Thankful for my "job"

I am a stay at home mom, this is my job. My days are filled with laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning toilets, sweeping, more laundry, bringing children to and from school, bringing forgotten items to school, dentist and doctor appointments, scheduling appointments, making lunches,grocery shopping, homework, bath time and I'm sure a few more things that I can't remember at the moment. There are also play dates, playing trucks, hammering and sawing furniture and walls, playing play-doh, American girls, Polly Pockets, coloring,chase, catch and tickle wars. Reading stories, dancing, playing board games and Wii. Some days I am irritated at the mountain of laundry that magically appears in a 24 hour period. I'm not sure why I am suprised with 6 people living in one house, there is bound to be a lot of laundry. Yet, I am also reminded how blessed I am to be able to stay home all day, taking care of my family and doing my "job." Because I know some women who would love to have the same "job" as I do, to stay home and not have to work plus do everything I just listed above. I think being a working mom sounds like the hardest job on earth. I know that some of these women are working because they have to, they carry the insurance for the family, their husband is out of a job, they can't make it on one income, there are countless reasons why. After talking with a friend the other day about being a stay at home mom, I was reminded how very very thankful I am to be able to stay home. Not to say that it is easy all the time. We've had to make sacrifices along the way, we don't own two new vehicles, we don't take extravagant vacations, we don't own a cabin, heck, we don't even have cable! Our furniture is not new, most of it is second hand, we don't shop at high end stores, we get a lot of our clothes at Target. Yet these "sacrifices" are more than worth the blessings I've gained! I don't mind not having any of these "things" because I get to be home for our children. One day, the children will be grown and gone and then we can have "things," if that is what we so desire. Things will always be around, children will not.
This blog post is not to bash working women, far from it, I greatly admire those women who have to carry both loads. It is just me simply saying that the greatest decision we ever made was for me to be able to stay home and I'm so thankful! I know there are days that it seems like the job is thankless and you wonder if getting a "paying" job to pay those bills off a little quicker would be a good idea but in the grand scheme of things, my time really is worth more than money. One day, I will work myself out of this "job" and there won't be anymore running kids to school or school field trips to attend. I will have all the time I want to work, clean, volunteer or do whatever else I want with my time. Sometimes, I need a reminder, that this is just a season, enjoy it while it's here!!!!