TGIF :: This Workin' Thang

W  H  E  W.  It's Friday.
Fridays have taken on a whole new level of excitement for me this week.

If you follow me on Instagram,  you might have seen that I started  a new job here in the last few weeks but this week
was my first actual full week.
Every day.
Like, a JOB job.
Not my at-home job... but an outside-the-home day job.

And wow... it's an adjustment.
I know, I know... for those of you that have been working outside of the home, this is what you have been doing all along.
I am back to it after many, many years and yeah, it's different.
It's good and challenging and... just different.

My Instagrams have probably been a little lot boring this week.... Because I have not been home, or thrifting or having leisurely coffee... sigh.
And it's been rainy + chilly, so when I do leave to run errands or whatever, I am just hurrying to my car.
That kinda sucks... and I apologize(kinda), but you're just going to have to put up with my boring work Instagrams, because I am not
just going to stop taking pictures + documenting my days just because I am working.
Sorry. Kinda.
So yeah, they are just a little different.

So after my first full week(every day, while the kids are at school), I can tell you this;

I am tired.
I don't like getting up early OR going to bed early.
It's kind of nice to use my brain in a different way.
I feel totally out of the loop as far as...Well, working with people.
It's good to be challenged.
My at-home work is still waiting for me every day/night(Shit. That sucks).
I need to become way more organized at home and pretty darn fast, too.
I need some new clothes.
I love the funky Gal's bathroom decor.
I love Friday nights.

That's all.
I think my old ass will be reading a book in bed by 9:30 tonight.


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H  A  P  P  Y     F  R  I  D  A  Y  !

Big, New, Awesome Things :: Part 2

So, about two weeks ago I wrote this post where I talked about big, new, awesome things on the horizon... it was that cryptic kinda post
where you can't really share exactly what you wish you could... but you're still kind of excited and wish you could, so you have to say
something, because you can't just act like there is nothing at all going on in your life...
Know what I mean?
So,  there are a couple of BIG things going on right now, all at once,  because that's just how things usually go, huh?
Nothing... nothing... nothing... crickets... then, BOOM.
I have a job.
I am starting a job next week.
There. I said it and typed it, so it must be real.
Eeeek.

First, let me give you a little background on my working/stay-at-home-mom situation...
I have not worked an actual job with an official employer since I stopped working in 2009-- the quick, non-boring version of that story is that
I worked for the school district for about 7 years in the Birth-3 At Risk program working with children + families.
At the end of that school year, in 2009, a big chunk of our State grant got cut and my part-time job was cut right along with it.
A couple months later at the beginning of the next school year,  I was offered my job back but decided I was going to stay home full time
with the kids... the timing was right, it just seemed right.
It was right.

Then last year Charlotte started Kindergarten and we made the decision to switch schools,

 and although I wasn't ready to jump right back into working immediately,  I thought and hoped

 and probably just assumed that something would come up, somehow, 

surely before the school year was over I would be working....  But nothing happened.

I didn't know what to do. I was in a funk.

What was I supposed to be doing now anyway?

What was my purpose?

I had a bit of a difficult time dealing with this big  Life Change  of mine, it was an empty nest,

 midlife what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here-anyway kind of thing. 

And of course I expected to have a hard time adjusting to my baby starting Kindergarten, 

but I didn't really expect a total identity crisis, that's for sure.

But now, somehow, kind of out of the blue, I now have a job.

I had a phone interview for it on Friday and they offered me the job this past Monday.

It was crazy fast.

A job. Working.

Actually getting paid for working.

Oh, how I do love the sound of that!

It's super exciting and nerve wracking and a little bit scary... but exciting.
There is going to be a lot of pressure and responsibility and it is going to be a pretty big challenge,
but I think and hope + pray that I am up for it.
Next week I have to go to Chicago for training, I'll share more details about the actual job after that.
Over night in a hotel for work, and a training... meeting new people, stepping way outside
 of my comfort zone, wearing real clothes and make-up.... this is real, folks.
It's a little bit freaky putting it out there now, too.

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Besides all of this, my brother and sister-in-law are opening a restaurant here
 in town this November.
It has been in the works for a while and now it is officially official.
It's even on Facebook. Ha!!!  So it must be real.
I am over the moon excited for them.
They both finish up their current jobs this week and after that it is all about this new adventure.
I am going to be helping out there some too, and already have been a bit, so I will be going
 from no work outside the home, to having a lot going on.
It's a really good thing though.

I have a whole post, with LOTS of pictures, on the restaurant coming next week though.
It's all happening.
Wish me luck, and them luck and all of us luck on these exciting new things.

Have you made this transition form stay-at-home mom to working?
Or any other big life changes similar to this?
How was it?
Were you completely freaked out, too... like it almost feels like your very first job all over again?
Any advice?

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Happy Thursday!

In A fUnK

The last few weeks I have realized that I basically have no personal schedule, no alarm is being set, there is no job to go to, and I really have nowhere that I have to be. I'm just staying home today. Again.

I thought I was adjusted to this reality but maybe I'm not completely. I am finding myself in a bit of a funk because of this I think, not sure what to do...floundering a little? For the past few years I have only worked part-time, 12.75 hours to be exact, which was basically 2 or 2 1/2 days a week, so I was home a lot before, most of the time. I mean,  it's not like I was working 40 (or even 20) hour work-weeks and am now finding myself in a totally different place.  This school year is my first time staying all-the-way-home with the kids.  It's a good thing. I wanted to be at home by the time Wyatt started preschool and I am. My job was cut due to state funding being cut but I have now had an opportunity to go back to my same job pretty much but I don't want to. And it's not that I can't adjust to being at home with the kids necessarily, I think it's more that I have nowhere to be, nowhere to go and it's driving me a little crazy and  it has allowed me to become lazy. Way too lazy.

And when I say "Just staying home with the kids" it's not that I think my job at home isn't important, it's just that every day now kind of feels like  a day off of work....but that it's temporary. And it's not.

Does that make any sense?  Does anyone else know what I mean?
Well, I have made the executive decision that it is high time to get out of this daily funk and get on some kind of schedule for myself. And I am going to set my alarm right now.

I hope I remember what it sounds like.