Window Office

Just in case you were wondering about the view from my desk.  Here is a terrible picture taken with my phone:

Yep, I am living the life. 

Window office.

I love Mondays

Have I ever told you how much I love Mondays?  I know it may sound like a sickness but I really do.  Mondays are like January 1st or the first day of school.  They are that fresh start every week.  A chance to start over and do it right.  This week I will do more, learn, organize, prioritize, and put it all together!  This week my life will come together, make sense.  I will be a better person, grow and become who God meant me to be.  Mondays are full of possibilities as the whole week looms ahead.  What wonderful surprises are waiting for me this week?

When I was at home it sort of made sense to love Monday.  Everyone goes back to work and I can get the house back in order, run to the mall without the crowds or anything else I wanted to.  The week was mine for the taking.  I was afraid when I started working I would find myself hating Mondays like everyone else.  I mean hating Monday is practically a national past time.  But as I am about to start week 4 of working I have to say I am still excited for Monday. Not because I am excited to work but because since I have to work I am excited about the fresh opportunity that Monday brings me.

Weekends are fun and my love for them is renewed as I work.  But life happens in the everyday and if I'm not just as enthusiastic about the daily as I am about the fun then I have a long depressing life ahead of me.

We're All in it Together

Planning summer childcare has been like organizing a 3 ring circus.  We ended up with a big wall calendar in Isabelle's room so each night before she goes to bed she can cross of the current day and see who she will be with the next day.  It has greatly improved her stress level.  I think she was in constant panic of being left alone before the calendar.

Of course you make a plan and immediately your sitters go on vacation.  So Jake and my sister-in-law were both gone last week.  As I was in search of replacement sitters I was talking with Isabelle's birth mother about when we could see them during their visit since I would be working.  On a whim I asked if she wanted to take Isabelle one of the afternoons I needed a sitter for, Isabelle was in VBS in the mornings.  She said they could take 2 of the days.  We were all very excited and a little nervous but it went great.
It is hard to explain how blessed we feel to have Sam and Lauren as birth parents.  They are loving both to Isabelle and to us.  We are a team in some ways as Isabelle grows up.  We all have shared goals to see her grow up to be a godly woman, to help her understand how blessed she is to have both parents and birth parents who love her and want the very best for her life.

Now they are going to be parents again this fall and we are so excited.  We are re-defining family as this child will be a full sister to Isabelle.  While technically I will not be related at all you won't be able to stop me and everyone else in my family from loving up this baby as if she was another niece. 

Today we broke another barrier in our adoption adventure by attending Lauren's family and friend baby shower.  Some family had never seen Isabelle while others hadn't seen her since she was only a few weeks old.  They have all followed along with pictures but it isn't the same as a real live visit.  The last time we met Lauren's family nobody knew how this was all going to work out but 6 years later we all know this is going to work out just fine.  We are all family brought together by Isabelle and for better or worse we are all in it together.

With Lauren's Family

Isabelle showing the gift she chose for her sister.

More Family

Chasing Wild Geese

Do you think working will suck the creative juices out of my brain?  I have had no particularly profound thoughts all week.  With the initial adjustment period over my brain has moved into some sort of survival mode.  I don't think about anything at work and I am too tired or busy to think of anything when I get home. 

OK I have had a couple thoughts this week but nothing I have had time to really think about.  Just things that pop into my head.

I guess that could be the topic of the day.  Normally when a thought pops in my head, like maybe an idea we should buy a farm and become homesteaders, I will immediately change all plans to spend the next day or two researching and obsessing about the topic until I have either decided to do it or decided to abandon it.  On Tuesday an idea popped into my head but it wasn't until last night that I was able to do anything about it.  I told John about it and he thought the thought was valid but I couldn't pursue beyond that.  And even still I didn't have time to be comprehensive last night so it will take time to made a decision about that thought.

So yesterday as I was mulling at work the fact that I could do nothing about this thought I wondered if maybe it would help stem some of my crazier thoughts.  I mean when time is limited you can't go off on every wild goose chase.  I will be forced in the years to come to really think through my impulses and assess what is a valid idea and what is not worth my time.  That could be a good thing. 

It is possible that not everything I did when I was at home was necessarily the best or mentally healthiest way to do things.  Interesting.

New Homemaking Skills

When I first became a homemaker at age19 I have to admit I was pretty bad. Technically I knew how to clean, cook, do laundry, etc but practically I had no idea how to put it all together and maintain a home.  So we did the wash when we had no clothes, vacuumed when the floor was covered with visible food and thought that Uncle Ben's Broccoli Rice Au Gratin was a meal not a side dish.  5 years later when I quit working to stay home with Jake I had a little bit of a system but still had a lot to learn.  I was still mostly reacting to homemaking and had absolutely no sense of style or decor knowledge.  I have always been a minimalist and like rooms picked up and I am organized.  That was all I had going for me as a homemaker.  Everything else I have picked up along the way over the last 16 years.

Tonight, as I look over my mostly picked up but not particularly clean and slightly chaotic home I realize in some ways I am back at square one of homemaking trying to figure out how to make it all work within the confines of my new normal.  I will need to decide what is a priority and what I will let go.  I will need new systems for keeping track of tasks, papers, and children.

Before I started I imagined that maybe I would figure out how to justify hiring someone to clean my house once a month.  But only 2 weeks in I already know I am going to want that extra money to go to making up meals at Let's Dish or ordering my groceries online.  Put side by side I would much rather do my own vacuuming than start dinner at 5:30 after a long work day or worse yet stop by the grocery store on the way home.

I am often complimented for being a good homemaker.  I am here to tell you I don't have any special formula or magic potion, I just have a system and I follow it every day.  It may take time to create and integrate a new system in my new life but I am confident with the help of my family we can find that new system and be on top of our home once again.

And, I am learning at work that being in the habit of repetitious work it definitely going to be to my advantage.  I do the same things every day.  Could be boring but I am going with peaceful, relaxing, fulfilling.  And if you could remind me of that when I start using the word "boring" I would really appreciate it.

Praying through transition

How many posts on the transition to full time work am I allowed?  I think I have a few more in me but I will try to spread them out.

This weekend I was in search of a book on working moms.  I found one which I ordered from Amazon called, "Moms at Work".  I will let you know how it is when I get it. Just reading through the intro and a few little bits online I am pretty sure I am going to love it.

One thing I have been trying to do is keep up my daily time with God and get a little exercise in each morning even if it is just a 15 minute walk around the block.  Of course today I am blogging during that time with God so I better write quickly if I am going to stay on track!  Anyway, I remembered something I had realized a while ago.  When I focus outside myself I enjoy my life more.  Basically when I just sit around ruminating about my life, my perceived or real problems and what to do about them it is depressing, overwhelming, all-consuming.  When I put God on my problems and spend my time praying for and encouraging others my life somehow seems more doable.

So basically my thought of the week is that I am going to stop dwelling on this change, on the overwhelming magnitude of working full time for the next 6 years and all the ways my life will never be the same and instead focus on others.  Which is really what my at home years were all about.  Why should that change now?

So how can I pray for you?

Babies and old men

I remember talking with some friends early in parenthood. They were recalling how they had promised themselves they would not discuss the color of their baby's poop when they became parents. Yet just a few days into parenthood it quickly became their favorite topic.


I recall appologizing to Isabelle's birthmother after sending nothing but emails about Isabelle's pooping and sleeping habits for several months.

Babies don't do much. Their whole life is about pooping, eating and sleeping. What else is there to talk about?

All this comes to my mind as my dad recovers from back surgery. The surgery has greatly improved his problem but I have gotten several emails about the workings of my dad's "plumbing" since the surgery.

And I spent a fair amount of time hearing how Chemo was affecting my father-in-laws "plumbing" one evening.  (who was actually a plumber)

Apparently we end talking about the same thing we start with.

Just saying.