My Job, My Purpose.

Most days when I wake up I really have no reason to get all "fixed" up.  Afterall much of my day is spent here at home . . .making meals, doing laundry, vacuming, scrubbing toilets oh the list goes on.  In the mornings, while I wait for the iron to heat up, and I'm making my bed I plan my day quietly in my head.  "Should I run to the grocery store . . . um no.  I could get laundry done today.  Maybe I'll scrapbook a little while Noah naps.  Man the bathrooms really need to be cleaned.  I really should work on next weeks menu.  Ugh . . .my life sounds so BORING!" 

One of the great things about being a stay at home mom is that it's flexible.  I'm in charge and I rearrange things throughout the day so that I can sit and play with Noah, read to him, teach an art class at Nicholas' school, or do something totally selfish like scrapbook while Noah naps, (of course the washing machine is always running in the background).  I am not uneducated, I have my degree and one day I intend to use my degree to help contribute finacially to our family's needs/wants.  But right now my contribution to my family is in what I do here at home and how I take care of my boys.  Sometimes when the mundane things in life seem to dampen my spirit and I fall prey to the desires of all that "a job outside" my home could do for me and my family I stop and ask myself, "Am I where I should be; am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing?  Am I helping Jay enough?  Usually when I'm thinking these thoughts I am brought back to the present moment by the beautiful infectious laughter of my youngest son Noah.  Or my thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the rain falling and I know that my oldest son will need me to pick him up from school.  They need me now, both boys, in their own way, need me here.  And I am. 

It's rather difficult though; we are sacrificing so much so that I can be home.  But through it all I feel strongly about what we are teaching our boys.  I feel they will be raised to value their father's hard work to take care of our family.  They don't get everything they want, most certainly not from us.  We provide them both with what they need but "extras" are just not in our budget.  And yet we are all still happy; we enjoy wonderful family outings, summer days at the beach, Little League Games, and planned trips to water parks.  We get to do alot, despite our one income family.  It's just all about planning and saving and prioritizing.  That, we have become very good at! 

Just one of the ways I stretch our dollar.  I hang dry 60% of our laundry so that it doesn't fade and it last longer.  An added benefit is that it also lowers our gas/electric bill.