Kids in College & Back to Work

It's time to ante up and pay tuition for the kids. It's tough to have 2 in college - I'm basically going back to work part time in order to work for college tuition. While we've saved nicely in Edvest accounts for all of the kids, it's only enough to cover the first 2 years of college for each. That feels like a luxury, actually - and fairly decent planning. (With divorce, it wasn't easy to preserve all that the kid's father and I had initially planned). Here's the run down:

Songbird is in her junior year of college at a small liberal arts college in WI. Her focus is on anthropology and biology. She's gotten crazy about osteology - which is so far out of my realm of expertise and interest that it is curious to me.

Twinkletoes starts her freshman year at a big 10 college located just down the street. She's a great scientist and treats math and physics like it's 'old hat.' I'm excited to see what she discovers as she explores her options (and yes, she's living on campus!).

Waffles will be in his junior year of high school, I'm happy I'll have one big kid left in the house!

Of course, Blueberry's Edvest account has been started in anticipation of doing this all over again in about 18 years. Goodness!

I was on the phone with the college 529 planning folks and the guy said to me, "Well, if your youngest son doesn't use his college account, you can transfer it easily to a grandchild." Ummmmmmmmmm WHAT??? And then it hit me, it is quite possible that any of the big kids could have a child when Blueberry is ready for college. That was a low blow, let me tell you. I'm just going to ignore that reality altogether!

The two big girls are out of the house by week's end. I'm going to miss them so much. And, my year long leave of absence ends this week - I'll be back at work 40% beginning ... tomorrow.

Importantly our precious Blueberry is going to have to adjust to absences and some changes. I expect some regression (most likely in his sleeping, which is the place such adjustments usually express themselves). We'll double-up the bonding and attachment work so that he feels the loss a little less. I think he's ready to spend 2-3 afternoons a week with our dear friend who is mom to two brown boys with whom he plays at a weekly play group. We've done some test drives this summer and he did very well. I'm crossing my fingers. It's a lot of change for all of us. Mr. Silly Pants and I are going to have to reach into our reserves and our bag of best cooperation to make this transition work well for our family.

Can you say "Lots of Healthy Carryout Dinners?"