You're gonna miss this

My last day at work was Friday. Ask me again in six months, because I may be climbing the walls (that's how long I stayed home with Sierra before I started working), but I'm LOVING my time at home. One of my friends recently made a blog post about "mommy paychecks"--I have gladly handed over my money paychecks for mommy paychecks. Josh is a very very smart man. Whenever Sierra says something about momma not working anymore, he slips in, "momma still works, it's just that she only has ONE full time job now" ;-) Have I mentioned lately that I married the best man in the world? ;-) Anyways, I am really enjoying rocking Sedona to sleep for her naps. In the past that's been one of my least favorite baby-care activities, but I missed out on it for the last 8 months (I'd put her in the wrap at work and then continue working, I couldn't stop for 15 minutes to rock her), and have found I really look forward to it now. Nothing beats baby fine hair against your cheek, one baby arm wrapped around your arm and a chubby baby hand against your neck. I'm also pleasantly surprised that when I haven't used up all my patience on grown people who need baby-sitting to get a job done, I have plenty left for my own three year old at the end of the day. There have been many fewer power struggles between Sierra and I this week, and when she gets upset, I'm able to respond in a completely calm tone of voice, which just sorta difuses her anger/frustration. I think that's probably been the biggest benefit so far---I'm still sane when everyone gets home! I do miss the clients, but I'm working on getting set up to teach some breastfeeding/childbirth classes (which is a nights/weekend independent working type thing).

So there's a new country song called "you're gonna miss this" that gives me goosebumps now. The first part talks about missing being a teenager or married without kids, and sorry, I don't miss those (I've always been in a hurry to grow up and while the responsibility that comes with being grown up can be tough, no way would I trade it to be a kid again), but the last part is:

Five years later there's a plumber workin' on the water heater
Dog's barkin', phone's ringin'
One kid's cryin', one kid's screamin'
And she keeps apologizin'
He says "They don't bother me.
I've got 2 babies of my own.
One's 36, one's 23.
It's hard to believe, but...

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this"

And that part gets me, because I know I'm gonna miss having my babies around. I'm sure there are fun times ahead (especially when they're big enough to really go hiking, climbing, biking, etc...), but there's not much in life that beats rocking babies :-) So, yes, we're incredibly short on money now (though a benefit of frugality is we have savings instead of revolving debt), and with gas prices so high we walk or bike where we need to go most of the time, and we count taco bell as "going out" and even that's a rarity, but the trade-offs are great. The amount of money I was getting was not nearly enough to justify the stress on our family.