After a lot of soul searching, I have quit my full time job!
I am now a full on WAHM and dedicate my day time hours to blogging, my Etsy shop, and being more available for my boys. Why has it taken 6 months to be able to share this? Simple: I worked in science and with science you cannot just up and quit (unless you don’t like who you work with). There are experiments, grants, and lots of other things to take into consideration. I let my boss know in January that I wanted to stop working at the end of June!
Yesterday was my first day of “retirement” and I kept myself pretty busy so as not to think about where I “could” have been that day. That may sound weird, but I really loved my full time job. The people were fantastic, the work was fulfilling, but the commute was a stinker.
I now have 50 EXTRA hours per week do devote to my boys, my home, my crafts, my blog, and my Etsy shop. I cannot even begin to tell you what this means for my family and my work!
So obviously I’m not “retiring” from my full time job because I get to become a rich housewife, but I do get to be more flexible for my boys (no more extended care!) and follow my passion: CREATING!
Can I just tell you how hard it has been the last 4 years (I silently celebrated my 4 year blogiversary a few days ago!) to run this blog, start up an Etsy shop, keep up with my boys and husband, and spend 50 hours a week away from home (that extra 10 hours on top of the 40 hour work week was commuting time!).
But I kept it up for one reason: I love it!
I love having a creative outlet and finding (and meeting!) other creative minds.
That is what has kept me going when I worked on the blog after my boys went to bed for the night or on the weekend when I needed to get a project done so my husband kept the boys entertained for a few hours.
Now I can do all of that during the day and dedicate those nights and weekend to my family!
Not to mention being able to get a little “me” time in. You can image it has been a little difficult to squeeze exercise and dieting into my previous schedule. Now I can actually take the time to eat a healthy breakfast, do a workout, and investigate incorporating a healthier lifestyle.
I might even dust my house…
I’m enjoying eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast (I like mine with applesauce), drinking a pitcher of citrus water per day, and having healthy fruit/veggie smoothies for lunch.
Okay, so its only day 2, but these are 3 things I plan to continue. Now I just need to find that Jillian Michael’s dvd.
I know its around here somewhere.
With these extra hours to devote to my craft, I am hoping to bring you bigger and better projects!
There should be new opportunities that I have previously turned down because I didn’t feel I had the proper time to give them the devotion they needed.
First major project to tackle: The living room!
I hope you are as excited about this announcement as I am.
It was sad to say goodbye to my day job (I have the best girlfriends who sent me words of encouragement last Friday knowing it was my last day!), and I look forward to seeing what this new road brings.
I have started truncating my posts to avoid having my content stolen. I hope you’ll click over to finish reading the post. Thank you for understanding!
Congratulations Michele! I am so, so excited for you!
WAY TO GO!!! Enjoy your new life and I look forward to all the creativity that must be waiting to burst forth. Good for you for going through with it!!!
Yay!!! I am so excited for you!! What an absolutely fun thing for you to be able to do…you will love and adore being home full time with your family!
Congratulations!! That’s awesome news!! You will enjoy every minute of it!!
Wow!! Super exciting! I wish you the best in your new life :o) Enjoy the extra snuggle time with your boys… oh and I love Jillian Micheals… she is a bug part of my SAHM life :o)
Emily @ Nap-Time Creations
i hope you enjoy being at home as much as i and many other mammas do! congrats!
Good on you Michele! A great decisions.
Anne xx
Congratulations Michele! I am so excited for you!
xx,
Jenn
So excited for you! I can’t wait until I can do the same thing one day!
Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
Woohoooo! I am so excited for you! You are so talented and a blog rock star – and that was while working a full time job. I can’t wait to see all the fun things you do next! I know having more time with your family will be so wonderful too. Congratulations friend!
Congratulations Michele. I know it was a hard decision because it is rare that people have a job that they actually love. I can’t even imagine what it has been like to keep up with everything you do. You are making the right decision to put your family first. Congratulation on this new chapter of your life 🙂
How exciting! Good luck and enjoy…can’t wait to see what you keep bringing us too!
Congrats! Family comes first. My husband and I were talking about this last year, then he got laid off, so it didn’t happen. Now that he found somehing (a year later!) hopefully it’s something that we can talk about again once we get back on our feet.Hard, decision, but something you definitely won’t regret. So exciting!
Congratulations Michele… I am sure it is bittersweet . I too have a fulltime job I love. If it wasn’t for having the summer off
I think I would have “retired” a while ago too!
Have a lot of fun!
Susan
Congratulations! Very excited for you and your family!
I’ve been waiting for you to reveal this 🙂 I’m so, so happy for you!
I’m really excited for you Michele!!!
Congrats Michele. That is a huge decision but one you will never regret! Your boys and husband are lucky to have more of you! I have always thought you were kind of a bloggy superwoman…managing work, life, kids and always creative on the blog.
congratulations! you are such an inspiration! i wish you all the wild success in the whole wide entire world! thank you so much for sharing so much with us!