Working Mama Wednesday - New Schedule!

I am SO excited. 

You've all heard mie whine about our home schedule.  There are many perks to having a crazy, non-traditional schedule like ours including plenty of "mie" time at home (with the kids of course).  I told you recently about how I was looking forward to vacation because we'd get to spend more time together as a family.  I've also mentioned before how little time we actually get as a family altogether.  13 hours per week total.  But we've made it work and take advantage of some of the benefits of that type of schedule, not the least of which for my husband is his own personal time - he watches a lot of movies on his own and we all prefer that.

This is all about to change friends.

One of the benefits of my husband's job is that though the schedule is non-traditional, he has the opportunity to change his schedule about once per year.  He doesn't always switch to a new schedule but each year picks the best schedule that's available to him that will meet his professional desires and our family's needs.  For the past 5 years or so he's chosen to work approximately the same schedule with minor variations of days off or sliding the hours to begin a little earlier or later.  To say we're adjusted to this schedule would be an understatement.

My husband had the opportunity to choose his schedule again last week for the upcoming year.  He wanted a bit of a change of scenery, so to speak, which left him with choices for a different schedule altogether.  After discussing the options with mie and mie giving him the thumbs up to choose what he wanted, he decided on a brand. new. shift that will be wonderful for our family:

• My husband will now be home every.single.night!  I can't tell you enough how exciting this is.
• He will work closer to home, cutting about 90 minutes a day off his total commute time. 
• My husband & I will be able to do church activities together.
• My husband & I will be able to take the kids to Parents Night Out regularly and have a date night
• I will no longer have to worry about how to prepare dinner for a family not eating together or at the same time - I can now prepare FRESH food!
• I will be able to count on someone to watch the kids while I exercise or do other things at night
• I will have more help with the drop-off/pick-up schedule with the kids
• We will have the opportunity to take short day-trips here and there more easily.
• I will have the opportunity to take day-trips with the kids on the weekends without worrying about coming home right in the middle to capture the time we get with daddy

I could go on and on.  There are benefits of the other schedule that we'll lose, as an example he'll be working more days during the week than he did before, he won't have as much time on his own to do his own things or clean the house like he does regularly now, etc.  Nevertheless I'm very much looking forward to this new schedule and the impact it can have on our family.

One thing we'll need to consider is that we'll be significantly increasing our time together and that, without work, can take a toll on a marriage not used to that.  We'll go from about 13 to 35 hours together per week.  SWEET!  But that can mean more time for arguing, getting on each others' nerves, and taking that time for granted.  Hopefully we'll be aware of that and consciously work on making sure we work together to make this time as great as it can be and our adjustment period will be successful.

I'm so excited I cried.  Seriously.  Tears of joy.