Decisions

6:15 yoga yesterday and today. On Monday they had a revised schedule for Columbus Day, so it didn't fit with my schedule. I was a little aggravated with this at first. My birthday has fallen on Columbus day many times during my life and never has it affected my school or work schedule. But now it affects my yoga??? But I am over it, things happen. At least I am able to go to yoga most other days. Yoga is my calming strength.

So we are at a decision point once again, but we don't have all the factors to make a decision with. Jay has been offered a job here in the Bay area. He is alright with the job, it has a lot of potential for growth. We are waiting on the "formal" paperwork with the salary. Traveling we get paid housing reimbursement, car rental reimbursement, and a daily per diem for food. By settling somewhere, we won't get that, so the salary range he would be in is lower than what he is making now. It is still negotiable somewhat though. The decision is whether to take the salary offer and stay or to leave here in January and continue to travel to who know where. Now don't get me wrong, we love traveling. We have got to see so many wonderful things and experienced so much. BUT in the last two years we have had some major life setbacks and I am just feeling tired. Not tired in like I need a nap, but tired as in a need a year or two of routine so I can feel not crazy. The past two years I feel like life has gone by in a whirlwind. Between multiple medical problems throughout my family, job issues, homeschooling issues, adjusting to traveling, keeping in touch with family/friends, keeping the kids socialized and educated and trying to keep myself sane . . . I need a while to just breathe and take in everything. Now nobody has died and everyone is okay medically, the kids are fine, job is working out etc etc but I am constantly on edge for the next fiasco. I am trying to not be on edge and just take what life throws at me and run with it. And getting adjusted to another new place in a few months just sounds tiring and like a lot of work. (and yes I know we chose this, but there won't so many issues when we started.)
Back to the decision at hand - if we are to settle somewhere for a while (we would wait and decided if we wanted to stay forever or travel again after a few years) the place we are now has a lot of things we are looking for. There is the active homeschool group for the boys, a stable job with a decent salary and benefits for Jay, yoga right down the road for me, a soccer league for the boys, we are right on the Pacific ocean, lots of cultural activities and opportunities for tons of "field trips" in the area, laid back and nice people, the gym up the road with cheap babysitting, it is close to the mountains for snow activities, the weather is moderate (but foggy at times) and other things that I can't think of right now. There is also the issue that Jay is not ever guaranteed a job. He works for staffing agencies on a contract basis per job, so if there is time in between jobs it leaves us in limbo both physically and financially. On the other hand it is very expensive to live here. It is the most expensive campground we have been in, but electricity is included and we only need to fill our propane tanks once every three months or so. (As opposed to 2 - 3 times a week when we were in Truckee in the snow.) It is far from our family and friends in Florida and the money situation could be very tight depending on final numbers. There is a possibility that I may be able to get hired as an education specialist for the homeschool charter school here. An ES goes around and works with homeschool parents of school to make sure their children are doing what needs to be done. I could also enroll the boys in this school and get $1800 each a year for school curriculum and supplies without changing what I am doing now.
So we are just waiting for all the details to come in about the job so we can make a decision. I know that whatever decision is made we will be fine as a family and make it work.