From one leap year to the next

Last February 29th, my life was almost about as different as it gets. I was in my very first year of teaching, and Hubby and I were living in our very first house. We were months away from even thinking about starting a family. Dual income, no kids. My day would have consisted of packing a lunch, carpooling with my friend Sarah, heading to school, teaching my two grade 9 classes and my one grade 12 class, doing some marking/photocopying/prep, heading home, making dinner and who knows what I even did in the evening. Probably watched TV or knit. Oh, and we had a pickup truck and an Elantra.

Me and my friend Ads, hanging out at my old house in 2008. I had blond hair and Hubby (not pictured) still had glasses, not yet having had laser eye surgery. This is from the oldest photo folder I have on my computer, which I got in 2008.

Here we are in 2012. I haven't taught (in a formal, paid capacity) since September 2009, and while I miss the paycheque and my colleagues, I'm pretty happy with my new career. We've gone down to one income, and by God's grace, it's enough to support us, especially since we moved further out in the suburbs. I love our home and our neighbours. And the biggest change of all was becoming parents to our two precious daughters.

So what was my day like today? I woke up cuddling my four-month old, had a shower while Hubby changed the girls' diapers and got them dressed, went to W2W where I got to fellowship and learn about God's word along with about a hundred other women, drove home in our minivan (we still have the Elantra), had lunch, put my daughters down for naps, tidied up and decluttered the main level of the house a bit, made dinner, baked banana muffins with my eldest daughter, put away the girls' clean laundry, put the baby to bed, snuggled the toddler at her bedtime, cleaned the kitchen with Hubby, enjoyed a cup of tea and two muffins, watched a few minutes of TV (digital free-to-air, on a flat screen we were given) before the baby woke up, gave her another feed, and now I'm blogging.

My days are more challenging in some ways, but they feel more full, in a good way. When I was going out to work, that consumed so much of my day that I really only had a couple of hours in the evening to do anything. This is one of the things I love about staying home: we have time to do things. We can have lazy days at home, and we can have outings to the library, the museum, the park (well, not yet, but soon). We can bake, read, play, clean, learn. It's tough being on-call 24 hours a day, that's for sure. And it's hard to cope with a busy toddler and a fussy baby. Thank goodness for a supportive extended family, and my wonderful Hubby! Still, there's a lot to love about this season of life where quantity time is quality time.

I wonder where we'll be next leap year, 2016. (D will be 6 and M will be 4!!) Maybe I'll be back at work outside the home, maybe I'll be homeschooling, maybe we'll be done having kids, maybe we'll be in a different place. Wherever we are and whatever our family looks like, I hope that we're faithfully following God and loving each other.