Drum roll, please

In my last post I left a big teaser about life changes. Well, here it is: after 5 years as a part-time work- outside-the-home mama and then 18mos as a full-time stay-at-home mama, I've gone back to work...in an office...full time!

I just finished my second week--and received my first paycheck, woo hoo! (Though it only reflected four days of work so was tiny.)

This is a huge change for our entire family. Right now, Abel is home with the boys full-time. (More on that later...apparently I can't tell an entire story in one post!) They are doing great. I leave at about 8am every day and take the Metro downtown (SOOO fun to be downtown in lots of action!) and get to the office by 9am. So far I've been leaving at 5pm and home by 6pm, but as work picks up, my day may lengthen a bit.

There are great things about going back to work--a paycheck, a sense of professional fulfillment, fun lunch spots (though that isn't really in the budget!), running into friends on the Metro, new colleagues who may become friends.... And there are really hard things--only seeing Nathaniel for usually less than two hours on weekdays, having Lucas ask me to stay home, missing all three of my boys, having less time for my volunteer activities....

But as with any big change, I know it will just take some time and then we'll all be used to it and in a good routine. I'm so grateful to have found a job quickly when we really needed the income. And I can tell you one thing, you can be assured that you won't ever find me in the middle of a "mommy war" debate--I've now been on ALL sides of the stay-at-home v. work-outside-the-home mom debate and I can assure you, they are ALL tough!

Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!