The BIG Experiment Day 5 TGIF by Kim

6:30-7:30 Get up 10 minutes earlier to get Shorty's spelling worksheet done. Neither one of us is especially excited to be awake this Friday morning! Totally my fault though for staying out late last night...

8:00-9:30 Answer emails, work on those slides that won't end...

9:30-10:00 Lightning fast shower. It ain't pretty but I'm clean!

10:00-12:30 Go with Honey to get allergy shots and then to grab some lunch. Pretty much ready to write off the rest of the day...but....

12:30-2:00 Sit my ass back down to finish the week out meeting my work hours goal. Didn't hit all the workouts OR the showers but I finished out strong with my work responsibilities!

2:00-ON Picked Shorty up from school and started the weekend... And that's all I have to say about that!

Tomorrow I will fill in what I observed about my parenting, the way this house runs, how my husband and I operate, and of course how work went...

New Years Resolution #1 - write resume!

Well, it's a brand new year! The holidays have passed and we moms can get cracking on that job search! A week ago, I spoke to a friend of mine about my past career-life. I told her about what I did and how I did it and then she asked if I would be interested in doing some consulting work for her company. Sure! I thought, just what I need! Then, the other shoe dropped... she asked me for my resume... YIKES! Resume? What resume??

Procrastination, my current bff...

For many of you already out there and ahead of me on the job search, resume writing was a daunting task. But, when you have had at least 3 different computers over the last 8 years and haven't bothered to save your resume file, let alone update your resume every year or so, the task is down-right overwhelming! It is one of the things easily shoved in the back of a drawer somewhere, with the thought that you'll eventually get back to it... I'd rather clean out my bathroom cabinets than work on my resume! I have now been avoiding my friend, with a paying job for ME, for a week!!

Why on earth is this such a difficult thing to do?! Maybe it is because it is so hard for most women to brag about themselves? Maybe it is because it takes focused thought that most of us don't have time for (but need to make time for)? Maybe it is because all of my pre-child memories leaked out of my brain during the birthing process??

Sure you can hire a resume writer, or download a resume template, but you still have to THINK about what to put on your resume. And what happens when you can't remember what it is that you used to do, or for whom you used to work??

I'm looking for tips??? Anyone??? Please comment with any helpful suggestions!

Well, at least I have a very neatly organized bathroom!

You mean I'm not the only one?? by Kim

Diane and I were walking one morning a few weeks ago (a future post about my newly discovered need for Spanx will elaborate on the walking thing), and talking about our ambivalence about going back to work. We’re both ready to regain the professional self that we used to be, adding to the wife and mommy selves that we have been for the past several years.

After reassuring each other multiple times that this desire isn’t a reflection of any sort discontent with our family life or the choices that we have made, we started talking about our efforts to rejoin the workplace as we had left it and discovered…that we have NO idea how to go about it, where to start or really even what we want to do when we go back. Plus random things like:

Do I remember how to interview as the confident, successful professional woman that I was when I left? Because I suspect that these days I will be more like the awkward, sweating, bright red (I'm a blusher) mess that I was when I first graduated from college and was looking for my very first job.

Are the professional contacts I used to have even still around, it's been a while.

Am I willing to work the way that I used to? Probably not

What will my kids think? More importantly, are they going to develop psychological complexes and juvie records that add to the burgeoning case of maternal guilt that I'm already facing for even considering this move?

Will my husband rally and truly help or will I have to kill him?

Where did I pack my business clothes away?

Are shoulder pads still in style? (Just kidding, of course they are.)

What did I do with the old PC that my last known resume was on? I'm pretty sure that I gave it to Goodwill....WTH do I do now?

Sorry for this Diane, because I wouldn't wish it on anyone...but it felt great to know that I wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure of wanting something that I couldn’t entirely define and the frustration of not knowing how to attain it.

Our conversation ended that day with a shared commiseration that it was a shame we weren’t bakers or we could open our own cupcake shop and be done with it!