Adjusting to full-time, working outside of the home life

It’s not easy!

When I accepted a job in May, it meant that I would no longer be the work-at-home mom, it meant that, in addition to the things that I already had to do at home, I had to also schedule in 9 – 10 hours away from the house and my kids. I applied for only one job, a job that I knew would be very little stress, that is with a not-for-profit, where the timing is very flexible, where my boss is very understanding, and while I do enjoy the work and workplace, it pays me less than half of my normal hourly rate.

I really needed to work away from my home back then, for many reasons, and it was a blessing to get the exact conditions that I was looking for, and so I do not regret the decision. However, it is not ideal, and though “ideal” is probably never really attainable, I would have to say that I much prefer being a work-at-home mom.

I miss being with my kids every morning, I miss having time to spend with them, even if it was a bit stressful trying to manage my work efficiently while simultaneously trying to entertain 3 little boys. It seems like laundry is a never-ending battle, my room looks like it just heaved every single item of clothing from the house onto the floor, and the rest of the house is a complete disaster – although, this may or may not have been the situation even when I was working from home!

Scheduling has turned out to be a bit of a crisis, somehow it seems that “the man” always has the more important meetings, more important activities, more important engagements – well, you get the idea, but it makes me want to cry sometimes, just the shear insanity almost of trying to get everyone where the need to be, on time, happy, and still manage to not lose my own mind!

It’s a bit overwhelming, I am discovering, to try to manage everything. If you’re working outside the home and caring for a bunch of kids – how do you manage? Or even if you don’t – I need some help people – talk to me!

please

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Talk to me… let’s unwind together

To say that I am not a creature of habit would be a gross understatement. If you ask mousehunter, he’d probably say that he hates my erratic, taking-spontaneous-a-little-too-far ways, and if you ask my mother, she’d probably lament about how I am so unpredictable that she wonders how I even manage to live life… with 3 kids no less!

Anyway, along with my inability to commit to almost anything, I also have daily battles with my impatience, which, it would seem, makes it difficult for me to “unwind”, or relax, or read a book, which I hear is a great way to do both!

My sister demanded, forced, insisted, lovingly suggested that I read a book, and I managed to finish it in a matter of days, but it’s not really because I enjoyed it necessarily, I was slightly annoyed by it and impatient, so I just read and read until I finished it, and then realized that I was so.not.unwound!! I won’t tell you what the book was because it’s sort of embarrassing, ok, if you insist, it was this book, but I swear it was not for the graphic sex parts!

I did however find myself looking for another book to read, but since I haven’t read in about 10 years, I have no idea what’s good! I like lighthearted stuff… any recommendations?

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My life in points

1) Getting ready for Blogher – slightly nervous – please send me some good vibes so I do not totally suck!!

2) I read a novel for the first time in about 10 years! Like an actual novel with no pictures and hundreds of pages… I was shocked that I actually managed to finish it in 3 days, as opposed to the last book that I attempted to read, which has pictures, and I still haven’t even gotten half way, even though it’s been about 6 months!

3) I have tremendously ugly feet! Seriously. I feel you should know that. They are so ugly that my sister “lovingly” refer to them as shrek feet! BUT, let me say, that regardless of the appalling nature of my feet, my 4 year old remains unphased (is this a word??) by them, and still prefers to forsake the “prettier” feet of my mom or sister to stroke and caress mine! I love that he plays with my feet – it feels awesome – however, yes, it is slightly disturbing that my 4 year old has a foot fetish!

4) Kickboxing totally rocks!! I am really loving it. Although, my knees feel like they are slowly dying, and I look quite uncoordinated and awkward when I’m in a class with a lot of seasoned (and slimmer) kickboxing gals, but you know, it’s all good! It still rocks! Thanks iMuslim!!

5) I feel like I need a new bag – any ideas? I don’t really buy bags all that often, but it may be the one thing that I buy the most, and every time that I buy a new bag my 5 year old always asks me why I needed a new one and then tells me that I should not buy so many bags – he’s probably right!

What’s going on in your life these days?

Feel free to be amazed by my wicked problem solving skills!

It’s been made clear to me that I have a huge problem – I apparently do not know how to relax! Yes, I kid you not, this is my big problem!

You see, I need to be doing multiple things at once or I am unable to function properly, for example, if I am watching TV, I will also be on my laptop… I am one of those people who consistently talk at the movies, or who will watch the same movie ten times and still miss parts of it!

Anyways, I’ve decided that tonight I am going to watch a movie and eat ice-cream – relaxing right? Only thing is I am not a big ice-cream fan, actually I am not even a small ice-cream fan, ok, me, ice-cream, and fan should not be used in the same sentence, but eating ice-cream is supposed to be relaxing, or at least so I hear! I do like ben & jerry’s though, and now their ice-cream also supports ONE.

So, umm, what do you do to relax?

Talk to me & my addiction

Since I was like “yey” big, I’ve loved watches, obsessively. In my lifetime, I think I’ve owed easily more than a hundred! They weren’t all ESQ and some were, admittedly of the $10 variety, but no less, I love watches!

Recently however, I have been put on a bit of a watch ban by the powers that be (ahem, mousehunter), and so I feel like I might be suffering from a little bit of withdrawal since I think that my last watch was bought about one and half years ago!! oh.the.injustice!

Anyways, I have to say that while I am attracted to those with, umm, high price tags, I am unnaturally fond of Fossil watches. No, this is not a Fossil review, but I honestly I think their styles are cool and the prices are very good, especially for addicts!!

So… which do you like?

- this one is very much my style, silver, bold, but pretty

- also loving the brown (though, I am not really a gold person per se, but it’s pretty!)

- cute!

- it’s been YEARS since I’ve owned a leather watch, but this is tres cute!!

- also fond of this one… my more “earthy” side, I guess!

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