Balance

When I decided to set up this blog, the intention was to open a discussion about being and playing with your kids while working, full-time, part-time, out of the home or in. While I've certainly have been working hard to strike that balance of work and play in my family's life, it hasn't left me much time to blog about it. It's been a bit disappointing, because I really like the idea and had very badly wanted to keep up with this, but it just hasn't happened.

Now, that might be a set up for me to say, "I quit!", but I'm not.

First of all, I think that the idea of exploring how to have both a meaningful working life and a meaningful home/parenting life (and within that, meaningful relationships with your children and your partner) is a good one. Lots of parents work a "regular" job in addition to having the job of being Mom or Dad, and we often feel strapped for ideas on how to work out the time to be with our kids, be with our work, and then be with ourselves. And then, when we do find ourselves with the time, we're not always sure what to do with it (or how to identify that we've stumbled across that time). Anyway, the point is, I still want to write about this, even if I'm not sure anyone is listening.

Secondly, I've been working 35-40 hours a week. Plus being home with my kids and husband. Plus cleaning. Plus cooking. Plus, plus, plus, plus. There hasn't been a lot of room for here, but that's about to change (and then change again in the fall).

The beauty of working in the traditional education setting is that we have the summers off to decompress. And, in my case, to blog. So, yeah, it's sort of counter-intuitive to blog about playing and being with your kids as a working parent while I'll not be working, but...you do what you gotta do, right? And it'll give me time to introduce my themed weeks that I'm doing with the Girl and get more established, because, come September, I'm back to work again, but in a different capacity.

(I suppose now is an okay time to mention that I officially resigned from my position at my school and took a very part time evening position in another district and will also substitute teach one or two days a week. I will be working *maybe* 20 hours a week and the Babe and Girl won't have to go to daycare - they'll either be with me or Daddy or sometimes my parents.)

Source

The change in my schedule is going to give me, I hope, a chance to strike a balance and focus more on the things I love most: my family, my home, and my writing, and I hope to do a great deal of that writing here.

P.S.: I'm doing some more writing on my more personal blog This Domestic Life. Go check 'er out!