I know days will come when being at stay at home mom won't feel like vacation (I'm only on day 4 after all), but I am going to enjoy it as long as possible. The kids are on Spring Break, so that helps, too. Call it a honeymoon phase. It is a very strange feeling, waking up and my biggest decisions to make are what's for dinner and do we go on a bike ride or to the store first today? Everything else is working on small projects around the house. I can look at an undone (or more likely, half done) project and think "Yeah, I'm going to do that today," instead of figuring out how to fit a whole day's worth of chores into 6 hours on 5 hours sleep.
I shouldn't complain about how it was. I know people who are up at 4am and not home until 7, then they are putting little kids to bed at 8, or shuttling kids to and from sports or music or clubs until 10, day after day, with more sports and clubs and work on the weekends. And I'm not trying to gloat, either. I'm not sitting in some fancy mansion with a BMW in the drive while Hubby earns a 6-figure income sitting at a desk. We've chosen to take the path of being more self-reliant, enjoying simpler pleasures, and going without things that others aren't willing to.
Yes, I have a five year old vehicle with a payment, but we no longer have cable. Yes, our kids have a video game system, but it was given to us and he just bought 5 used games for a whopping $20, using a gift card from his birthday. Yes, I still go to the grocery store, but I buy my eggs, beef, pork and lamb from a local farmer and am raising my own meat chickens, and I preserve a lot of my own food. Yes, Hubby just splurged on that new camera, but I do almost all my clothes shopping (and home goods, books, homeschool supplies, etc.) at second hand stores. It's a give and take, and the more I "give" - not buying a lot of stuff and buying used - the more I "get" - less time at work to afford it all and more time doing thing, like chickens, together.
It all get round back to my Joysmithing goal - creating a more joyful life. The less money I have to spend, the less I (meaning Hubby now, of course) have to earn, and the freer we are to be home as a family. And whether 'home as a family' means enjoying a fire in the backyard while kids play flashlight tag, or building and fixing things at home instead of shipping it off to a repair shop, we are still doing it together.
And now it's time to....well, whatever I want, right? 😊 Actually, going to bed at a decent hour has its perks. Quiet time before kids are up to enjoy some coffee and blog, laundry's already on it's second run, I have some pictures to put in new (used 😉) frames since the cheap ones broke, and then a shopping list. It really is amazing, how much lighter I feel. I didn't feel stressed about my job before, but this new feeling of freedom really is a feeling of being lighter. I can't describe it any better than that, but I bet you out there who have made the choice I have no what I'm talking about. Here's hoping we can all feel this weightless joy.
Joyfully yours,
K
No comments:
Post a Comment