Diary of a Working Mom - Late Summer Edition

As working moms go, I'm a pretty blessed one.  I get to work from home at least 1 day a week. We can afford for my husband to be home and still have everything we need and more than a few things we want.   We have supportive family and friends who step in whenever we need the help.  And I get to live in a beautiful spot, surrounded by trees and grass and flowers.


But this time of year, as summer starts to wind down, I get a bit pensive.   I like my job.  I'm pretty good at it too, and a combination of really hard work and good luck and opportunity have allowed me to have not just work, but a true career.


Still though, I wonder what life would be like if I'd taken another path.   A stay at home mom maybe, or a farm, or an entirely different part of the world.  It's not that I resent my current life, it's just that I'd like to occasionally be able to try on different roles.   And I suppose I could, but then I'd have to leave the life I do have, and I don't particularly care to do that.  At least, not yet.   The farm will come - eventually.   In the meantime, we are adapting in place, turning this slightly faerie tale-ish spot into a teeny farm - complete with chickens, fruit trees, a huge garden, and green as far as the eye can see.


And even though I know I'm bloody well blessed as all heck that I spend as much time with my family as I do, I always want just a little bit more time.   Just a little bit.


And while I really do mean that we're going to take a year off when the adorable one is 12 and travel around the world, I'm not sure that I want to live any of the places that we talk about visiting.  Okay, except the italian riviera, which I fell in love with when we visited in 2004.  I'm just lacking the 4 million or so euros (maybe down to 3.5 million by now) for a villa overlooking the Bay of Fables in Sestri Levanti.   I smuggled home a lime from the trees there, true story.  I miss it.


Still, this is the time of year I wonder.  I love our life, but the idea of trying on new ones like new hats appeals to me.  Hmmm...