Freedom... it sounds terrible to think that time away from my kids is what I consider to be freedom. Don't get me wrong, I love to be with my boys. Nothing puts a bigger smile on my face (though I will admit, they also put a frown on my face regularly too!) than spending time with my little guys. But given that in all this time I have not stopped working, it's been a major challenge getting my work accomplished while having at least one if not two (during the summer) kids home with me full time.
So when September 1 rolled around, I was certainly sad to see Aidan & Liam heading off to school full time, but I was also excited about the opportunity that it presents to me. For the first time in over 6 years my life does not revolve completely around my children. I've let myself get lost in their lives and their needs which is not a bad thing, but I look forward to having time where I get to focus on myself and my needs. One of those needs being work!! Yes, I said it...work!
While in some ways work has been a challenge to do from abroad, in other ways it's been great. I get a 6 hr jump start on my clients before they get in to the office. On the flip side, many a time has my phone rung at midnight my time (6PM EST). But because I have that "extra" 6 hours I don't feel so guilty if I want to go out and go for a walk, run, shop or have lunch with a friend. So I've got a few goals now that I'm on my own:
1. Socialize more... have lunch with someone at least once a week. Today is Wed and I'm on my third lunch this week with a friend so far so good on this one...
2. Go for long walks, runs or bike rides at least once a week ... perhaps join the gym (only thing stopping me right now is the language barrier to get myself a membership and I need to get over that).
3. Grow my business! For over 6 years I've worked around the kids and this has been a challenge - but now I can focus!
4. Make travel plans for us as a family more than 2-3 weeks in advance (oh and actually do some research on where it is that we are going!).
5. Learn Spanish!
6. Have better quality time with the kids. Because I'll really only see them for 3 hours a day I'm hoping that I'll appreciate the time more.
7. Observe more - take it all in... there is so much to see and do here and I feel like I've just touched upon some of it because the kids have short attention spans and have no interested in taking long leisurely walks.
So I think this is a good start to how I'm going to use my new found "freedom". I'm looking forward to doing some updates on the things that I've started doing on my own!
Julie
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