Home work

I'm a homebody. I love being home. When Dave and I were still dating we decided that if when we got married I would stay home and he would work. I'm not one to run a lot of errands during the week and on the weekends we spend a lot of time at home. In the past I always thought how great it would be to have a job where I could stay home and work. I thought it would be so easy to get in a lot of work time and still be home with my kids. A few weeks ago I started an at home job. I got a job scoring state writing tests. I thought it was going to be so great and so easy to log in 20 hours a week or more. But I was wrong. It's not that easy. Between home school, spending time with Logan, helping Colin with homework after school, grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, laundry, preparing my Sunday School lesson, taking care of my garden and everything else I need to do in a week it's been really hard to work at home. I get interrupted a lot. The phone rings, my kids need me, I remember the clothes in the wash from the day before, the Internet crashes. The past few weeks I have felt a little overwhelmed, a little frazzled. I told Dave last night that I feel like I have a million things I need to do RIGHT THEN and I can't seem to get them all done. I try to make a schedule but sometimes it goes right out the window when you're at home and the unexpected happens (like your kid throws up). It's been a few weeks since I started working and it's not a long-term job. Just a month or so until these papers all get scored and then after that whenever they need me again. But it's been a learning experience. It's taught me what my priorities are and that I need to do those things first and then try and get my hours of work in. I might not get in 30 hours a week, I might barely get in 20. But I really like that I can do it. It's nice that I can stay home and work and earn a little money. It's nice that I can stop and read a book to Logan or eat lunch with my kids. It's nice that I can tuck them in at night and then log in a few work hours, or wake up before them to get some uninterrupted work time. It's hard to balance everything, but I learned these past couple of weeks that when I take care of my family responsibilities first, it makes getting the other stuff done a little easier.