Semper Ag: It's The Most...

Stressful time...Of. The. Year. It's not the shopping, or money, or lack of time to get everything done like most people. For me, it's the fact that between both of my kids and me, we have been passing back and forth this sickness. I don't think we have had a clean bill of health in this home for the last two weeks! Praying that we are all healthy and "disease free" before Christmas!

I made a big decision last week to ask my boss to cut back my time at work to be more present for my kids and my family. I missed out on a few trips up to D.C. for "Officer wife" events (sounds so pretentious, doesn't it?), and my kids have expressed to me that they miss seeing me around at their school. I used to volunteer at LOT at Dannika's school, and it was nice to really be involved in her school life. This was a tough decision for me, because I am the type of girl that needs to work outside of the home. I am not meant to be a stay-at-home mom. But I realized with Nick being gone, how much my kids really needed me. I am also grateful to be able to choose to ask to cut back on hours without it affecting our family income drastically. I am INCREDIBLY blessed to have a husband who provides for our family so that I can make small decisions like this without worrying about our finances.

It's strange that at 33 years old, the thought of asking my boss for less days at work gave me so much anxiety. You gotta remember that I spent ten years in the Marines. If I woulda asked my boss to "cut back my time at work" in the Marine Corps, I would have been laughed straight out of the hangar to the flighline. Now that I have the "freedom" to request such things, it's completely foreign to me. I googled, "how to ask your boss for less hours at work" more times than I'd care to admit. The funny thing is, my boss is one of the most approachable people I know, and yet, I was literally a fish out of water when it came to this. **Note to the Marine Corps transitioning class people and the VA: We (us Jarheads) need classes on things like this. Hey, resumé building classes and interview classes are important, but so are classes on things like, "how to ask for less hours" and "how to quit your job"! No one teaches us these things! lol. But in all honesty, I was afraid that he would say something like, "well, I really need you 5 days a week, so if you can't do it, I don't know if you'll be useful to our company." Which, BY THE WAY, I expressed to him a gazillion times when I had "the talk" with him (over the phone) that he did NOT need to feel obligated to keep me because he felt bad putting someone out of a job. Thankfully, he graciously kept me around, and starting in the new year, I will work less days at the office. It's a nice feeling to know that what you've been doing at work is valuable enough that they want to keep you around. It's a huge weight off my chest knowing that I will have this time to be a mom to my kids and a better wife to my husband. It's also a relief to me that I will still get that "adult time" out of the home in a professional setting and working.

I'm truly blessed with the company I work for, as well as the support system I have within it.

So here's some of my life in pics!

I work out...

Every day.

It's the only time I get of "me" time, and I get two free hours of childcare at the gym!

#winning