Tag: family love

On the Road at Last

heartswelladventures

We did it! The house is listed, the trailer is setup, the car is prepped – time to get this show on the road. Of course. For our first time picking up and leaving, it took a little effort to actually leave:

  1. You have to stow everything! And with a very curious toddler around, you can imagine how hard it was to get everything put away. Damon had to go back at one point after we got into the car to pick up some last minute things
  2. Once things are stowed you can’t get to anything until you reach your destination (unless you want to squeeze your way through). So I had to prepare several snack bags for everyone in the car.
  3. Triple check everything! For an RV to work it needs to be plugged and hooked up to lots of things. Damon got in the car and almost drove off before he saw that the power was still hooked up. Then he forgot that the propane was still on. Lesson learned – do several walk arounds before leaving.
  4. Driving in rain is hard. Of course we leave just as one of our lovely Florida thunderstorms shows up, making it a little harder to steer the car (it’s very bumpy back here)

Not too bad for beginner, especially with two young children to care for as well. Hopefully we’ll get faster as we progress. For now, we are thrilled to be on the road, heading to Fort de Soto, Florida.

Staying at Home

heartswelladventures

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About a year ago, I decided to step down from my job to be a stay-at-home mom. While it was hard to pull the trigger, I have never once regretted my decision. I absolutely love being with min-man every day and seeing how he grows and develops. I swear he changes every day. I think the hardest thing to deal with is losing some of the friendships/relationships I had before mini-man. 

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Remeber to live your life
I was in a field where women were encourage to work and have a family. My problem is I was working 60-80 hours a week and I couldn’t do that and be the mom I wanted to be. Fortunately, Damon and I had discussed this long before I was pregnant and decided that I should stay home when the time came. We budgeted and saved so that we could live comfortably on just his salary. We achieved this just before getting pregnant. I can’t express how happy I am that we did this – for it means I get to spend every day with mini-man. 

The tough part comes in to play with my former co-workers. Many women, who like me were brought up to believe that we should work and have a family, can’t believe that I would choose to stay at home. Why not just hire a nanny? Well for me it’s simple – I don’t want someone else to raise my kids. I want to be there. There will always be jobs out there my kids will only be little for a very short time (I still can’t believe that mini-man is 15 months!). 

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I know that not everyone is as lucky as I am to have the choice to stay home with their children and that’s it’s a daily struggle to balance work and home life. However, I will never regret my choice to stay-at-home with mini-man. This decision doesn’t make me any less of a woman, just like deciding to have family and career doesn’t make someone any less of a mom. It’s a personal choice that’s made for the each persons family.