It happens more often than I care to believe. I woke up to about two inches of snow on the ground this morning. Not enough to shovel but enough to make it feel like it’s December and not April. Just this past weekend, I was thinking that it was time to start mowing. Now, thanks to Mother Nature, I have a few days’ reprieve. Still, it’s supposed to be in the 70’s by Thursday, so it’s just spring’s natural wild swings going on. I feel like it’s the waning stages of a cold. You feel mostly better but every once in awhile, it flares.
Normally, the sight of snow during the third week of April would make me seriously unhappy. This time? Meh. I’m not happy about it, but I can’t get all that worked up either. Why? Well, because it’s exactly 30 days until I go half-time and for the first time since the week after Thanksgiving, I finally have my stuff together.
So, let me explain. The semi-retirement stuff speaks for itself. In four-and-a-half weeks, I reduce my work time to half-time. It isn’t that I don’t actually love what I do. Instead, it’s the demands of this little homestead that dictate the change in latitude around here. Between us, we can really have no more than 1.5 full-time equivalents (FTEs) of working people. The remaining .5 FTE needs to be dedicated to keeping home afloat. This was always the “working formula” I had in the back of my head and our lives actually worked quite well when we were at 1.3 FTE – as I was .8 and Darryl was .5. Then Darryl took his full-time job in November. While I reduced slightly to .75, his 1.0 meant that we had crept up to 1.75. By Thanksgiving, the wheels had fallen off around here.
Now, I did manage to get a modicum of control back the week after Thanksgiving, but that’s because I had already hit my hours and was able to take a considerable amount of time off. After that? Well, the renovations took over and the rest was history. Until yesterday, life was pretty much one step from chaos around here. And I should clarify: it is not at all completely together, despite my declaration earlier. Instead, yesterday is the first time in a long time when I didn’t feel like I ended the day farther behind then I started it.
So, in 30 days, this little homestead finally pulls itself back into the appropriate FTE range while pursuing that ever-elusive “work/life” balance we are all told we need to crave. Me moving to half-time lets Darryl stay immersed in work without the pressure of regular home tasks that I can take over. (Hello, yard. Meet your little friend!)
As for me, I’m super looking forward to the reduction in time. As I’ve had time to process why this means so much to me, I have realized the key aspect of this change is really about family capacity. Would I mind working more? No. But only if Darryl was working less. This little family takes effort to keep running and it just doesn’t work with two busy careers. Not when you have over 300 row feet of garden, two acres of yard to mow, renovations to complete, three pets and busy families. There just isn’t enough time.
That’s what May 19th represents to me. The freedom of time. That Thursday, I will return home from client travel with enough excess hours that I can switch to part-time for six weeks before it becomes “official” in July. And it couldn’t come at a better time. On May 14th, my niece graduates from law school and my sister and I will be catering a little graduation party for her. On May 21st, we will do it again as the other niece finishes her master’s degree in teaching. On May 28th, good friends arrive to spend the night at our house on their way to their final destination. In between, there is a garden to till, trim and doors to finish and a bathroom renovation to complete.
But, it’s all doable. With the downstairs mostly renovated, it doesn’t get the opportunity to get nearly as dirty as it used to. In the upstairs, the bathroom renovation will be significant in reducing what feels like chaos up there. And by deploying my relentless incrementalism, I can not just maintain the progress I have slowly gained over the past few weeks, but I can move the ball forward just enough to create a little more breathing room.
Life, it appears, can happen. Between now and May 19th, the progress may sometimes be minimal. But after that? Look out, world! This little family is now right-sized for success.
The Yuppie Homesteader 