Being busy, mixed emotions, and enjoying life

Life keeps zipping by at warp speed in the Sunny household... I'm not really sure what exactly we are busy doing, but we are definitely busy doing it!  Not blogging, obviously.  Ahem.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am working part-time right now.  Back in January, I got a call from my former employer.  If you remember, I worked for a small company when we lived in St. Louis, providing career coaching and job search assistance to the spouses of corporate transferrees or new hires who are relocating.  In order to help the family get settled quickly and painlessly (and therefore allow the employee to focus on his/her new position, and also ensure that the relocation doesn't fail altogether), companies hire my employer to assist the trailing spouse with landing a new job, if they are looking for one.  Not in a recruiter capacity, but as job search experts -- resume, research, advice, etc.  Make sense?  Hopefully you are still with me.

The company is based in St. Louis, but they have a few satellite offices, and mainly the services are provided via telephone and email over long distance.  But my employer was pitching to a major corporation out here who wanted the career consultants to be located in Seattle specifically.  So they called me, asked me to attend the pitch presentation as the "face" of the consultants, and offered me a job working from home 8-10 hours a week as a contractor, making more than twice the hourly rate I earned as an employee before I quit to stay home with Bean full time.

While my plate is already overflowing, and I wasn't looking to be employed at this particular time, it was too good of an opportunity to turn down, and with a supportive husband and top-notch babysitter (aka Grandma) on board, we all dove in.

It's going well, but it's hard.  It's hard for me to juggle the needs of four small children with the needs of the job seekers I'm working with.  It's hard for my Mom to watch four kids while I disappear into my "office" (aka my bed, in my pajamas) to go to work.  We are taking it day-by-day.  I do enjoy having an outside focus, I like this work, my bosses are amazing and understanding women, and it's satisfying in a lot of ways.  Sometimes it feels like I spend more energy trying to figure out when/how to work than I do actually working, which is when it gets difficult.  I have mixed emotions about it, but for now, it's a hat I'm wearing.

As far as the rest of the household: DH is doing very well at work, and although it's very high-stress, he is doing his best to be home with me and the kids as much as possible.  The effort is duly noted and much appreciated.  Bean will be graduating from preschool in two weeks, and he'll be headed into full-day public Kindergarten next year.  I have mixed emotions about this, naturally, but he is bored and definitely ready for a new challenge.  Nix and Gax will be starting a new preschool in the fall, one that has a co-op option (i.e. parents "work" in the classroom), but the committment is much less than it is at the co-op preschool we attend now.  I also have mixed emotions about this, too, but I think it'll be a good change for the family overall.  The baby is no longer a baby -- he turns ONE in about a week!  Gasp!  More mixed emotions.  I am so ready to be through the "baby fog" once and for all.  I want to sleep better, do more with the kids, and spend less time changing diapers.  But he's my baaaaaaaaaby, my last baaaaaaaaaaby, and there is a sadness and mourning that comes with that, relief or not.  Sniff sniff.

And a few pictures too... Bean's 5th birthday (a joint party with his friend, we had a "Mad Science" theme), decorating Easter eggs, attending a friend's birthday party, and just enjoying life!