Category Archives: working mom

An urge to write

Every so often (actually, quite often) I get this urge to write. It could be about a specific story- maybe about one of the kids, maybe not-, about a cool project we’ve been doing around the house, maybe recipe, or like now, just a little update about things and such. Unfortunately, when these impulses arise, I am rarely at a good place to drop everything and write. But hey, here I am, with the urge to write, no kids around, and my laptop in front of me! Man it feels good.

So, well, lots of things have happened since the last time I blogged. {Which, even before that was becoming more and more sporadic.} We welcomed our third baby. THIRD. Lincoln William officially stole our hearts. We are a family of five. It’s insane. Sometimes it’s insane good. And other times it’s insane good. I seem to live in a constant state of “just on the edge of being overwhelmed.”

IMG_8694.JPG

I have the “holy crap I have a boy” realization multiple times a week. It’s STILL kind of unbelievable to me. No joke, the very first thing I said when the doctor put him on my chest after he was born was “HE REALLY IS A BOY!” I was smiling and may have shed a tear or two of joy. Speaking of birth. Yep, it happened. It was fast. Too fast for drugs. I have one thing to say about that: Freaking OUCH. Okay, I guess that’s two words, but whatever. He’s already two months old. Time is flying. Life is busy and homeboy is just along for the ride. He’s a pretty good sport, but definitely more opinionated than his sisters were at this age. He also things sleep is for losers compared to his sisters. I’m trying really hard not to compare him to his sisters so I stop living in a state of sleep disappointment.

IMG_8140.JPG

IMG_8681.JPG

I’m back working two days a week and it’s fantastic. I missed it.  I’m happy to be back. It’s good for all of us. I’ll go back full time in January. I’m ready. Though, I do have to say, I have enjoyed my time home with Lincoln more so than my other two leaves.

Christmas music is currently filling my headphones. I’m very excited for the holidays this year. For the first year, Rylee was talking about our Advent Activity calendar long before December even started. I won’t lie, it made my heart really happy that I started a tradition that she now looks forward to every year.

Speaking of Rylee. Wow, this girl. I am LOVING school age. She’s having sleep overs with friends, she’s playing sports, she’s just generally pretty awesome. Sure, we still struggle with general sassiness (by we I mean her and me, she’s never like that with Andy), but she is growing such a fantastic little person. She is such a good help with Lincoln. Her sense of humor is on point. She works really hard in school, she is reading at a mid-year second grade level, AND Andy has been teaching her multiplication. Future engineer? Perhaps. Wouldn’t that be so awesome!?

IMG_8407.JPG

IMG_8431.JPG

Reese is as fiery as ever. She is in full-on two year old mode, Lord help us. She loves her brother something fierce. Like, a little too rough kind of fierce. It’s sweet and scary all at the same time. Eating is still one of her favorite past times, but lately we’ve added dancing, reading books and playing baby doll to the line-up. She’s also becoming quite vocal and opinionated {and sometimes physical} regarding her sister. Good times. She constantly blows me away with different things…the way she memorizes songs, her proper use of the word “comfortable” and her love for caesar salad.

IMG_8638.JPG

IMG_8507.JPG

Ok, I suppose I need to get back to it. These workflow emails won’t write themselves.

Yep, that definitely felt good.

I always have the best of intentions with this blog, but more often than not it goes on the back burner. For my own sake, I want to write more here. I don’t know when I’ll be back to blog again, but I do know I’m not ready to give up this space, my outlet, just yet.

Proud Mama Moment

Sometimes I wonder if I’m doing right by my girls. As a woman. As a mom. And as a working mom in particular. Am I giving my kids my best every day? We rush every morning to catch the bus and then more often than not I feel like we end the day rushed and a bit frazzled with me teetering on the edge of losing my patience.

Then there’s days like Tuesday. Where I take Rylee’s Tuesday folder out of her back-pack. We take a look at this week’s homework, any handouts the school has sent home and then she proudly goes through the previous week’s work with me. To be honest, most of it ends up in the recycle bin after she goes to bed for the night but every so often there’s a piece in there that I immediately know I want to keep forever.

That happened this week when I found this in her folder:

20140411-125348.jpgIt says “I want to be a tesher and a mom” Where tesher means teacher. The picture she drew is of herself reading to a class, and then herself pregnant.

Even though I’ve been at it for almost 6 years, I might still as a working mom from time to time. Who knows, I may never “have it down” and I might always feel like I’m struggling now and again but to me, this picture of Rylee’s shows me that she doesn’t think I’m doing too bad. In fact, she thinks I’m doing well enough that she wants to be a working mom just like me when she grows up.

Well, almost just like me…no way in hell I’d ever be able to handle being a teacher. ;)

 

Do Not Disturb

Between my last day at Cosmos and my first day at my new job I had 12 days off…well, 11 if you count the one day I went back into Cosmos to help with “orientation” for my replacement. A few things to note about my time off…a) I’ve never taken time off over the holidays. b) I’ve never taken time off between jobs…last time I left a job for another my last day was on a Friday and I started the new gig on Monday. c) Andy & I have never had more than a long weekend off together, not counting my maternity leave. and finally d) I’ve never had that much time off. Period.

I’m not going to lie, I was really looking forward to the time off. Not only because I wasn’t going to be stressing about work or stressing about the holidays, but because I was truly, genuinely excited to spend so much time with my family at home.

There were many times over the course of those 12 days where I found myself leaving my phone in another room…sometimes hours at a time. Not caring one bit that I was disconnected. At times, I even put my phone on Do Not Disturb. It was so amazing to step away, completely guilt free.

It ended up working out where a few days over my time off the girls either went to daycare or spent a day with their grandparents. We took that time together to work on projects around the house and property. We made major progress on our chicken coop. When some people heard that’s how we were going to spend our time as “just us” they joked about how boring and practical we were. In reality, I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do. Before we had kids, we used to work on projects, both big and small, all the time. We would spend hours outside. It’s something we loved to do and often talk about how we look forward to being able to do those things again when the girls are older and a bit more independent.

I could feel the stress melting away. I could feel myself relaxing. We spent time as a family. We spent time with friends. We laughed a lot. We prepped for the holidays. We knocked a bunch of projects off of the ever-growing to-do list. We organized. We purged. We cleaned. Together.

I ended my vacation with a clean and organized house, completely revived and ready to take on a new year and a new adventure.

My new job comes with 5 weeks of paid time off to use over the next year. I’m already looking forward to using some of that time just like I did.

Kicking Ace

20140110-210034.jpgThis week has been pretty great.

I’ve officially finished one full week at my new job. So far? I’m loving it. I’m immersing myself in all things tech and all things social media. I’m loving the time I’m spending researching trends and topics. Yesterday I was editing website copy. Today I volunteered to prep 3 blog posts and schedule a couple of emails as well…all of which is ahead of schedule according to my 30-day plan.

Andy is out spending time with some friends tonight so after I put Reese to bed, Rylee and I decided to have a “girls nigh in” complete with milkshakes and board games. She went to bed without a fuss, now I’ve got some peace, some quiet and my trusty wolf-dog by my side. Assuming my country-internet cooperates, I’m hoping to tap out a few blog posts for next week and still get to bed early.

Yep, this week has been pretty great indeed.

10 Minute Update-A new Year

This last week has been kind of a whirlwind. Oh who am I kidding, life in gerenal is a whirlwind anymore. However, with back-to-school and a new job, this week has been a special version of said whirlwind.

Ok, I’ll stop using that word now.

I just finished munching some Oreo cookies dipped in peanut butter and have a few minutes before I need to get back to work so I thought I’d tap out a quick update.

Reese has been doing this super fun “I’m going to wake up and start scream-cring anywhere between 3:45 & 5:00 AM and not want to go back to sleep”thing over the last couple of weeks. It’s been rough, but now that Andy is back at work and we all have to get up and going at a decent time, we’re both over it. Like, really over it.  So, we’re working on breaking her of that habit. Fun times. Er, more like tired times.

Rylee did not want to go back to school. I mean, she’s not refusing kicking and screaming, she’s just made numerous “I’d rather stay home and spend time with my family” comments. I’m sure once she’s back in the swing of school she’ll be fine. She’s just about ready to lose her second tooth. I ask her every morning if it’s still there or if she swallowed it while she was sleeping. She only thinks that’s funny about half the time. She’s still digging gymnastics. We just signed her up for another 8 week session.  She told me yesterday that she wants to join Girl Scouts…now it looks like Ihave some research to do.

I’ve officially been at my new job for a week. It’s pretty much as awesome as everyone had said it is.  I’m seriously missing all my old work family and shifting focus from doing all of the things to just a couple different things is definitely an adjustment but…wow. I’m excited about where things can go here. I’m in the process of adjusting to a new-ish schedule. I don’t technically need to be in the office until 8:30 in the morning, but I get in anywhere between 8 & 8:30. That also means I only “get” a 30 minute lunch so I’m trying to work blogging into my new schedule. I’ll get there. Or not. Who knows. Either way, I’ve got things I want to shore from my time off between jobs, but at this point, maybe I won’t? Meh.

10 minutes is officially up. Time for my next training.

Here’s a few pics of some recent things…

Happy Friday Eve.

20140109-133031.jpg

20140109-133048.jpg

20140109-133102.jpg