Being a SAHM for the summer…..

(Written 6/26/2013)
It’s something that I always thought I wanted to be.  And at the moment, I’m loving it.  I cannot say that I felt the same way when I had Cooper.  As a matter of fact, I couldn’t wait to go back to work when I had him.  I missed having adult interaction during the daytime.  I missed having someone to talk to at all.  You see, I had postpartum depression like crazy.  I was down in the dumps.  Maybe it was because it was October/November/December and the weather was getting crummy.  Maybe it was because I was not meant to be a mom.  Maybe it was a lack of sleep.  Maybe it was my lack of closeness with God at the time.  Maybe it was a million different reasons that I cannot even account for entirely in this post.  Whatever the reasons, so far, I’m not feeling the same way this go round.  Not yet anyway.  I pray that I won’t have those feelings this time.  It was a rough ride, for everyone in my household.  Everyone felt the effects of me being a crazy person. 

Yesterday was officially my first day at home with both Cooper and Katy by myself.  Tim went back to work on Monday, and Cooper went to school that day.  If I haven’t mentioned it yet on the blog, (forgive me my memory is short these days), Cooper will be going to school two days a week throughout the time I’m off   work.  We figured keeping him with his friends a couple of days a week would keep him on his schedule for when he would return full time when I go back to work. It would also keep me sane and rested having a couple of days to recover from the lack of sleep that comes with having a newborn.  The day was great, I loved having him home with me.  He is a busy guy, but we made cookies, we played and we took a walk around the neighborhood.  It was nice.

(Written 7/17/2013)
I wish I had been able to finish my thoughts the day I was writing the above, but too much time has passed and I have no idea what I was going to write.  What I will say is – being home with my kids this summer has been amazing.  There have been rough days, without a doubt, days where mama has had very little sleep and still had to keep up with Cooper and the baby, but overall, my days have been very fulfilling.  I’m loving having these days home with both of my kiddos.

We’ve visited the children’s museum a few times, we’ve gone to Monkey Joe’s with my friend Jill and Coop’s friend Max.  We went to a minor league baseball game for the 4th of July with Jill’s family, we’ve visited my family, we’ve been busy.  Busy is good.

I’m not really sure how SAHM’s fit in everything that I’m trying to fit in, on a daily/weekly/monthly basis with multiple children.  Especially when one of them is a newborn, especially if they are breastfeeding.  It’s exhausting.  I’m trying to keep Cooper occupied without the use of a television (except an hour or so a day) and trying to keep up with feeding Kate all of the time, trying to keep the house cleaned, bottles washed (more on that later), and laundry done.  I still think it’s difficult to work outside the home, but I think it might even be more difficult if you’re a SAHM.  The responsibility I feel to keep Cooper entertained and having fun and doing fun things this summer has been monumental.  If I had to worry about new activities, new lessons to teach him, new places to go, new things to do every day/week/month I think I might fail.  It’s not an easy job and I have so much respect for those who work inside the home. 

I feel like I take the easy way out when I drop him off at his preschool/daycare and they have activities planned each day/lunches planned/lessons planned.  I go and sit at my desk and work for 8 hours, then head back to pick him up and then we play.  That’s what we did, we played.  We didn’t have to plan all of the stuff that the school did.  While working outside the home and fitting playtime in along with cooking/cleaning, etc in a few hours a night plus weekends IS TOUGH, I’m not sure its as demanding as being a full time working inside the home SAHM.  Again, kudos to those who do that job!

I am loving staying home, and I don’t want to go back in a month, but I know I have to, and life will go on, we’ll adapt to being a family of four and going to two places to drop the kids off, to pick them up, and it’ll be wonderful.  But, I will miss these days.  These days of being at home with them.  Being able to spend that quality time with them that I’ll never have again.  Twelve weeks off hanging out with my kids is the biggest blessing I can have as a mother and I am bound and determined to soak up every moment of it during the next month. 

I know this post is kind of all over the place as far as my thoughts went, it may not even make sense and I probably wrote the same thing 5 different ways, but I needed to clear my chest and get my thoughts out there.  I know you understand!  I sure hope this writing thing becomes a habit of mine again, I enjoy blogging and miss it so much!!!  Until next time…