A taste of the future

This past week, George has been sick (throw ups, diarrhea…all the fun stuff) and unable to go to school.  So, I thought it would be the perfect time to practice my new “lifestyle change” and be at home with him during most of those days.  Day one started with my traditional early, early morning run, breakfast and dropping big sister off at school – all before 7:45am.  George and I were at the grocery store by 8am and done with our shopping by 9am.  At that point, we both looked at each other with expressions that seemed to say, “what the heck are we going to do now?”  First lesson learned – spread my schedule out a bit more.

Overall , the days were wonderful and I loved hanging out with my little guy.  He was grumpy and clingy from being under the weather, so I wasn’t able to get a lot around the house accomplished.  But I also know there will be more days like this and I need to get used to it.  Second lesson learned – (try to) go with the flow.

Here is a little image of my love bug at play:

This activity lasted all of five minutes before George decided to throw all of the crayons on the floor and scream when he couldn’t reach them.  Once George is upset about something (and he’s sick), he tends to be inconsolable.  So, we moved on to something else – I don’t even remember what.

And here the image of my princess when I picked her up from school, ballet clothes and all:

The roller skates entered the picture once we got home, of course.

The future looks great! 

Out with the old...

...and in with new and improved Homillers! 

After endless deliberation (by me), numbers crunching (by Will), soul-searching (me, again), and philosophical and social politics discussions (by both), Will and I have finally come to the realization that at this point in our careers and our children's lives, we are better served with me being at home full time.  Yes, that's right; a phrase I NEVER thought I would apply to myself - "stay at home mother" (or the dreaded acronym "SAHM" which for whatever reason annoys me).  I have always prided myself on having a top law school education, using my degree for the betterment of society ("I practice family law.  I help children and their parents cope with divorce") and having an incredible home life.  I also secretly knew that working fulltime was the easy way out - parenting is much harder than practicing law.  Period.  And of course there was the ultimate dream of becoming the lawyer that my step-father Frank is now - a top practitioner in his field who is much more focused on the ends of justice than on his own piggybank.  A true family lawyer.

But the truth is, my family was suffering for the sake of those I was helping.  I was forced to miss doctors appointments (annual and emergency), Mother's Day and other celebrations at preschool, breakfast times, bedtimes and many, many other special times.  So, for reasons that I am certain I will talk about later, I have made my announcement at work and am preparing for the next great challenge in my life - HOME!

One rare and recent evening (rare in that Will and I were both at home and functioning well enough to talk), I joked that now that I would be at home full time, I needed to start a blog.  My better half's eyes lit up when he said, "Absolutely!  You can do that now!"  So, here I am.

More later on all fronts.  Until then, here are some of the wonderful people that influenced my decision:

My beautiful girl

My handsome boy

 

The gruesome twosome

  

My ever-patient husband.

As of March 15th, I will be AT HOME.  Have a great weekend everyone!