Stay At Home Mom

I'm finally feeling like a real stay-at-home mom these days! I'm no longer a traveling-all-over mom, and life feels good. I am enjoying our daily routines of mealtimes, playtime, cleaning, grocery shopping, play groups, laundry, exercizing, errands, outings, crafts, cooking, bathtime, bedtime, date nights, etc. It does get pretty routine and I'll be honest, when laundry day rolls around each week I'm not real enthusiastic about it! But I like that I have things to look forward to, as little as they may be. My days go incredibly better when I have things on my to-do list and I feel so much better about myself when I get things done. The problem is, my days don't always have something planned or going on. Those days I find it very hard to get motivated to find things to do. I know I could always mop or organize the cupboards or organize photos or practice the piano. But really, if it's not mandatory, it's hard to get motivated to do it! I think this is probably a challenge for most stay at home moms, and I bet some are better than others at occupying their empty time and days. My goal is to stay as motivated as I can to get up and do stuff (I still enjoy my relaxing time though!) because this will make my days go well.

When we got home from Ecuador I contemplated a long time about going back to work. The original plan was to go back right away, but then we spent a month in Phoenix and a month in Albuquerque and it messed up the plan. Then I thought about going back in January but I kept dragging my feet about and couldn't make up my mind if I really wanted to work. Time moved on, and since we're moving in June I figured it wouldn't be worth it to me or the hospital if I worked for only about 5 months. Plus, I was enjoying staying at home so home is where I stay for now.

Although I'm not working as a nurse, I've had the recent opportunity to work as a phlebotomist for a research student's study. It's only for 1 hour each day, which is hardly anything really. But just that 1 hour has helped me realize I don't want to work all day every day if I can avoid it! Having to set up babysitting every day and leaving Owen every day is not fun. Owen was sick for part of the time and it was a challenge to schedule a dr. appointment around when I had to work and also to rearrange babysitting. I feel for those moms who have to juggle such schedules! If I do go back to work in the future I feel so lucky that I'll could have the option to work only a few days a week to minimize the time I'd be gone. I thinking working one or two 12-hour days would be the perfect balance of staying busy with work and staying at home. We shall see what happens in the future!