Coming back to "the office" after a day off

As you know, I spent almost 20 years in the corporate world, and the last two as a part-time teacher and stay at home mother and wife (a domestic!). I had a great realization this week about the similarities of the two... including the concept of "vacation".

This week, I was able to take a day "off". In the world of stay-at-home mothers, that means a day away from the house - doing "me" things. In order to understand, let's take a look at what gets done in a normal day at home -

• laundry washed and hung out, then folded and put away - anywhere from 1-2 loads
• three meals cooked, from scratch
• the dishes from cooking and eating those meals washed and put away
• house picked up
• detailed cleaning (in whatever room I'm working on that day) - de-cluttering, dusting, etc.
• kitchen swept
• flowers watered - and garden, if needed

And of course - there is the morning coffee, and GMA - cannot start the morning without that!

So on a day "off" - the above mentioned list? NOT DONE!

Tuesday - I got up at 4:30am to get the corn frozen before I left, made a salad for church, watered the flowers and garden, put lunch for the boys in the crock pot, and was headed out to craft day by 8am. Back at 3, I was changed and out the door by 4 to head to a going away party and to do the grocery shopping. By the time I got home at 8, the dishes from the day were piled up and begging for me, and the house was a mess. So I spent a couple of hours doing the bare minimum - dishes, picking up the living spaces, etc.

As I was doing the dishes that night, I literally laughed out loud. I had a flashback to my corporate life. Every time I would take a vacation day - there was overtime prepping before leaving (just like getting up early before going Tuesday), and coming back took hours to dig out of all that didn't get done.

So while I may be a SAHM now, I have realized that some things have not changed... and that makes me smile. I may have changed my "office", and the "staff" I manage is drastically different, but my life isn't so different after all.