1 Year and Counting…

Wow! What a fun (and busy!) summer we had. Now we’re in the midst of fall and school, soccer seasons, and Wednesday night church programs, homework, and planning for the fall. Does the busyness ever end?

I wanted to post a little over a week ago but, as usual, ran out of time! I was excited to (internally) celebrate my one year anniversary of being a (sort of) stay at home mom! October 1 was my first official day as an unemployed mother, and I can honestly I would never go back. While the circumstances that surrounded my leaving my full-time job were thoroughly discouraging, I wouldn’t trade the experiences I had in the last year for anything!

I have no doubt that God was at work when he allowed me to leave full time employment. Only two months into 2013 I had already had to grieve two loved ones and take time off to attend viewings/funerals. There’s no way my full time job would have allowed that, as neither of the individuals who passed were immediate family. I had the opportunity to volunteer for Kid Writing numerous times, went on field trips I never could have attended otherwise, and had the opportunity to attend other school functions.

I had a summer off! (Well, mostly.) We worked around my part-time work schedule, and I got to take my family to many different parks around the county, libraries, have playdates (my favorite was spa day!), color, read together, snuggle together, make crafts, and more.

I was able to start working out regularly at the gym–something I definitely wouldn’t have time for as a full-time working mom. I’m working back toward being healthy.

The kids are back in their routines of going to their toddler program and school. They were quite excited to go back and see all of their friends. Princess Anna is so excited to go back to the toddler school, and with the activities they do, I’d be excited to go there too. Best of all, I’m able to drop Rapunzel off at the bus stop in the morning, drop off Princess Anna at preschool three days a week, put in my hours, pick up Tinkerbell from preschool, and still get Rapunzel off the bus–something my full-time job wouldn’t budge on (we’ll just leave it at that.) And in the meantime I get to help out my working friends who need to get their kids to and from school.

I love how God can take rotten circumstances and turn in them into something beautiful. When has He done this for you?