My New Job

Big Daddy and I have attended three Churches together. My home Church, our beloved Church in Sanford and the Church that we attend now. Each Church has gotten progressively bigger and had a little more to offer and the Church that we attend now is well over 10 times the size of the Church that I grew up in that had somewhere around 300 members/in attendance. And it offers a lot.

I haven't hesitated to sign Maggie up for the special activities that our Church offers. She attended the Preschool Worship and Music class last year and will be starting again in September. She loved going to Preschool Summer Day Camp and I helped out with the babies (including Ellie) in the nursery. I will not lie...I really didn't enjoy staying in the nursery. Ellie did not like it. At all. Then, our Week of Wonder (VBS) came and I really enjoyed teaching one of the four year old classes.

I filled out Maggie's papers for her Awana Cubbies class and mailed them in yesterday. I decided that I would email the director of preschool ministries today and see if they needed any other teachers. Wouldn't you know that she called me before I had a chance to email her!? She was thrilled that I wanted to help and I am happy to be of service to someone other than Ellie & Maggie.

I have been feeling like the role of wife and mother (housekeeper and cook and grocery shopper and the list goes on) had taken over me and become my sole identity. Although this is my dream job, I don't think any job should take over all that you are. Big Daddy, Maggie & Ellie are my life and an enormous part of who I am, but sometimes I feel like I need to do a little more with myself other than sing Taylor Swift songs into a wooden spoon (along with Maggie) and stress over what to serve for three meals and two snacks a day. As Big Daddy starts another semester of grad school with an extra class thrown in, I feel like I'm in charge of everything even more than usual.

A couple of days ago I suddenly realized that I had become a desperate housewife...desperate for some sort of something that didn't have to do with the three people that I spend most of my time with. I never felt this way when I was the mom of one and we lived in Sanford. I think the combination of Maggie becoming more involved with activities, adding an Ellie to our family, moving to a smaller town, Big Daddy's longer hours at work and his school schedule left me feeling a little lost.

So, I have decided to embrace my role as helper-outer at Church and do whatever I can. I'll be close to Ellie and Maggie without having to be with them and they'll be learning and playing and growing in lots of different ways.

My schedule is going to be busier than ever, but at least I still have Tuesdays and Saturdays free of planned activities.