With a couple of hopefully volunteer opportunities on the calendar for next week, the last few days have been about throwing ourselves into our jobs and into the various perks they involve.

My primary perk is the amount of education provided for my role. I’ve spent the last few days getting paid to receive multiple certificates in various skills around early child education, both hard and soft skills. My CPR training has been redone after letting it expire, and things I’ve never learned, like medication administration, have been new skills I’ve gotten to quickly develop.

Since my program is new to my school this year, I also spent several hours this week beginning to build relationships with staff members and families as well as my kids. It’s a little intimidating but it’s exciting to be exploring a new role.

Evan, meanwhile, continues to have the time of his life. From feeding stingrays at closing time to morning meetings watching Africa wild dogs sprint around, he loves the environment he’s getting to work in.

His favorite job perk has been the tickets given both for the zoo and for many local museums. Saturday, after Kai’s cross country meet, Evan took my mom, Kai, and I to the zoo to see the new baby animals. Earlier in the week, Kai and Evan had gone to the science museum together while waiting for me to get off work. We also have an aquarium date planned for this week, all thanks to his employee discount.

Besides work, we’ve also worked to spend as much time together as possible and with friends and family. We’ve gotten to have lunch together, brunch with family, a sleepover with Gav, and a study/work night with Ang. It’s exciting to be falling into new routines even if we’re exhausted.