life possible.  Without me the children would be hungry and misguided.  Without me, my wife would have no shoulder to cry upon.  Without me, my families life would grind to a halt.  The self assurance provided by this knowledge is worth more than any monetary compensation.  It is the meaning of life.  We all find ourselves so wrapped up in our daily pursuits that we miss the big picture.  What good is a fist full of dollars if you have nobody to spend it on?  What good is that big promotion at work if you have no one to tell?  I suppose at the end of the day I find myself rich beyond compare.  Needed by the ones I love and needful of them just the same.  This is the gold standard of life and is worth more than dollars and cents.

Now that I have purged my self of all the sentimental philosophy that has been slowing my forward momentum, I find myself relieved and ready to conquer the world.  In the end, the day was incredibly productive and I wouldn't change a thing.  With the change in the children's education, we now find ourselves preparing for a summer as educators to help pick up the slack that was left behind by our mistaken enrollment of our children in the International School.  We will be teaching English, Civics (Social Studies), Math and Science for the foreseeable future.  I am actually quite excited about the prospect as I know the ability of my children better than anyone else and will demand the best of them.  My hope is that at the end of our time here in France, not only will they be completely bilingual, but a grade ahead of the norm.  Both seem to have a thirst for knowledge and I will do what I can on my end to foster their continued growth.  Wish me luck and wish my printer luck, cause I have already printed out so many worksheets that I am affraid she is going to burst into flames.

That being said, I have now filled my dance card to the point of being somewhat overwhelming, so alas I have taken the delinquent route and quit my own educational endeavors.  My language skills are progressing and the solid base that I now have seems to make my usage of the Rosetta Stone programming a fair bit more user friendly.  In the end, my children's education is more important than my own and if that means I will remain a semi-fluent immigrant, so be it.  That is all I have for now.  I will catch back up with you tomorrow.  Goodnight.