A career change

If you've been reading my blog for any time at all you know that when I was about 28 weeks pregnant my job as an academic advisor at our local high school was cut due to budget cuts.  With us moving in two short weeks into our new home we decided it was best for me to stay home, get everything packed, moved, and then unpacked and wait for the bambino to arrive in March.  I then had every intention for going to back to work, because that's what I've always done.

After Drew made his arrival my perspective started to change.  I went back to coaching soccer 1 month after his arrival and don't get me wrong I loved every minute.  It was honestly my saving grace.  I was able to get out of the house, get a small break from the craziness that was my life at the time and my mom would come and watch Drew, and I was so comfortable with that.  Plus, I was doing something I loved.  I have always played soccer and now to coach it, is an added bonus.  However, with that being said, I loved being home with him.  I couldn't imagine going back to work, but it was what I had always done.  Working is what I had gone to college for, it's what I wanted to do, but this little guy was telling me something different.

A little back story.  I have a degree in sociology and psychology.  I have worked with children and in the education field for most of my time in the working world since college and I have absolutely loved each and every minute.  Fresh out of college I worked in a detention center with teenage boys who had broken the law in some form.  I was their youth counselor and we worked on skill building as well as getting back into the community as a productive citizen.  I loved this job, but we moved and I wasn't able to stay.  I did basically the same job with smaller children when we moved back to Iowa but the job had a long commute and with Iowa winter, that is not so good, so I found something closer to home, which was my previous job as an academic advisor.  The academic advisor position wasn't what I had a experience in, but I came to really enjoy the position and the people I worked with.  It was heart wrenching when my position was cut.

 I've always been driven by my career.  I've always thought I would be a working mom as my mom was a working mom, and she did a wonderful job of making everything work.  After many conversations about our family B and I came to the decision that I am going to stay at home with Drew for the time being.  Thankfully we are able to do it financially and so far I have loved every minute of my time at home.

There has been an adjustment period as my work clothes have shifted to the back of my closet and my casual clothes have come front and center, but I wouldn't change it for the world.  I don't want to say I will be a stay at home mom forever, because in all honesty, I don't think I will.  When Drew gets older and goes to pre-school and then school, I know me and I know I will need something outside of the home.  I do have a few things lined up to keep me a little busy, not that my child doesn't but I am tutoring a few days a week, and I will still continue to coach soccer in the spring and I was just asked to serve on the board of our local education foundation board. 

All in all I'm confident in my decision to leave behind my 9-5 job and stay home with Drew.  Neither can compare to the other.  While I loved working with children, I love being home with my own, and when the day comes that I don't enjoy being home anymore, I know it's time that I turn in my stay at home mom hat and return to the 9-5 grind. 

Just because so many of you said you liked seeing pics of him!