Where have you BEEN, Mama?

Well, a little thing happened this summer where all at once, we unexpectedly decided to move, I was offered an opportunity to teach part time in a "would be so silly to pass up" kind of situation...oh, and all of this was going to happen in the same 2 week span that we had a long standing vacation planned that couldn't be moved.  So...I disappeared a bit from the Mama's Blue Binder World and put my blinders on to G.S.D.

We made it!  I spent the entire month of July, one nap-time at a time, slowly packing up our house and getting ready for the move.  Living in boxes for an extended period of time was kind of my own personal hell, so we were 90% out of boxes within 3 DAYS after moving into our new house.  They just had to be gone.  The other 10% are hiding in a spare closet, and while they are nagging at my brain, my eyes don't have to see them all the time so it will probably be a bit before they are emptied. We seem to be getting along just fine without them.

The sun set on one chapter, but a new one has just begun.

The new job: just crazy.  I didn't really feel ready to go back to work - I was still embracing my ability to be home with my littles, (...and honestly looking forward to the fact that two of them would be in school a few hours each day this year.  One kid?! For multiple hours a day?! Being so used to three, the possibilities seemed endless! )

But isn't that a question so many parents deal with all the time? Stay home and enjoy that gig, but fear being "irrelevant" once the time comes to reenter the workplace?  Maybe everyone doesn't feel that, but I certainly did. And then comes along this unicorn position thats part-time and as much as I tried to give them every opportunity to go with someone else, they wanted me! The 2-year stay at home mom! It was too perfect.

Family Vaca! These are my people.

So we moved.
We vacationed.
I went back to work for the first time in 2 years the day after we got back from vacation.

I just kept telling myself, "get through August...thats all you have to do...September will be the new normal."

So thanks for your patience.  The Binder is back.