Last November, Darryl started his dream job. While absolutely fabulous, it was a little outside of our plans. We had intended that between the two of us, he would work half-time and I would work ¾-time and that “extra” time could be used for us to live this yuppie homesteading lifestyle we’ve come to treasure. Ummm… you’ve heard about good intentions and the path it leads to, right?
If I’m honest, life quickly got overwhelming. By the first week in December, I could see how not only were we both working a lot, but that the capacity we used to have to take care of things at home was severely diminished. As I like to say, “the wheels fell off.” By Christmas Eve, I knew I wanted to reduce my work schedule to get us some “home” time back. It wouldn’t be until July when it actually came to fruition.
Last night, however, was true affirmation of the payoff of my decision to reduce my hours. It was a regular Tuesday night. We had both had successful workdays. However, because our lives are so much better managed now, the payoff didn’t come from our workdays. Instead, dinner was easily prepped as the supplies were already in the house. The house was cleaned up as my sister had stopped by earlier in the day. The yard had been mowed over the weekend. The weather was beautiful and we had the time to sit outside for over an hour before dinner. A glass of wine and a sniffer of whiskey in hand, we walked through to see how our garden was growing. We sat on the back deck, my feet propped up on the table and talked about our days. We glanced back at the kitties lined up by the sliding glass door looking forlorn that their humans were outside. We had the one thing that has been so elusive for so long: time.
Looking back over the last few weeks, the payoff of my reduced schedule has been tremendous. Life at home just doesn’t get as out of control as it used to. The yard stays trimmed, the house stays clean, the errands get run, the groceries are in… you get the picture. Life, which was always intended to slow down after our wedding eight years ago, is finally slowing down.
More importantly to me, I never wanted the benefit of my reduced schedule to be solely mine. I was acutely aware that my ability to work less was directly tied to Darryl working more. In transitioning from being a college professor to a full-time data scientist, he was giving up summers off. Further, that hadn’t been in our plans for him to work full-time. Instead, while it was an incredible opportunity, he had given up considerable time off himself.
Last night, he spoke about how me working less has not just benefitted us, but him as well. Of course, having a less stressed wife topped the list. (I can admit to sometimes being overwhelmed by the amount of work between home and career that was difficult to manage, particularly after he went full-time.) But he sees the other benefits: life is more calm and there are more times when we can just relax vs. having to fill every non-professional minute with home-based tasks. Further, with me taking over lawn care and taking care of little details such as always having chopped veggies in the ‘fridge for a quick salad, has meant he feels less pressure each day to get work done, fit in a workout and not feel like he is shorting home projects. In all, life simply runs so much more smoothly.
And that was always the goal. I’m not afraid of hard work. In fact, I tend to enjoy it. Instead, what was defeating me was the constantly competing priorities. If we had a smaller house, garden or yard, perhaps the challenge wouldn’t have been so great. Or if I didn’t preserve food or cook from scratch, maybe again, life would have been easier with considerably less food prep time. Less pets would take up less time, but I couldn’t imagine not having the triplets.
In all, when I had the chance to balance life out a little more in favor of our preferred lifestyle, I jumped at it and I’m not sorry I did. There is still some way to go until we will fully realize the benefits of this decision, but it’s looking good so far.
The Yuppie Homesteader 