Life Changes!

I am a newly working mom. I am a certified elementary and physical education teacher. This past February, after spending 8 years as a stay at home mom, I went back to work. What an adjustment. The change was felt by everyone. The boys, my sons, Eric 7 and Matthew 9 had to now go to before school care. My husband, Bryan changed his work hours to accomodate the boys and my new work hours. I had to get used to getting up at the extreme early hour of 5:40am! Everyone handled it really well, except for me.................... I had this guilt about not being home in the morning to make sure the boys had a good breakfast before they went off to school and that their hair was combed just so and their clothes were not wrinkled, etc. I was no longer the one packing their lunches and I couldn't wish them a GREAT day and send them off to school! Bryan is a very involved dad and loving husband and he completely took over the morning routine with no problems which is why the transition for the boys was a piece of cake but for me it was so hard to let it all go! I eventually got used to the "new" way things were going to be and after awhile, I saw that I was going to be OK!

Lots of other changes were in the works too! We had to find a new balance of household chores, carpooling to the boys activities, grocery shopping and all the other little things that make a family work! Wow was that hard! It took alot of communication but we finally have it all worked out!

Another big change was our family time together. This has always been VERY important to both Bryan and I. In the past we would spend our weekends ordering in a pizza and watching a movie all together or going for a bike ride or just finding ways to spend time together. Once I began working, alot of the "household chores" were put off until the weekend, which ate into our family time. Pretty soon we were feeling disconnected...not a great place to be! Bryan and I came up with a list of things to do and decided to try and get more done during the week, freeing up our weekends to just do whatever we wanted. It has really worked out great, of course we hit little bumps in the road now and then, but overall we have found a pretty good balance!

Right now we are very much looking forward to the school year being over and our family trip to Walt Disney World! We were fortunate enough to buy into Disney's Vacation Club last summer and we will be taking our very first trip as members this June! We also feel blessed that the Vacation Club will be there for us to build family memories for years to come!

Thanks for following along!

Diane