Homework

Wow. It’s been a LONG time since I’ve written. Lana, our baby girl #2, is almost 6 months old, and big sister Joy will be 2 years old soon. Yeesh. Where does the time go?

I wanted to share some of my latest obsessions hobbies. Just like I wrote in my last post, I still spend my days thinking about how to entertain and have fun with the kids, and also about how to clean up. I’ve perused many a Mommy blog out there in cyberspace and have found some great ideas on both fronts. 

Here’s a play kitchen I made for Joy out of cardboard boxes. 

For a while, I was bent on getting her a wooden play kitchen from Ikea (to go with her super cute Ikea play food), but the cost turned me off. Then I found tutorials for turning an old nightstand into a play kitchen, but I didn’t want to wait for my husband and father-in-law to help with the carpentry required. So I searched Pintrest for cardboard play kitchens, and voila! 

The front and sides of the boxes are covered in white contact paper. I gave the top a stainless steel look (quite posh for a toddler, huh?) by using the backside of some metallic Christmas wrapping paper and covering it with clear contact paper. The stove burners are old DVDs spray-painted black. The oven and cabinet doors are covered with scrapbook paper, and I added a spare handle I had lying around to the oven door. 

I’ve gotta say I’m quite proud of the sink, even though it’s not the prettiest part of the kitchen.The play kitchen tutorials I found online pictured shallow sinks made of bowls or foil baking containers, but I used a plastic cotton candy bucket with the handle removed. (If you’ve ever bought one of those big buckets of Neapolitan ice cream, that’s what it looks like.) I found the PVC pipe pieces for the faucet in my parents’ garage. I’m glad I opted for a deeper sink — one of Joy’s favorite things to do is pile all her produce in there. 

I gave Joy one of my own small pots and a small frying pan, as well as a wooden and a plastic cooking spoon that I don’t use. Being an Ikea-lover, I originally wanted to splurge on their little pots and pans for kids, but figured I shouldn’t invite more clutter into the house. 

It’s been a couple of months now since I made the kitchen, so it doesn’t get as much attention as it used to, and Joy ripped the scrapbook paper off the cabinet door. (Tip: If you embellish your play kitchen doors with any kind of non-sticky, decorative paper, make sure you cover it with clear contact paper!)

But that’s exactly why I’m so glad I made this out of cardboard. When she doesn’t want to play with it anymore, it can go straight into the recycling bin. Lots of play, less clutter, and one happy Mama. 

This must be how God feels about us sometimes. He gives us His life; we give him our mess. 

I’ve been super anal and super on top of cleaning the house & doing laundry lately. I have to say I’m quite proud of everything I’ve been doing. I haven’t let dishes pile up in the sink, I’ve gotten through all of our laundry (plus the baby’s cloth diapers), I vacuum our kitchen and tiled areas every night with my super Electrolux ErgoRapido, and have just generally been really neat and tidy lately. 

I’m sure it’s me just trying to keep control over something before all hell breaks loose again when baby #2 is born in late September or early October. It’s a game, I guess. Because what happens once you clean something? A little someone comes by and messes it up. I changed the sheets in the baby’s crib. She then took off her diaper and played with her poop all over the fresh sheet. I got her some new sippy cups to wean her off these Dr. Brown’s bottles that are awesome, but a pain to clean. (I admit it, I cheaped out and bought the sippy cups that are spill proof, but not completely leak proof. Bad idea.) She then managed to pour her entire cup of milk all over the also-newly-changed Pack n’ Play sheets. 

Maybe it’s my fault for becoming so consumed with motherhood…all I think about day in and day out is how to best take care of her, entertain her, teach her, and somehow make these chores and everyday life with her easier. Most days I don’t even know who the deeper sense of “me” really is. Am I not just a maid, a caretaker, a pacifier, a comforter, a soother, an entertainer, a teacher…a mom? I know it’s only been 14 months, but I feel like I’ve given up so much of who I am for her…and sometimes, all she gives me in return is a mess. 

What to do for fun and when to do it…that’s one of the questions we face day after day. When you work from home, you can go out during the day if you want, but pretty much everyone else you know is at work. 

By 5p.m., we’re ready to get out of the house and do something, while most people with traditional jobs are ready to plop down on the couch. It’s even harder for my husband because he shoots weddings on weekends when most of our friends and family members are free. Basically, we’re on opposite schedules from everyone else. Then at 5, there’s only so much we can do before it’s time to put the 1-year-old to bed at 8p.m. Add to that the fact that we live in a rural area where there’s little to do, and that most of our friends and family live 30 minutes away, and life gets really lonely (and really boring) really fast. 

On the flip side, our current situation has taught us to be creative and find fun and enjoyment in little things. A week and a half ago, the baby had a doctor’s appointment, after which we planned stops at the bank and post office. Paul suddenly suggested we add a tour of local Goodwills to our mid-day errand run — we love browsing around consignment shops and flea markets. My ocean-sports-loving husband has also recently picked up paddle boarding. We live a half hour away from the closest beach, but he’s found little creeks and inlets to paddleboard less than 10 minutes from where we live. Another thing we’ve started is that whenever one of us has an appointment or runs an errand, that person takes some time to do something fun, whether it’s stopping by the library or picking up a frappucino at Starbucks. That little bit of alone time is a great pick-me-up — we come back home happier, more focused and with something new to talk about. 

We’ve learned that sometimes you have to look hard (and for a while) for fun. And more importantly, when you get the time to do something, take it! 

This is the tale of a husband & wife who both work from home while running after their one-year-old daughter who loves to take off her diapers and play with poop. Oh yeah. And they have another baby on the way. 

I know other women who are stay-at-home moms. Some are stay-at-home, work-from-home moms. I’ve met husbands and wives who work together. But so far I haven’t met anyone else — either in person or online — who’s a stay-at-home, work-from-home mom whose husband is a stay-at-home, work-from-home dad. 

That’s us. I’m Kristie, and my husband, Paul, and I have a home-based photography business. We have a super curious, super cute one-year-old daughter and another baby due in October. In a lot of ways, working from home has its advantages. We’ve never missed any of our daughter’s firsts. We know she’s a happy baby because she gets much more parental attention than most kids do. We can get dressed in the morning or work through the day in our PJs (or in my husband’s case, shirtless). We don’t have to pay rent or a second mortgage on a studio. If we’re sick, we can rest, and if we want to go out in the middle of the workday, we can. 

But it’s far from easy. In college, I read so many articles and blogs about how great it is to be a stay-at-home mom. I wouldn’t trade being home with my family for anything, but those articles never pointed out the really tough parts about being stay-at-home, work-from-home parents.  And none of them ever covered the unique situation my family and I are in. Thus, this blog was born. In part, I’m hoping to find others out there in similar circumstances. But I’d also just like to share and record our experiences from this crazy time in our lives.