Well, it's been a little over 6 months since I decided to pull back from my job as a sales rep (working from home) and allow myself to focus on the things in life that should've been my priorities to begin with. My family, my home and my health.
With Martin's work responsibilities keeping him away more and more often, I knew that the stress of balancing the home responsibilities and taking care of the kiddos was really taking a toll on my health, and happiness. I had gained 20 lbs.- probably due to stress, lifestyle and some medical issues, and was also struggling with acid reflux, which my Dr. was chalking up to "life stress". Plus, the hours I put in did not balance with the happy income I had hoped for last year. So Martin and I took a look at the budget and decided that I would pull back from the job. Instead of networking, knocking on doors and trying to gain new clients, I would maintain a select few accounts and work less while working smarter. Best. Decision. Ever.
I've since lost 20 lbs, and am working toward my goal of 15-20 more. While I've been a bit lax this summer, I'm in the best shape of my life, and can now run 2-3 miles- a feat which I never in my wildest dreams thought I could achieve. I'm enjoying the summer months, and have taken my boys to the zoo, the library, the park, on bike rides, to the pool, and to the splash park; gone to Six Flags as a family, taken a family trip to Schlitterbahn and sent them to some pretty awesome camps- and the summer's not even halfway over yet. All of that with little to no guilt or anxiety about neglecting my job in the meantime. It is exhilarating to finally be able to enjoy my kids with minimal distractions. When I was working before, I felt guilty for not being with or enjoying time with the kids; while at the same time feeling guilty for neglecting work while with the kids. Some of you can pull off both, but I can tell you that for this mom, at this phase of my life- I could not- not without mass amounts of anxiety, guilt and the start of an ulcer from being pulled in so many directions. I am so much happier (and pleasant to be around- I think).
While it's been great, we're finally starting to feel the loss of the little income I did have coming in. Like every true American, we have amassed some debt, and that has started to wear on us. And with that, I find myself with a new guilt (it's what I'm best at)- the guilt for not contributing enough monetarily.
Martin and I have been discussing our big money plan, and with a desire to get our eternal goals and contributions more in line- how we can save some money, eliminate debt, etc. We had some scary conversations about cutting out things we love... and of course, we have to start with the glaringly obvious.
So, I'm redirecting where I'm going with the blog, and will be writing about our experiences in this "trimming the fat" at this stage of our lives. I will share our melt downs, our kids melt downs, some of my money saving tricks I've learned, and light bulb moments. Hopefully, it will encourage and perhaps inspire someone out there in our scenario.
My hope is that if I can trim 20 pounds of fat from my body, we can do the same in our budget. Happy reading y'all!
No comments:
Post a Comment