Journal of a Stay at Home Mom

Last Friday I left my job for the last time.  It was a very sweet farewell.  I was given lovely and relaxing good-bye lunch.  I am really going to miss that place.  The next day was dark, gloomy and rainy (the kids took time to kick around balloons while it was raining).  All weekend long I had dark, troublesome feelings, wondering if I made the right decision. Who leaves a perfectly good job, in good standing, and not for an upgrade in pay? Is this decision insane?  Especially, when our financial situation is not exactly stable (but it will do).  At the very least I could have stayed another six months until the new baby was born and we would have thousands more dollars in our pockets.  But, that’s not why we made the decision we did, now, in our current situation. So, moving forward.

Monday, there was no time to have “feelings” about my new fulltime job.  Game was on!  Another mom told me Monday was her laundry day.  I had already begun my laundry on the weekend as I usually do, but I did not finish it, so I thought Monday as laundry day was a good plan. I finished washing the laundry, but only managed to put away one load.  I also had A LOT of housework to catch up on, such as dishes and untidiness.  The housework was not completed either, but it was a good start. The kids and I made it to the park for a short while and we went to a couple of stores for fun—Alex’s idea.  All this activity had me wiped out.  I thought, “My body isn’t  used to this new job.”

Tuesday, I was welcomed with open arms into the stay-at-home mom community as we were invited to a toddler music class followed by a play date with the Waco Catholic Moms Group at the park.  It was a fun morning.  We made it back home by noon.  Kristiana went to take a nap.  Alex ate lunch.  Then I attempted to put Alex down for a nap.  However, it is decidedly so that Alexander’s body will not allow him to take midday naps anymore.  He usually does on the weekends, but it is just not happening during the week.  We will be working on quiet, alone time from now on.  This should not be a problem for Alex.  I had an appointment with my midwife and everything is a-okay with baby #3.  I have even felt a wiggle here and there when I lay on my back, late at night and hold still.  In the afternoon, we went outside into our 12X6 square feet of concrete fenced in private space.  I folded laundry on our porch table and the kids dug in my flower pots.

Wednesday, I decided would be “low-key.” I let the kids watch two hours of PBS cartoons :-s in the morning.  I vowed that there would be no more T.V. for the rest of the day.  It was nice to start that way.  It gave me a chance to catch-up.  We had a minor bedding disaster in the middle of the night.  Someone forgot to put a nighttime diaper on Alex before bed.  Kristiana also had fits in the middle of the night. She screamed her head off for a n hour.  So I was a little tired and it took me an hour to fully wake up.  Then I rushed to changed bedding and tidy up, shower and dress before our 10:00 a.m. trip to the library.  After lunch Kristiana took a long nap—Praise the Lord—and Alex went to his room for quiet time.  In the afternoon, Alex and I made Lenten pretzels. Except, not so Lenten since you are supposed to brush them with egg and butter.  I have been wanting to make pretzels for a month now, ever since our mom’s group a month ago when we talked about how the knot of a pretzel symbolizes folded arms praying, Byzantine style, and they are good food for a fast.  Later in the evening, three other children came over to play for our babysitting co-op.  It was our turn to babysit. That was our “low-key” day—I think.   

Thursday, I found a little routine that I like.  I rolled around in bed until 7:20-ish.  Alexander awakened and climbed  in bed with me.  We rolled around in bed another twenty minutes.  Alexander liked this so much he talked about doing it again the rest of the day.  Then we went and woke up Kristiana.  We all went downstairs and I quickly prepared the kids’ breakfast, because I was starving too.  I ate a leftover Lenten pretzel and juice—good choice.  Then the kids watch PBS cartoons for an hour and I goofed on the computer and clean up the kitchen.  Then we all bathed and dressed, so we could go to the Mayborn Museum, which is a children’s museum.  They have about twenty rooms dedicated to children.  It’s all interactive.  Best of all, other friendly stay-at-home mom’s and preschoolers are always there guaranteed.  It’s hard to pry Alex away from this museum.  He always leaves crying.  When we came home the children were overtired and had trouble winding down, but they both took long naps.  We paid for that later on.  They stayed up a couple hours later than they usually do.  Alex invited all the neighborhood girls over to play with him.  The seven year old neighbor girls adore him.  I was pretty tired at that point. The new baby is sapping all my energy.

Friday, was more of the same morning routine.  Then we were off for another play date.  On the way I spied a   doughnut shop and realized I was hungry and had not brought a snack for myself.  So I turned my car around and stopped for doughnuts.  I bought two dozen doughnuts to share with everyone.  But, instead of there being seven moms and fifteen children, there was only two moms and two other children.  So between my family and the two others we only polished off a dozen doughnuts.  Oh well, there will be another dozen for us on Saturday.  Kristiana took another long nap and Alex spent a long time upstairs in his room quietly reading his library books.  So I took a long nap myself.  When we finally all woke up, we went to the library to pick a book and then out to the Texas Cheese Shop in the next town over to buy some of the components of our Easter basket.  It was a very low-key day.

All and all it was a good week.  I hope things go as well next week.  It’s a big week next week.  There’s a lot of praying and Easter preparations to be done.  Hopefully, I can start on my office project (I’m not holding my breath on this one).  I adore my children even more after getting to spend the whole week with them.  I got to know them better and spent their best ours with them.  There is still trepidation in my heart about our future, but I take it one day at a time.