Thank You, Friday

I'm so happy it's Friday and I'm on the heels of a fun weekend with my little family.  This week was a bit of a doozy with Monday being a holiday, baby being sick and general stressful happenings at work.  BUT, the week is winding down and it's supposed to be in the low 70's this weekend...who can complain about that?  In the midst of an otherwise kind of yuck week, Reese and I made it to the park for a picnic on Wednesday.  We soaked up the mild weather (which was nice because it is now as hot as the face of the sun) and enjoyed a relatively free reign of the playground.  This kiddo has no fear...something she definitely got from her dad.

Although my work only takes me away from home about 25 hours a week, I almost work full time when you add in all of the work I do from home and the size and complexity of my caseload.  I'm unbelievably grateful for the arrangement we've worked out and I'm keenly aware that it would not work without the support of Tom, our families, and a great babysitter.  And for the most part I find I'm able to manage it all fairly smoothly with organization and proper time management (particularly during R's sleeping hours!)  But this week I definitely felt the pull a little more.  R has been having a hard time when I leave for work (she calms down within a few minutes of my departure), but after while the pulls of her arms clenched around my neck and those tears of hers can get to me.  I definitely cried for the better part of my drive into work this morning, even though I KNOW the pros of me working far outweigh the cons for our family.  I probably haven't done that since the months following my maternity leave, but sometimes the guilt gets the better of me.  There are plenty of moms that have it much harder than I do, but from time to time I worry about how it might affect R.  But on the flip side, I don't think I'm cut out to stay home full time either (big props to SAHMs!)  I worked hard from my degrees and professional licensures and I'm hopeful that these sacrifices that we're making now mean I will be able to continue my place in the workforce once R , and her <hypothetical> future sibling, are school age.

ANYWAY...that went off on a whole other tangent than planned :)  

Sunday is DAY 30...WOO HOO...of my Whole30.   I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking to the commitment I made last month.  Weight aside, I feel like I've re-evaluated my relationship with food and have explored many of the emotions around why I ate the things I ate.  That in and of itself is a success to me, but the changes I have seen in my body are just icing on the cake (pun intended...mmmm cake.)  I plan to do a recap of my experience and thoughts on incorporating this into my life from now on.

Until then, enjoy these pics of my big kid!