The Gnome

Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 1967

Norman's 1/10/11 Status:

After that snowstorm was over?

Norman's 1/19/11 Status:

What a loser!  He has a frocking shovel, you would think if he had half a brain, he would have used it to get a jump on shoveling his sorry gnome ass out when he had the chance.  For Shiva's sake, his little buddy Newman is crouching and has no shovel and now, you can only see the teensy point of his hat.

RIP, Newman.  We hardly knew ye.

And yes, the Christmas lights were still out and on.  What part of "Oliver" do you people not understand???

Nobody gets me.

So! at some point this week, I morphed from a stay at home mom sorta person to a person with a J-O-B which is not blogging related whatsoever and pays real currency (as opposed to free samples of chewing gum, bacon-flavored lollipops, meat thermometers, and hand soap.)  Go me!  The transformation was not magical, I am not sparkly or bloodthirsty (much).  No, it was far more urbane than that - involving upgraded resumes, scanned contracts and signatures.  And poof!  I am no longer a slacker, eating bons bons while watching my stories as my kids hover in saggy diapers -- now, I'm a worker.

For those of you just joining the circus here, I have long been vocal about how much I love staying home with my kids and how little of it actually involved staying at home.  I re-read those posts and they still stand mostly true, with adjustments for maturity in my children.  And myself.

Also, I love my crow served warm, smothered in Cholula sauce.

I do love staying home and I am mixed about this working gig.  However.  This opportunity that came was too good to pass up - it is part-time, from the comforts of my dining room and is in a professional capacity with a manager who is willing to be flexible (he has already offered the use of iPad as an entertainment option should I need to bring Arun along to a meeting).  It requires using dormant skill sets which need to be updated.  And it is in the financial services industry, which has long been my favorite of the industries in which I have experience.  I have always been interested in risk management, in particular, fraud prevention.  This is a great time to ramp up my knowledge in that area and get on board with the new legislation.

Quite simply, I would have been a colossal idiot to not jump on this opportunity.

Truly, the timing of this offer was terrible.  Our schedule is crazy, with Arun and Anjali in school at different times.  On Mondays and Wednesdays, in particular, I am at home in 1-2 hour increments with FOUR separate trips to their school scattered throughout the day.

However, the timing of this offer was also perfect.  On the days that we are home, Arun and Anjali love hanging out together and playing.  I can squeeze in the work hours needed, while they play the 100th game of "Koopa Kids" (don't ask, I have yet to figure out the rules.) I can work in the evenings or the weekends. Additionally, Manoj has a lot of flexibility with his own schedule, so we are able to trade off on duties.

I am really nervous, I have mixed emotions but mostly I am excited.  And intrigued.  I am not sure how much I will talk about my work life here, but I did ask Lag Liv for advice on "blogging about work" and she wrote a post about it.  Feel free to comment here or there if you have additional pearls on blogging about work, or even working life/balance with kids in general.

Historically, I have been pretty bad about balance - if I was needed at work, I always tried to be there.  But now I have kids, so the gig has switched up on me.  Oh sure, I have worked with Manoj in the past, but it is a very different situation working with someone who shares a vested interest in your kids taking a nap or not melting down from sheer boredom. Indeed.

Anyway, I will stop there.  I have more to write about as I figure this out - meal planning, hobbies planning, "how to not lose my mind" planning.  You know. The usual.

For enduring that drivel, I am going to throw out some Simian Snappage and then run away.....

I have started a Flickr set called "Fashion Victim"  because even Coco Chanel had to begin somewhere.  Also, if anyone has tips for how to get my daughter to wear something besides summer skirts and dresses in the middle of January (Cheese and fries!!), I would be appreciative.  Furthermore, half of her wardrobe is deemed unacceptable due to a dearth of bows, ribbons or flowers.  So much for all of that careful garage sale hunting and clearance rack scuffling last year.

I love this picture with Lucy snuggled up so close to him.

We have a "backyard" neighbor where we share a backyard fence.  On snowdays, we trade playdates to ease the boredom and cabin croup.  What is hilarious is that to get to each other's houses, we have to completely bundle up and trudge around the block through the snow.