Well, you asked for it so here it is. A glimpse inside my brain…an understanding of my soul…a glance into my psyche…Okay, so you really didn’t ask but I feel a need to talk about it so just deal with it! As I explained in my first entry, I am a stay-at-home mom. (AKA: stay-at-home lackey, used and abused with absolutely no monetary compensation.) I am, ahem, 33 years old and started my very first job as a receptionist/file clerk for a law firm at the ripe old age of 15. I took to work like a moth to a flame, like Splenda to Diet Coke, like a toddler to a cheap plastic toy at a grocery store check-out stand. But, I digress. The point is I liked to work. I liked the challenge and responsibility. I liked learning new things and meeting new people. I liked Liz Claiborne and Clinique makeup. I loved my paycheck. And thus began my love affair with making my own money. I continued to work at mostly full-time intervals until after I married my husband, Jeremy and had our first child, Avery. She was such a sweet child that I honestly couldn’t imagine working full-time and leaving her at daycare all day long. At the time I was working for a municipal court and loved my job. So Jer and I decided that I would reduce down to half-time and essentially live the best of both worlds. And it was great! I would breeze in and breeze out of work without the over-burdened stress of all my full-time coworkers and then pick up my little baby from her daycare without any guilt that I wasn’t the one actually raising her. And this schedule worked for 3 blissful years.

And then we had Jack. Sweet, funny, evil-incarnate Jack. Oh, where do I begin? Let’s start with the cost of putting two children in part-time daycare. It’s a lot. And when you are only working 20 hours a week to start with…well, you can figure it out. It was either work full-time or no-time and we decided to try the latter. What In The Hell Was I Thinking?

Little did I know that I would be joining an elite group of creative-minded parents with an inherent ability of which I was not born with nor would ever possess. Did you know that stay-at-home moms are expected to clip coupons and keep a detailed log of which stores are featuring seedless grapes at less than $2.00 per pound? And then are expected to share the information with other stay-at-home moms while any information not shared is viewed as a form of treason? Well, I know I sure didn’t! I also didn’t realize that certain parental requirements such as potty training and de-binkying (I can’t think of an official name for that one) are supposed to be seen as fulfilling and life-enriching projects. What?!

But now, I have dived in head-first into this world of coupon-clipping and crockery cooking without a look backwards at my old life. In the extremely wise and prophetic words of Popeye, “I am what I am”. But that doesn’t mean I can’t bitch about it. (My words, not Popeye’s. He was a pretty glass-half-full kind of sailor!)

Love to all, Mindy