St. Patty's Design

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Renewed Respect...

and some pity too I think.  This week, I spent a little more time working at the high school and teaching Joy school than I normally have to do in one week.  I'm just kind of coping with it and my house is barely surviving...  It made me think about the ladies who work full time and then come home to all the house work.  I also thought about the moms who home school full time and those who are housewives and don't have a lot going on outside the home.

Where is the happy place?  I think it is different for everyone but I also wonder if anyone feels like me.  No matter which one I am doing, I think that there must be a better way.

I haven't worked full time since having kids so I can't really say much about it but I got a glimpse of what it could be like when I did a Calculus institute last summer.  I was gone ALL DAY and I missed my kids terribly.  Luckily my mom was here to take care of my home so that part wasn't too bad but I can only imagine how it could be.  I felt very autonomous which is kind of a strange feeling when you have little kids.

I have had about every other year off since having Whitney and I find myself trying to fill my time with things and not necessarily the best things so I feel more purpose and direction.  Being a mother is great but there has to be some way to progress so that every day doesn't feel the same.  A lot of my things involved my kids, like going to the library and the park all the time and I got to focus more on homemaking like cooking, crafts, and organization.

Part time work has kind of repeatedly fallen into my lap and without intending to work again after becoming a mom, these opportunities felt right and have worked for me.  I think I just don't have a firm answer.  I guess not only are there different answers for different people but the answers change at different times in our lives.  I feel very lucky with my present circumstances and though an occasional hard week comes along, there are way more great weeks.  It seems unavoidable in any circumstances of life to always cruise smoothly we just have to work to minimize the struggle.

2 comments:

Angela said...

Finding the happy place IS kind of tricky. I totally get what you are saying. Staying home all day every day sometimes makes me feel like my progression has stopped and it just gets blah, but then when I do have things to do or get involved I feel bad being away from kids and just want to be home. Hmmm....

Erynn Marie said...

Thanks for your thoughts. So very true. What's "right" and "Wrong" in some cases does seem to change from time to time. And things don't always work out the way we plan, but somehow, that often seems to be okay or even better than we planned. We need to get together again.