Over the last 6 weeks our life has been turned upside down again.
Hubby’s job that we moved here for was made redundant, so it was back to the drawing board, although without the safety net we had last time since 4 months is hardly long enough to save up the 3 months of expenses we had last time.
Cue me looking for jobs and going for interviews instead of studying for exams, long, deep and meaningful discussions about the future and what we were going to do. And how to make sure it didn’t happen again.
After much soul searching, Hubby has decided to have a midlife crisis. He has taken a lower paying job, doing what he was doing a few years ago, with a smaller company who is open to the idea of him studying, and working fewer hours (so say working 32 hours a week, and studying at the same time). I gave him permission to have a midlife crisis as long as it didn’t involve a blonde or a sports car. You have to be practical about these things.
Being so close to the university here, he decided to check out their options and see what he could come up with. Eventually he settled on the Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics, which is a 4 year full time degree. At the end of it he can go down the path of being a qualified Nutritionist or Dietitian. Personally I think this is a great option because then he can do our menu plans and I won’t have to think about it LOL.
He is taking his time though, and doing the tertiary preparation program this semester with introductory subjects like computer literacy, bioscience and mathematics to get back into the groove of studying.
As for me, we decided that the time was right for me to (finally) finish my Graduate Diploma of Education that I started in 2002, but which was interrupted by M&M, then Kiki.
I had been investigating the possibility for a while, and all the details were ready for me to send the forms in, which I did, and was given a lot more credit for previous studies than I thought - meaning I only have 3 subjects to do to finish by November. I am taking a semester off my law degree, but plan to go back and pick up at least one subject over Christmas to keep my hand in, and so I don’t drop out completely. My long term goal still is to finish my law degree and work in that field.
What we’re hoping is that by me getting my teaching qualification, and hopefully starting work next year when Kiki starts school we won’t be in this situation again. That I will be able to work and even if Hubby is out of work, my income will be enough to sustain the family.
On the plus side, we had a slight benefit with the payout from Hubby’s old job being for 6 weeks, and him being out of work for 3, so a 3 week head start to rebuilding our decimated emergency fund.
As you can imagine the next semester will be hopefully organised chaos. I’m currently working on the plan for the semester, so hopefully before I start next week I’ll have a plan to attack the semester and get the family through it unscathed.
Plus, you know, we had school holidays in there - and lots of exciting things happened. Stay tuned!
