Wednesday, April 13, 2011

the togetherness of every day

At the end of this week, two months will have passed since I gave up my job to stay home full time. In that time I've talked to many people about our life changes and the most popular questions are: how do you like staying home? and what have you been doing since you quit your job?


The answer to the first question is easy. Of course I like it. It has it's challenges which are different than working full time, but I don't doubt that this was the right decision for our family. The second question is harder to answer. Well, I cook and clean and play with the kids, clean up after the kids, encourage the kids to clean up after themselves. You know the drill. But the basic answer is this. I do the same things I've always done.


I didn't quit my job to start living a new life. I lived my life as fully as possible even before I quit. I baked with my kids. We crafted together and dug outside in the dirt and read for hours. I just have more time to do these things and in a less pressured environment now that we have less time constraints.


In the past, most of our projects, baking together and digging outside happened on weekends and during time off. Now, it's part of our every day, and I couldn't be more grateful.



The days of this week have been filled with felting wool beads. And we didn't even have a plan for them, we just felted for the joy of the process.


We made poptarts together and filled them with homemade strawberry jam from last season while we excitedly discussed the fact that strawberry season is almost upon us and soon it will be time to make more jam.


We visited a garden center and chose flowers together and planted them together and scattered wildflower seeds with anticipation for what will spring up in our beds this summer.


And yes, there has been plenty of cleaning up after ourselves. (Did you know that children who are home more make more mess?!)


Most significantly, we're doing these things together. With occasional fussing and bickering, laughter and singing, we're baking, digging, crafting and living.



6 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fabulous life! :)

    After being home for a year, I now wonder how I ever had time to actually work before I quit! I need to learn about this felting, and those poptarts... :)

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  2. Oh, you are such a good mama. And oh, how I wish you lived right next door so we could have all kinds of fun together! :)

    Homemade poptarts might just equal perfection, by the way.

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  3. Looks as if your days are being filled with delight!

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  4. Awesome! It's neat to hear your perspective from being a working Mom to a working at home Mom. It sounds like you really value being at home. I so want to make pop tarts now! Yum!

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  5. Poptarts! That is incredible.
    "children who are home more make more mess!" Oh that is so true. I was admiring a fellow blogger's etsy shop and was amazed at how many things she had in it. My daughter, 8, said,"Does she have kids?" Yes. "Does she send them to school?" Yes. Well, of course then. I thought it was funny that my 8-yr-old had to point this out to me. :)

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