This week Ellie and I started a grand adventure together. Mission: Work from home eight hours each week.
OK, maybe we need to work on the title.
But the gist is there. My boss gave me the green light to work eight hours from home, which I will likely break into two half-days from home most weeks. I've always felt lucky to be in a flexible job; one where I largely set my own hours. But I'm still getting WAY less time each day with Ellie than I want/need, and it's led to a lot of stress and sadness for me. In many ways, much to my own surprise sometimes, I am a wannabe-stay-at-home-mom.
But I do enjoy working as a reporter. And financially it makes sense right now for me to work and help support the family. I'm hoping this new arrangement helps me get my Ellie-fix. Yesterday I worked from home during the morning and got to feed Ellie and play a little with her, when I wasn't fielding calls from sources or writing. I was happy to get an entire story written, along with some advance reporting for another article, during her morning nap.
I'm finishing out my at-home hours this afternoon. And even though I have a TON to get done for work, and part of me feels like it would be easier to just stay in the office... I'm plowing ahead with my plan. Because realistically there's never going to be a "good" day to change things up. This new arrangement is going to make some things harder for me, and hopefully some things easier. I may end up working some evening hours or early morning hours to get things done, but I'm OK with that.
It's all worth it when I get moments like the one above. I took Ellie for a walk in the park Monday afternoon to talk to some residents about a story I was doing. We made the rounds and got the people I needed, then we stopped at the swings for a few minutes and I got some major giggles out of Ellie.
Dare I say, maybe I can do it all?
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