From Working Mom to WORKING Mom!

So I decided to embark on our the next home improvement project. The playroom makeover gave me the urge to add more color to our house. My 2 year-old son's room has been severely neglected and has never been really decorated.  Before he was born, I just decided to re-use the set that I used for his older brother when he was a baby (minus the paint). So his room looked pretty bare bones especially since we took the crib down (he was caught almost climbing out of it when he was 16 months) and got rid of his changing table because he was always climbing on that too. We decided one broken collar-bone from falling off of it was enough, so we sold it.

Anyway, back to the project. Here is the before picture of what it looked like:

So, I am finally coming to terms and accepting this whole stay-at-home Mom gig and then God throws another curve ball. Really? He sure likes to keep me on my toes!  I received a phone call from a legal staffing firm that I signed up with right before I was booted from my last job.

Wait....let me back up. I know I said I have a degree in Early Childhood Education, and I do! But I never actually formally worked in the field. Two weeks before graduation (while student teaching) it hit me like a Mach truck. What was I doing? I never wanted to be a teacher, I couldn't see myself doing this for the rest of my life!....I know, you are thinking well that would have been helpful to figure out WAY before graduation! Believe me, I know. Plus, I tend to look to the future not the present. I envisioned myself correcting papers and cutting out the next days project for the preschoolers at 50 years-old when I was only 24 years-old. Nothing like not living in the present.

So, I received my diploma, got a random job working for a health insurance company. Then a few years later I decided I needed a career direction and went back to school to be a paralegal. So, that is what I did for five years before I ended up where I am now.

Back to the curve ball.  This staffing firm called me today to tell me about a fantastic temporary (3 month contract) position doing pretty much the exact same thing I did at my previous job (which I loved).  My thought is, maybe this opportunity would give me a boost to experience the career world again just long enough for me to appreciate what I have at home...to help me to realize what I have is GOOD! God sure does work in mysterious ways!! I am just rolling with it. I will keep you posted as to what I decide....

Okay, so I am a stay-at-home mom (SAHM). I admit it.  I feel as though I am admitting to being an addict of some sort. The first stage is acceptance.  I recently had a friend tell me that she thinks I am fighting against what is to be. Instead of saying I am a stay-at-home mom with shame, I need to be proud of it. When somebody asks, I need to say, (with smile on face) I am at home raising my children.

The epiphany (if you want to call it that) I had a few days ago is actually probably God finally getting it through my thick skull what He has been trying to tell me all along. I belong at home. For the last year and a half I have been kicking and screaming my way out of the house. But each time I think I have finally made it to the door, I get pulled back in and yes....I am not ashamed to say it...it has been against my will. There I said it. Being a SAHM was never my first choice and is probably not my second or third choice either. Acceptance is the first step to recovery right?

So, as I try to manage myself, my children and my household on a daily basis I may have to institute a few new rules. The first that comes to mind that when the laundry room is finally void of all dirty laundry, all parties who live in the home MUST not soil another article of clothing for at least a week....that will work right?

So, I have started a blog....now what?! I think my purpose for this blog is an attempt help organize and process all the crazy thoughts that I have on a daily basis, figure out what the heck I am supposed to do with this stay at home mom gig, and maybe through all my ramblings, I will figure out what I want to do when I grow up and perhaps I even will help somebody else figure it out too.

In 2009 I was officially booted out (laid-off) of the working mom world into the WORKING MOM world....aka stay at-home-mom.  After pulling myself out of the shock, disbelief and denial that I was in after losing my job, I decided everything might just be okay.  Hey, I could do this...it can't be so hard!  After all I didn't have to get up until the kids did and I could be in my PJ's all day if I wanted!  Staying at home is "easy" right?! I can be super mom!! I have a college degree in Early Childhood Education I should LOVE this. I will always have so many tricks up my sleeve the kids will LOVE it!! Ha....um, yeah, right.

Then reality set in....The first thing I learned while being at home with my kids was, being at home was a NEW kind of work!! I thought what am I doing?! I can't do this!! Somebody get me out of here and find me a job quick!

Being home with the kids all day means, planning 3 meals, keeping the house clean ( or ehem....trying to), HOPING to fit in a shower before the hubby comes home, doing laundry, budgeting, grocery shopping, looking for new employment all the while trying to entertain the kids.

Don't get me wrong I LOVE my children to the ends of the earth and beyond (or is that to infinity and beyond?). But unlike many "self-imposed" stay-at-home moms out there.  Being a stay at home mom was not by choice.  I never envisioned myself being at home raising my children.  I thought I would always be a successful career women.  I would bring home the money, I would be an expert in my field and yes, my children would be in....daycare.  Unlike many others out there who feel guilty for having their children in daycare, I believed that daycare would be good for my kids.  Socially, intellectually, and emotionally they would benefit from the daily interaction with their peers. And guess what?  Daycare was great for them. My five year-old still talks about his old daycare and his friends there.  What does he miss the most?  He misses the home cooked food (I don't blame him).

As a working mom (career women), I rarely cooked in fact, I hated cooking, I hated the kitchen,that was my husband's forte (not by choice but purely because if he wanted to eat, somebody had to do it).  I pretty much disliked anything that had to do with domestication. I fought a lot of it and fought hard.  Laundry was the arch enemy.  Actually washing it was not the bad part, it was folding it and putting it away that I hated.  So, I let it stack up until we had to wash clothes.  There were a few times I thought of going out and buying a new pack of socks just so I didn't have to do laundry. I never did let it get to that point, but it was tempting.  I hated grocery shopping, so tedious, so time consuming and I hated the crowds.  Going grocery shopping was TORTURE for me.  During the work week I dropped my kids off at daycare and my husband picked them up at the end of the day.  After work, I played with my kids between the hours of six o' clock to eight o' clock, soaked up every minute, then it was bedtime.  On the weekends, we were busy doing errands, doing laundry, maybe a fun family outing here and there.  Then, we spent Sunday night getting ready for the next work week ahead.

All this perfectly orchestrated career women life ended abruptly when I became a stay-at-home mom in October of 2009.  My world as I knew it had changed and I was suddenly not a working mom anymore. I was a WORKING mom!!  Stay with me as I chronicle the daily struggles, joys, concerns, blood (usually from one of the boys), sweat and tears (just as many from me as from them) of this WORKING mom!