The whole thing started this summer when Jacob was offered, accepted and started a new job in Vancouver, on the other side of the river, in another state, with different taxes. Jacob started talking about wanting to move as it would effect his take-home income, but my job and our (awesome) child care situation was holding us back. Then, in August, you may remember my post about not getting a promotion that I really thought I had a high chance of getting... and was really the carrot at the end of the stick in terms of my then-current position.
I had an epiphany at that point... I was, once again, "stuck" in a position that I didn't really want to do, for less than 1/3 of what Jacob was getting paid for a job that he loves (and would bring home more from if we moved to Vancouver due to the lack of income tax). I was spending about 3 hours per weekday with my kids, 2 hours of which was stressing everyone out by trying to get them out the door in time for Jacob and I to get to work or trying to get them to bed. I never had any energy on the weekends, was commuting roughly 1.5-2 hours per day (same for Jacob) between work and shuttling kids to daycare. It just didn't make sense anymore. I have always enjoyed my work and really cared about it's mission... which I still do. But I couldn't make the argument anymore that I was continuing to work for my family and for myself... it wasn't true anymore.
So, in August, we found a house that we loved in Vancouver and put in an offer. We put our house on the market. We got an offer in September, and moved in October, the week before Sam's birthday and in November I finished working to stay home, raise my children, and manage our household.
This post was going to be about the process of the home purchase/move and our stumbling blocks... that's what I intended to write about when I started. But the post has taken a different course, and I'm going to allow it to do so. I'll tell you all more about the move later, but for now let me just tell you how amazing it is not to have wake up a sleepy 3-year old when it's still dark outside (when she REALLY doesn't want to open her eyes), skip breakfast EVERY morning because there just isn't enough time to get everything done, not eat dinner until 7:00/7:30 because I can't actually start cooking until 6:00, spend more than an hour a day listening to my children laugh and play, go to the store on a Tuesday afternoon when there are no lines, take my kids to the library and week day play grounds. Jacob is loving it, too. He can sleep/leave a little later in the morning (and in a better mood!), can come home on his lunch breaks to hang out with us, and is home about an hour earlier every night than he has been for the last 3 years... it's only day 4 (and, truth be told, today is my "me/errands day" and they are actually with the sitter while I go grocery shopping and run other errands - while still taking a Starbucks break for some peppermint hot chocolate and blog catch ups) but so far I'm not regretting my decision at all, and believe that we made the best choice for our family. I am very much looking forward to seeing what our new "normal" is going to be like. =)
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