Bring your daughter to work day; every day? How does that even work?

This is a topic I rarely discuss with people; because it seem so irrelevant to my craftiness and life at home. In our house, this is a big deal. Why, you may ask? Because, I work 30-35 hours a week and bring my 4 year old with me everyday. I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful job, working for a wonderful man; my dad. He's allowed me to get back into the workforce and still be a full time mom. He sees his granddaughter almost everyday, and I don't pay for daycare. That said, I haven't found a way to convey the way I really feel about it.

 

I appreciate that I can bring my daughter to work everyday. I also feel stressed out, overwhelmed and discouraged sometimes. My daughter has been labeled the 'productivity killer' by my co-workers (my brothers) and I understand their frustrations. She IS a productivity killer. In my office, we always have snacks, coloring supplies and my daughter has an unbelievable knowledge of tech gear. She can turn on, and load cartoons (from the internet) onto the laptop to play with. She naps in her own office (which she does have) and is learning to be quiet when I answer the company phones. Again; I KNOW I'm lucky. How many working parents have the option to not pay for daycare and see everything their child can do daily? Not many. I missed her first steps, working a corporate type job and her being in daycare. I was laid off from that job when the company closed down and she had just turned 1, I was pregnant with #2 and we made the decision for me to be a stay at home mom until they were in school based on daycare costs. After we lost him, I NEEDED something to do and my dad had the work for me. I came into work on my own schedule; cried at work when I needed to and continued with my day.

Zoe is nearing 5, and with that will start school (of some sort, that is a whole other post!) in the fall. Come October, Piper will be joining us and will start going to work with me while Zoe is in school. I'm thinking that my hours are going to HAVE to be cut back, since managing a newborn and a preschooler will be close to impossible. 

I find that 'quiet time activities' for anytime work well to manage my 4 year old's time currently. I'm probably a terrible mother, but she does watch a movie everyday while I'm at work and then we move onto the other activities.

As a mother, our struggles are all unique. Not everyone struggles with the same hardships, and many times we can't compare our hardships to anothers.

As a parent, what is something that you struggle with and how do you manage to cope on a daily basis? 

Zoe's 1st Horse Show

Growing up, I chose not to participate in horse shows. Along with the expense of it all (the fancy clothes, the fancy tack, the time, the energy, etc) I was just too lazy. Still to this day I am glad that I had such a level head and didn't care for it.

Zoe's shown some interest in showing Latte, and a schooling show came up that had a lead-line class. We decided to enter Zoe and her best friend Riley into the show. Kim, from Horse Head Quarters graciously trailered the horses there for us, and arranged a borrowed horse for Riley.

The girls did great! Though we got there at 11am or so, and planned for their show to start at 12:30pm, they didn't actually show until closer to 3pm. A LONG day with two four years, and two bored horses surrounded by other unknown horses.

New Addiction: Bountiful Baskets Produce Co-Op

I do have a new addiction, as of within a few months I became aware of a website called 'Bountiful Baskets'. Their goal is to provide as much produce in your weekly 'basket' as possible for a $15 contribution.

Basically some thousands and thousands of people each contribute $15 to produce and the national group orders as much produce as they can with the money they've got and then evenly distribute it among the participants. Seems like a good deal right?

Well, let me tell you that each week that I've participated I've gotten a minimum of $50 worth of produce. Before Bountiful Baskets came into my life, I was actually spending that much each week on produce, because it is important to me to feed Zoe healthy food for her growing body and to eat well myself.

This week I brought home: 5lb potatoes, 2 spaghetti squash, 1 head of celery, 2lbs or so nectarines, 3-4lbs cherries, 1  pint blueberries, 1 cantalope, 5 big yellow onions, 3 on the vine tomatoes, 7 bananas and 1 big head of romaine lettuce.

Worth the contribution? I think so!

Want to see prior weeks baskets?

This is 5/26/12 pickup in Snohomish, WA

Lettuce, Apples, Bananas, Cantelope,

Corn, Artichokes, Carrots, Peppers,

Peaches (or Nectarines, I don't remember) Tomatoes and Oranges

Snohomish Pickup 5/12/12

Giant heads of spinach and lettuce along with avocado, tomatoes, red potatoes, mangos, blackberries, apricots, apples, bananas, honeydew melons and pineapples.

Did I mention this is a thing that they do in 20 states? Check out their site http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ and check out the LOCATIONS tab to see if they have a pickup near you!  If not, don't worry because people volunteer to run sites, they start up new ones all the time. If it's something you are interested to have in your area email them and talk to them about how to go about it.

I started a site in Everett, at Doodlebug Sportz Indoor Paintball Arena (thanks, Dad!) and have had great success with it. It is all volunteer, no one gets paid... so all the money you contribute goes right back into the produce!