What a week!

Wow, what a difference a week can make! Ever since starting my stay-at-home mom job, I go through phases where I wonder if financially it makes the most sense. In all reality, with my law license and experience, the answer is, unequivocally no. However, we're blessed to be able to make ends meet on just Joe's salary and I don't think there's any question that our family/home life is greatly improved having one of us at home.

Still, I get restless every so often and I'd start looking at job postings, thinking, well, maybe.... Then realize that we still weren't comfortable with sending Joseph to daycare at a young age. Now that Joseph's talking a ton(!) and is becoming quite a social little boy, we've entered the stage of life where maybe being around more kids more often in a structured environment wouldn't be a bad idea. If it came to that.

So last week I once again started looking at job postings, and found a few for short term contract attorney jobs - lasting 1-3 months. These jobs are typically 40 hrs, no overtime, no responsibility, and not exciting, but they pay better than a basic attorney job and leaps and bounds above retail, basic administrative work, etc. Joe and I discussed it and agreed maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to apply and see what happens. After all, we are still clawing our way back out of the financial hole we dug when our low budget bathroom remodel last winter turned into a massive home remodel. This type of a job should, in theory, give us that last little push of double income to pay off the credit cards and start rebuilding our savings.

I dug up my last resume, spent some time updating it and emailed it to the two different job contacts Wednesday night. At 9am Thursday morning, my phone rang. One company wanted me to interview that same day! The timing wasn't going to work out, so I scheduled the interview for Friday when Joseph could nap at Joe's office. Later that afternoon, the second company emailed to set an interview for Monday. I was really surprised at how fast everything was moving! Friday's interview went well, and they would call on Monday if I had been selected for a second interview. So Monday I headed off to the other interview, and sure enough, got a call from the first company to interview again on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday's second round interview went well enough that they called back a few hours later and said I'd been offered the job, and needed to start the following day! Mind you, I went from not even thinking about going back to work to employed in less than one week! Crazy!

Luckily we had spent the weekend discussing these options with Gary and my mom, to see if we could line them up to watch Joseph while we learned if I was in fact going to be working and figured everything out. The job I took says that it may only last through the end of March, but there's a good chance it'll run through April. Gary watched Joseph this week, and tomorrow I'm headed toward St. Louis when Joseph will spend this week with my parents. Assuming things go well at work this week, I have a daycare lined up to watch Joseph 2+ days a week, he'll stay in his Friday Kids Day Out program (that he's been enrolled in since August) and Gary will probably watch him the other 2 days a week.

In the end, it's not enjoyable work, but it's a job that should help us get back on the right track financially. And I know that I'm going to really appreciate being able to stay home full time! It's already been stressful trying to get Joseph and me ready in the morning and then figure out dinner when I get home. I definitely haven't figured that out yet, but will be working on it this week!