Working from home

Most days around here start the same way:

My alarm goes off, I ignore it as many times as possible, eventually when it's absolutely time to get up I roll over to find Jackson has migrated in the night from his bed, to mine. I wake him up, and slowly make my way out of bed. 

Waking his sister is a harder task, so I don't attempt it until I absolutely have to.

I feed the kids, dress Jackson, supervise teeth brushing, face washing, hair combing, and lunch box grabbing. 

We walk to the bus.

After it comes I go back home to a quiet house, early morning light streaming through the windows. I usually have a couple cups of coffee, check my email, my Facebook, Instagram, etc. Pet the cats, stay in my pajamas and let myself wake up at a slow pace. 

What the day entails is different all the time, but at 2:45 I do the same thing every day, Monday through Friday: I go outside to stand at the end of our driveway, and wait for the kids to come back from the bus stop. They wave at me as soon as they round the corner and can see me, Jackson runs full tilt, Lainie starts talking to me about her day from so far away she has to yell at first. 

When my kids were babies, I never got to stay home with either of them for very long. 

There was school to finish, and jobs to work, and bacon to bring home, and all that.

I was back at school and work before Lainie was 3 months old.

I was never really a stay at home mom, but I always wished I could've been. Deep down I knew though, that I would be bored out of my mind. I need to work, I have to have something to do with myself that's just for me. Something that's separate from being a mother.

When I was working at Walton, our daily routine was nearly impossible. 

We were up at 6:30, out the door by 7, not home until after 6 pm sometimes. In the two or three hours between getting home and getting to bed, there was dinner, homework, baths, and god forbid errands to get done. 

It was difficult, I felt like we never really saw each other. I felt like I was constantly running from one thing in my life to the next, and that was a level of stress I carried with me into every aspect of my life.

Now that we've settled into it, working from home has turned out to be the best thing that's ever happened to us. It was difficult at first, trying to get shit done with the kids in the house. It took a lot of trial and error, and setting boundaries that were new to all of us, but once we got the hang of it, I could no longer imagine being happy with things any other way.

Even now, we're a week into Summer vacation and Jackson is already so bored, he could claw his own eyeballs out for something to do, but still, it's really nice getting to be here with them for their Summer break. Lainie and Jackson both are in the last of the sweet years with kids, when they can do things for themselves, but still want your time and attention and don't think you're a total loser yet. 

I would do anything in the world to keep being here as much as possible for that.