I'm not really sure where to start. Starting this blog is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but didn't have time to work on... and once I finally did find time I was completely unmotivated to do anything. Until now.
I'll give a little background on myself and my little family. I'm 31 years old, have been married to J for a little over 6 years, and we have a beautiful amazing smart 4-year old daughter, M. We have a 5-year old pit bull named Arlo, 2 rats(!), and a 9-week old puppy named Jack. I went to college for social work, and my husband double-majored in bio and chem.
Our career paths couldn't be further from our college majors. J is a good multi-tasker by nature. He went from bio/chem to executive chef/food and beverage director. Yes, he has 2 positions at work. I worked as a manager in a full-service restaurant for 6+ years. I was with the company for 7.5 years in all.
Some time in late March we made the decision to relocate to a new city, and start anew, giving us enough time to get M situated before she starts Kindergarten next fall. I gave my company notice right away even though we didn't plan on making the move until November. This month. I ended up "retiring" on October 13, so that I could have plenty of time to get our affairs in order and prepare the family for the big move. Not two weeks before my last day at work, J was presented with a great offer to stay... so we stayed. I probably never would have left work otherwise. We won't be moving at all now, but I'm hugely relieved that things worked out the way that they did, because now I have the opportunity to stay at home with M, knowing fully well that I can always go back to my former job to pick up extra work as needed at my own will.
I was working between 50 and 60 hours every week, with the exception of 2 weeks of vacation every year. Two weeks of paid vacation is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but it's not so exciting when your spouse is only able to get off for 5 or 6 of those 14 total days to enjoy with you. There were a lot of weeks where we wouldn't be able to have even one day off together. We would have a lot of 4 or 5 days stretches that we wouldn't even see each other. And poor M... spending hours and hours with a babysitter every week... I was feeling like a bad mommy with no way out. That was until I found myself without a job, suddenly no plans to move, staying at home with M, and learning how to be a MOM. A WIFE. I feel like I never really knew how to play those roles before. I was a restaurant manager who had little-to-no patience or time for any bad behavior, messes, or any inconveniences at all.
I'm done with all of that now. It feels amazing. I feel like I can breathe. Admittedly though, it took a while. At first it just felt like a routine bi-annual vacation. Then it felt like I was deflating and letting go of all of the stress. It was almost like losing weight very rapidly... I could just feel everything melt away. Now, I'm learning a whole new way of life. I didn't have time or energy before to even put anything in the crock pot, and now I'm cooking meals from scratch. I'm a bit of a neat-freak, but this house was a disaster before... now I have clean baseboards, clean kitchen cabinets, a spot-free carpet (mostly... remember we do have a puppy!), an organized craft room (WEEEE!!), a clean computer desk, and a sparkly and sanitized bathtub.
Enough of that.
I'm sure that I'll have plenty of time to elaborate more in the future. I'm going to turn my focus to the future, and enjoying the present. I'm going to use this blog to document (immortalize!) those precious mommy/daughter moments that I had been missing out on, my DIY projects, learning how to be frugal (after all, we did just lose a hefty salary), learning how to cook, thrift shopping, upcycling, and just everything else that I've been wanting to do for the past few, um, years. We used to blow so much money on Christmas presents every year, but now I'm making everything by hand and I'll be documenting that here as well.
I hope to use this blog to learn more about myself and become a much more productive and creative mommy. I'm really excited about starting this new chapter in my life and if even one person finds enjoyment in reading my blog I will have succeeded.
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