Fall Bucket List

Tomorrow is October, you guys, OCTOBER! This year has flown by so quickly! October is one of my favorite times of year because it finally feels like Fall. The leaves are changing, the air is crisp, and Pumpkin Spice is everywhere! I love pumpkin everything. I was at Costco this week and found Pumpkin Spice waffles.  I didn't need 48 of them, so I will keep an eye out for this seasonal flavor at the grocery store. Honestly, I would have eaten all 48 in one weekend.  Is it too much to have a pumpkin spice waffle with a pumpkin spice latte for breakfast while burning a spiced pumpkin candle?  Yes?  Ok, I'll wait to light the candle until after breakfast.

I am so excited to start some Fall traditions with Henry this year. He is at a really fun age where he is just absorbing everything.  It is really fun watching him observe his surroundings and take everything in wherever we are.  Since Henry is barely one, I know this year's Fall traditions will be more for Momma.  I'll just have to scrapbook all of it so he can "remember" the fun we had when he's older. 

There are so many things I would like to do this Fall with Henry, but I think taking baby steps is the way to go.  I've created a short bucket list of baby friendly activities to do this Fall.  

1. Pick a Pumpkin - I love going to the pumpkin patch each year.  We usually go to Fritzler's Farm in Northern Colorado, but we may stick closer to home this year.  The pumpkin patches near us have a lot of fun fall activities like hay rides and corn mazes, so maybe we can add some more Fall activities to our family traditions list!

2. Play in a pile of leaves - if I'm going to be raking the leaves in my yard, we might as well play in them, right? Hopefully he doesn't eat too many of them.

3. Go Trick-or-Treating  - we'll probably only go to our next door neighbor's and then set up camp in our house for the rest of the evening to hand out candy to the other neighborhood kids.  It will be fun to see him dressed up, because I'm sure he isn't going to quite get the concept. 

And offering him lots of pumpkin spice things so he will love it as much as his Momma does. 

The Day I Quit My Job

I've been a working mom for almost nine months. It was right around the time of my last update, that I realized it just isn't for me. I enjoy going to the office every day, but I spend more time wishing I were with my little dude than growing my career. I decided a couple of months ago that I am going to hang up my corporate hat for a while and focus on raising my family and making a home. 

This decision is not one that I came to lightly. The night my husband came home and suggested that I give my notice at work, my initial reaction was, "I'm not ready! Work is going well and we're about to become really busy. I don't want to let my team down." A reaction that surprised both my husband and myself. When I first went back to work, there were so many days when I wanted to walk into my boss' office and hand over my computer and badge. So many nights I would spend crying while holding my baby because I had missed him so much. But Ben and I had goals that we had set and debts to pay off. I had committed to going back to work to help my family reach those goals and lay down the foundation for all of us to have a better future.  

While grappling with the decision to give my resignation, a lot of unexpected feelings and questions came up. I felt like I was going to be letting my team down. We were just about to get into one of our busiest times of year. Did I want to stay on for another two months to complete the project? How would the additional paychecks impact our family if I were to stay for another six weeks? eight weeks? ten weeks? How much more will Henry change in that time? In just the four weeks prior to me giving my resignation he had gone from rolling over to crawling, to pulling up and walking along things. He is beginning to understand what we mean when we tell him "no" or "up" or "good job!" Was the foregone accomplishment of finishing the biggest project of the year and the extra income worth what I may miss out on in the coming months?

I thought about whether or not I was ready to begin a new chapter in my life for a week before finally deciding to resign. I decided that there will never be a good time to give my resignation. There will always be another project, another deadline, another reason to put it off. I walked into the office on August 1 and let my team know that I would be leaving so that I could stay home with Henry. I braced myself for the typical cold shoulder reaction I had received in the past when resigning from a job. I just knew my manager and my team were going to be upset that I was leaving at such a critical time of year. Instead, I was met with an incredible understanding from everyone on my team. In fact, everyone in the office was remarkably supportive.

My original resignation period was five weeks. Enough time to get my team through the really busy part of year and help to train the new team member who had started only a week before I gave my notice. I was approached by my director about staying for a total of eleven weeks, with a flexible work schedule option starting in September. This gave me the opportunity to see two big projects through and help train my replacement. Most importantly, this option allowed everyone to transition to this new lifestyle slowly.

I am very excited and very nervous for this new chapter. I am looking forward to spending more time with Henry and watching him learn and grow. I know I will miss my co-workers and even the spreadsheets and stresses of work. For now we are all taking it one day at a time and looking forward to our new normal.