So how's it going?

At this point, I have been a full-time wife and mommy for six weeks.

And I still don't really know how to answer this question. No two days are alike. Some days are so great. But some days are a struggle.

Which just says that this new life is strikingly similar to every life.

Life as a working mom, a working wife, an engaged-but-living-with-her-parents-post-graduation-planning-a-wedding-during-her-lunch-hour gal and even a middle school kiddo just trying to avoid as much drama as possible...it's all the same. Some days great. Some days not so great.

We have settled into a nice little routine. Pumpkin enjoys her schedule.

She wakes up around 7:00 am, we eat breakfast and play until around 10:00 am when she gets a mid-morning bottle and goes down for her first nap. She sleeps about two hours. During that time, I usually do my chores for the day (vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, or laundry), take my shower, eat and watch Nate Burkus. I'm a little obsessed with him. He makes me sad I don't have a family member with an old barn.

After her nap, she eats lunch and we get ready to go on our daily outing. Some days we grocery shop, some days we just go to a favorite store to walk around. The point is to get out of the house. Aubrey Kate is a great shopper. She loves to watch people and see the fun stuff. We're generally gone an hour or so. After we get home, we play hard. Lots of chasing and giggling. Around 4:00 pm, she goes down for her afternoon nap. A good day is her sleeping two hours but most of the time it's around an hour to 90 minutes.

When she wakes up from that nap, generally Chris is here or almost here so he plays with her while I finish cooking dinner. The evening is dinner, play, bath time, bottle, prayers and she's in bed around 8:00 pm.

For the most part, I have a lot less free time. Not sure how in the world that's possible but it is. I am struggling figuring out how to keep in touch with friends, write and work on my fun stuff (the craft projects). Never really knew how much I used my commute time to communicate with family and friends. And of course, there are entire days I don't sit down at a computer so electronic communication has been reduced to text messages and Facebook. All my projects these days are focused on the house. Cleaning out the kitchen junk drawer, moving furniture to vacuum, gathering up clothes to donate, packing books to sell, so on and so forth. I don't think I have made a single onesie, dress or skirt. That's rather surprising.

I do have more time for bible study because I've made that a priority. I don't do it at the same time every day. Some days I do it in the morning during her first nap. Sometimes the afternoon and then sometimes at night after she's gone to bed. I tend to let my mood dictate when I can give my best. If we've had a particularly fussy morning, then I need to clean a bathroom to get out some frustrated energy. Other times, we've had a blissful morning and I feel relaxed and ready to focus.

Oddly, I have found I am much more interested in the news. I have actually watched or at least listened to both of the Presidential press conferences since I've been home. Would never have done that before. My focus was completely on my company and where it fit into the national conversation. Now I hardly think about that. Still have zippo interest in watching people argue. Zip. Po. But I am very aware of how easily I could simply tune out the world beyond my driveway.

So how's it going? It's going okay.

Am I happy? Yes and most days are delightful.

Do I feel fulfilled? No, and that's because I feel God has something planned but He's still working on me. I am honestly doing my best to live day by day patiently.

Do I miss work? Nope. Not even a little. Amazing how easy it was to walk away. I miss not being able to pick up the phone and dial five numbers to talk with Linda or Mrs. Skinny. And I even miss a few of my co-workers. But nothing else.

And there you have the answer to the question. A lot longer than most folks want to hear and likely more than most really care to know. Hopefully, if you didn't want to know all that you've stopped reading already and have turned on Nate. He's awesome. And certainly way more interesting than my life.