What's been going on

Ok, so clearly I've had a lot on my plate.  Or at least enough that blogging has taken a back seat to the rest of life recently.

But although things are busy, life is good.

Ever since Blythe was born, I've wished I could stay home with my kids and not send them to full-time day care.  I don't hate my job, I mean I work from home and have the flexibility to go to Walmart during the day sometimes or go work out at lunchtime and not worry that I smell bad when I come back.  But working from home also means being available at all hours of the day every single day.  And in my line of work, the busiest time is usually 3:30pm until about 6:30pm.  Blythe gets off the bus at 4:30 and I leave at 5:00 to go pick up Brynn and Ethan.  This means I am never done with work when I actually have to leave work.  And so I'm trying to juggle lots of things.  And the losers are usually the kids.  If I have to deal with a stressful situation at work during that time, I take it out on them and have a short fuse.  Sometimes Blythe gets off the bus while I'm on a meeting and I can't even say Hi to her as she walks inside.

But it's a job and we need jobs to pay the bills and so I've continued to work full time.  And let me also say I have nothing against full time day care.  We loved our day care in Virginia.  The kids took field trips all the time (mostly walking field trips) to the post office, the grocery store, the book store.  Even in the toddler room they took field trips.  The parents were very involved and so I didn't feel my kids were "missing out" or that I was missing out.  But in NC there is a law that they can't go on field trips until they are 4.  And there is SO MUCH kids can do in this city.  So I do feel like my kids are missing out and that I am missing out.

So when Braden got the job here at NC State, many new doors opened up for us.  The pay raise was nice, but even our house payment is lower now.  And my car is almost paid off.  I started crunching numbers to see if it was possible for me to quit, even if it's just for 3 years (until Brynn goes to kindergarten) and even if we need to dip into savings just a bit.  I found that it might be possible.  We would need to live more frugally, that's for sure.  And we would cut down temporarily on our retirement savings, but we've done a great job up to this point with saving.  But with all of our payments, we would need to make some additional form of income.  Not a lot, but some.

And so, we decided to start up swim camps this summer.  With Braden's contract comes the ability to own camps and to use the facilities at NC State (or pay to use the facilities).  I've been to camps in the past and Braden worked the camps at Virginia Tech, so how hard could it be?  Well....much harder than I anticipated.  We thought we'd start small and just run 2 camps this summer.  Or really 1 and a half.  One overnight camp and 1 half-day camp (9am-noon).  There was A LOT to be done.  Securing pool time, finding dorms and dining options, creating a website, coming up with dates and prices, designing brochures, getting compliance approvals, filing with register of deeds, opening a business banking account, etc.  In the meantime, I had about 5 parents emailing regularly asking when they can sign up for camps.  How they heard about the camps?  No idea.  I figured it would be a piece of cake though to get kids to sign up.  Once we finally got all those pieces done and got those 5 kids signed up, I thought "now what?".  I have zero experience in marketing or advertising, but it became clear that is what I needed to do.  With no money.  So the bad part about that "half camp" (that on the surface seems like practically no work)?  It is marketed for a whole different group of kids and parents than the overnight camp.  So I've done a lot of work and learned a bit about marketing and advertising.  And I'm hoping more kids will sign up!  I think we'll have a decent number this year (or here's to hoping).  And of course, there are many more steps to actually getting the camp going (like getting everything in place for camp and then actually running the camp).  A learning experience for sure and I'm hoping next year is much easier.

So anyway, we're depending on the camps to fill that small gap we need in pay.  But because I'm a realist and I'm not a risk-taker, I also decided not to quit my job.  Well, not completely.  I offered to stay on part-time, but I couldn't visualize myself committing more than 10 hours a week, at least not this summer with camps going on, no daycare, and 3 kids in my care.  My work said my current position is not a part-time position, but they worked with me and found me something I could do part-time.  So I think that should work out well.  My last day as a full-time employee will be May 17 (or June 1 officially if you add in the vacation days I need to take).  Brynn and Ethan's last day in full-time day care will be May 18.  And then Blythe will be out of school on June 7.

So this summer will be crazy.  I've signed them up for a few half-day camps here and there, but in general we'll be at the pool A LOT.  Just being pool rats.  And we'll be taking advantage of the lots of cool free or cheap things to do in Raleigh.  I'm hoping to have some time before I finish up work to research all those cool things and to come up with fun at-home activities and learning opportunities.

Oh, and here in Raleigh, part-time day care is harder to come by than full-time day care.  Spots fill quickly.  I knew I needed SOMETHING for Brynn and Ethan next year (so I can keep my sanity), but I didn't want too much change for them again.  So, they'll be going a few days a week part-time to the preschool at our church.  It will be familiar to them and they'll already recognize a few faces.  It'll also give me an opportunity to meet more moms, which I'm looking forward to.

So anyway, I'm really, really looking forward to what lies ahead and enjoying a little slower pace of life, but man, have I had to work hard to get there!