One More Sleep

I can hardly believe that a year of maternity leave has gone by and I'm back at work now. Growing up, I always thought that I wanted to work and be a mom but I definitely reconsidered that position throughout my maternity leave, especially as it was nearing its completion. In the end, I went back because I knew it was what God wanted me to do.

During the past few months I had spent time praying and asking others to pray that I would get a sense of how God wanted me to be using my gifts to serve others during our time in Scotland. After receiving prayer at church one Sunday, I got a really clear answer that I was to return to work on campus. It feels good to know that God is asking you to do something and then to have the courage to do it. So I did it!

I am really enjoying the mental stimulation of being back at work as well as having an opportunity to use some of my strengths. I also enjoy having some variety in my schedule and tasks that are different from my everyday work on things like diaper changes, laundry and dishes.

Returning to work has caused me to be more intentional in planning my time so I have also been doing lots of fun things outside of work. I have been spending time with my brother & sister in law who are in Scotland for a few weeks with their kids.

Taking a break at the Transportation Museum to try out their carrier (the same brand as the one we just ordered). That's cousin, Camdyn, 45lbs, on my back!

I have also enjoyed helping out a friend by looking after her 6 month old. I figured it would also be good practice in figuring out how to juggle 2 kids!

Archie sleeping while Sebby has fun on the swing. 

He sleeps during a lot of our times together ; - )

Another thing I love about being back at work is the opportunity for me to more or less create my own job description and choose to say "yes" to activities that I enjoy and "no" to those that I'm not as interested in. This is another huge benefit to the immense amount of flexibility in my work. I am also thankful Darren & I have a work situation that allows us to arrange our schedules so that we don't need outside childcare for Sebby. This saves us money and more importantly, it gives Sebby more opportunities to have quality time with Daddy.

 

However, the trade off of this type of scheduling so far is that it has made for a few longer days (and evenings) for me. I am confident that things will slow down a bit once the initial busyness of working through HR agreements and paperwork, and defining expectations with new supervisors and teammates gets sorted out. Overall, it's a huge change to go from having so much freedom like I did on mat leave to having to give up nap times, mornings and evenings to work.

This evening I told Darren that this has felt like the longest week in recent memory. It's only been two weeks since I started work and in some strange way it feels as if the weeks have stretched into one looooong week. All day I kept thinking it was Friday. I was looking forward to a weekend, only to realize later on this afternoon it is only Thursday. But tomorrow is Friday!!

"Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend!"