Time To Do Good

I know I said that my next post would be about my new "fun" workout regimen.  But frankly, I've been under the weather, and the workouts have been placed on hold.  I will be getting back to them very soon, however, and there will be much to write about when I do.  In the mean time, I have a different story to share.

So although I am officially a stay-at-home wife now, I occasionally do speaking engagements at schools and student organizations.  In the past, I've always had to schedule my speaking around my regular job.  There were times when I had to race from work to wherever I was giving a speech, changing in the car on the way.  I always made it work, but the stress level in situations like that was astronomical!

Yesterday was my first speaking engagement since stepping out of the workforce; what a difference it was!  I was asked to speak to seventh graders on their last day of the school year.  I spoke in four different periods.  When I was asked if I would be able to do the job, I didn't have to check my schedule.  I didn't start sweating over who I might be able to get to cover my job so I could take a day off.  I simply said, "Why yes, I'd love to come speak to your students all day." 

I've spent a good amount of time worrying that I'm not cramming my day with enough tasks to complete since coming over to the wife work side.  Yesterday was a silver lining type of day.  I realized that one of the biggest perks in staying home is having the flexibility to rearrange your schedule at the drop of a dime.  There's no one to clear the changes with.  If the dishes don't get done for one day, it's not going to affect anyone else's deadline.  I can take on a project, even a last minute one, based solely on my own discretion.  I know that eventually, when there are multiple kids with multiple activities to participate in, this might not be such an easy breezy gig.  And even now, there's plenty to keep me busy enough to never be bored.  But I am learning to take full advantage of the liberties I currently have before they are gone forever!  And I'm thanking God every day for allowing me those liberties at all.

BTW, if you're interested, check out my speaking website:

www.jenniferharon.com

Day 6 - Is There Joy In Cleaning? Why, Yes!

I woke up this morning feeling a bit under the weather.  I think my ickiness was a combination of adjusting to my new workout regimen (most likely the topic of my next post), my body responding to the chiropractic adjustments I've recently started getting, and a dose of laziness.  I felt worn out and irritable, and the idea of making a To Do List for the day was not appealing to me.  So I gave in...for a while.

I spent the first few hours of my morning (yes, I did write hours, don't judge me) watching episodes of The Office online.  I just laid there in bed, with my dog cuddled up beside me, and basked in the epitome of "vegging".  And then my stomach started to growl.  So I paused my current episode and went downstairs to grab an english muffin with honey.  ~Side note: if you've never drizzled honey on a cinnamon raisin english muffin, I urge you to try it.  It's one of the healthiest "sweet treats" around, and totally hits the spot!~

As I walked past my bathroom on the way to the kitchen, I remembered that I had planned to add Clean The Bathroom to today's To Do List.  My first reaction was that it could wait until tomorrow.  But something grabbed me again on the way back to my bedroom.  It was probably the light bouncing off the water-spotted mirror, or maybe it was a tumbleweed of dog hair rolling across the bathroom floor--I swear, my dog sheds enough in one week to make me question weather or not our floors are, in fact, carpeted.  Whatever it was that caught my eye, I couldn't shake the nagging in my mind that told me to grab a broom, a sponge, and some cleaner and get the job done.

It took all of 15 minutes to clean my bathroom (It's not very big).  There was nothing extremely laborious about it.  And when it was all finished, and I stepped back to examine my work, I felt good.  This is not the first time I've cleaned our bathroom.  In fact, in the prior dividing up of house chores between my husband and I, the bathroom was always on my list.  But there was something different about today's cleaning.  It was no longer a chore; it was my work.  And I took pride in my work. 

Several people have mentioned to me recently that they use proper titles for their roles as house wives.  One is an Estate Manager.  Another, a Domestic Engineer.  These terms might sound like silly ways of glorifying a realistic position as keeper of the home.  But today, I felt the weight of these fancy titles as I gained a new sense of dignity and satisfaction in the job that I do.  When my husband arrives home, he walks across freshly swept floors.  He looks into a clean and organized kitchen.  And when he needs to relieve himself, he does so in a shiny, disinfected bathroom that is free of little black dog hairs!

***Special thanks to my first follower, Erin!  Thanks for your support, it means so much!***

Day 4 - To Do Lists

I have not always been the most organized person in the world.  I am guilty of not sticking to multiple chore lists, budgets, and schedules that have been made in good faith to follow through with.  But in honor of my new job title, Full Time Wife, I am getting back into the organization saddle!

As I mentioned in my prior post, one of my biggest concerns in this new position of mine is that I find a balance between becoming a soap opera-addicted couch potato and a crazed task-a-holic who complains incessantly of not having a moment to breathe.  The solution?  To Do Lists.

Knowing my own weaknesses, including being great at half-finishing ten projects while not fully finishing even one, I have determined that I need a checks and balances application in my life if I am to stay focused on productivity.  Here is a list of the benefits I can think of to working from a written daily To Do List :

1.  You are working through your mental checklist and someone calls and asks you to do them a huge favor:  fill out a letter of recommendation they emailed to you for their entrance into graduate school.  You say of course, hang up, and forget about the favor until next week when the submission deadline is over.  You apologize profusely to your dear friend, feeling like a failure.  OR, you hang up with your friend, immediately add their request to your To Do List, and put the completed reference letter in the mail the very next day.  Your friend gets accepted, based heavily on the awesome recommendation you submitted, and you celebrate over wine and cheese.  Yay!

2.  You wake up knowing there are a million things you need to get done.  You start on one of the tasks that needs your attention, and get distracted by a knock at your door.  It's the UPS guy delivering a package.  That reminds you that you have a package you need to mail out from the post office.  You leave your first, unfinished project behind, rush to the post office, mail off the package, and decide to do some shopping while your out.  The problem is you weren't planning to shop when you left the house, so you didn't bring your grocery list.  You wing it, starving because you were planning to eat while you were working on your first task of the day, which never got completed, so now you buy a bunch of snacks you don't need and forget toothpaste, trash bags, and almost all of the ingredients for the pot roast you were going to cook for dinner.  At the end of the day, you collapse and feel like you got absolutely nothing accomplished.  OR, you spend five minutes at the beginning of your day planning your To Do List.  There are a few tasks that require you to be away from the house, so you plan those all together, and you start your day with those errands because you know that the package you have to mail out needs to be at the post office by a certain time.  You make sure you have everything you need before leaving the house, check off three items on your list by 1 p.m., and head home to start the next project.  At the end of the day, you look over all of the completed tasks on your list and feel a great sense of accomplishment!

3.  You're out running errands and remember that you had planned to get more dog food at some point this week.  You know you haven't gone to the pet store yet, so you swing by and pick up the food.  When you get home, there is a new bag already in the pantry, and you remember that you had your husband pick up the food on his way home from work two nights ago.  You kick yourself, and now have to go all the way back to the pet store to return the extra food.  OR, your out and remember you wanted to pick up some more dog food this week.  You don't remember going to the pet store to get it, but you check your To Do Lists from earlier in the week just in case.  Sure enough, you have "dog food" checked off on one of your lists, with a side not that says "James picked up".  You remember calling your husband to have him swing by the pet store for you the other night, and you save yourself a trip to the pet store.  Woo hoo!

I'm sure there are a hundred other great examples of how a solid To Do List system can make for much more productive wife work.  These are a few of the recent examples that happened to me first hand.  I'd love to hear some of your To Do List triumphs (or lack of To Do List failures!).  And with that, I'm going to cross THIS task off my list and move on to the next one!

Day 2 - A Weekend At Home

Happy Saturday, everyone!  I'm feeling a bit lethargic today, and I only have myself to blame.  I stayed up entirely too late last night, and woke up earlier than I wanted to.  In spite of my lack of sleep, it has been an enjoyable day.  I think I might call it a very early night, however, so that I will be feeling alert in church tomorrow.  I really enjoyed the church I visited last week, and I'm eager to return for another service.  I can't wait for James to get here so that we can attend church together again.

A few details about the events surrounding our new single-income lifestyle:

First, we are moving from Dallas, TX (James' home town) to Stockbridge, GA (a town just south of Atlanta, where my parents currently live).  The plan, in its loosest form, is to stay with my parents for the next 6-12 months, rent-free, while we transition out of relying on me bringing in a paycheck.  After this period, we will be moving back to New Smyrna Beach, FL (my home town, and the place we both want to call our permanent home).  The opportunity to stay with my parents to relieve a portion of our financial obligations was one we couldn't walk away from.  However, I'm sure there are going to be some cons mixed in with the pros as we adjust to this living arrangement.  Thankfully, my parents are quirky but loving, and not overbearing.  So there's that in our favor.  I came out ahead of James, and he'll be coming out at the end of this month.  We're talking on the phone every night like teenagers, but I really can't wait for him to be here with me.

Also, until just last week, James was making an hourly wage that would not make this one-income decision easy for us.  We have been asking God to increase our faith, and we know that He will always provide for our needs.  He has shown himself faithful, as He always does.  James has been offered a promotion at his job that we believe will come with a raise of around $4/hr.  If that increase is accurate, he will be making exactly what we need to fulfill our budget!  We will find out the exact amount of his new rate on Monday.  Even if it's not what we are expecting it to be, we still have absolute confidence in our Father to provide.

Finally, I don't really know how to be a stay-at-home wife.  I know it's not rocket science, but that doesn't make it any less stressful for me right now.  It should be simple enough.  I'm looking forward to making sure James leaves for work with a stomach full of breakfast, lunch in his hand, and clothes on his body that don't look like they were picked up out of a pile on the floor.  The part I'm really struggling with right now is how much of my day I need to fill with meaningful activities so that I don't feel like a slacker of a wife who is taking advantage of her husband's determination to provide for his family.

Is it ok for me to check my Facebook at 10 in the morning?  Can I call my best friend up and have a two hour conversation after lunch?  If I do the dishes, mop the floors, and grocery shop in one day, and all of that is done by 3, do I need to assign myself extra chores to occupy the remainder of my day?  And the big question that's on my mind today, Saturday, is:  if I'm home every day, do I still get a couple of days "off" each week, just like my husband does?  I'd love to hear feedback from all of you about these pressing ponderings.

Day 1 - Welcome To Wife Work Chronicles!

Just shy of five years into our marriage, and at a stage in our lives where we are looking forward to that "starting a family" step, my husband and I have decided to jump off the edge of the Grand Canyon--without parachutes.  Of course, I'm speaking figuratively.  And yet, it sort of feels like a crazy suicide, this journey we've chosen to embark on.

After almost five years of living as a two-income household, we have decided to turn "old school".  I will no longer be working outside of our home, and my husband will become the sole monetary provider for our family. 

There are a number of reasons we have made this alteration to our lifestyle, and I could write a full fledged book on our thoughts and convictions in this matter (maybe I will eventually...), but instead, I'd like to share with you the reasons I have a desire to begin publicly documenting this transition.  Those reasons, in no particular order, are:

1.  I would love to look back in a year, and be able to revisit all of the trials and triumphs that we encountered during this process.  It's one thing to grab memories out of our heads; having all the best and worst parts written down makes for a much clearer remembrance of how the story went.

2.  There aren't many people our age making this commitment, where the husband takes full responsibility for earning the family income and the wife focuses on keeping her house in order (not only in cooking and cleaning, but in budgeting, emotionally supporting her husband, raising children within the home, etc.).  I'm not giving you my opinion on whether this needs to be the case in every household.  This isn't a theological blog (although anyone who knows me knows I LOVE a good theological debate!).  But I would love for our transparency in this matter to be an encouragement to others who might be wanting to examine this option in their own lives, but aren't sure what it might look like.

3.  We've already heard plenty of strong opinions about this decision from some of our closest friends and family members.  We would love to be as candid as possible about how this is playing out.  Hopefully, my updates with be able to encourage those who started out concerned about us making a mistake.  But if we end up struggling through this more than not, then I hope that this will be a good way for people to know how to pray for us and encourage us through those struggles. 

We are strong believers and followers of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  This is a huge step of faith for us, and we are looking forward to seeing God work in and through this situation to bless us and allow us to be a blessing to others.  I'm excited to share those blessing with all of you as they come about!