stafford stories: a day in the life - Working Mommy Post

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

a day in the life - Working Mommy Post - Leah

Meet Leah she is my guest post today all the way from Australia!

I just loved reading her post and seeing her adorable family picture. Have a great Wednesday!

Hi! My name is Leah, I am a full time working mum to 4 great kids, 2 boys Jake 16 and Laine 12 and 2 girls Britt 14 and Fallon 10 and married to my high school sweet heart Tim! Thanks to Melissa for this great opportunity to guest post on her blog, I have loved reading everyone’s stories! My story is a little different to the others as I live in Australia! We live in a small town of 2500 people right in the middle of New South Wales, about 700KM west of Sydney

My day starts at 6.25am, my alarm goes off and I usually turn the tv on to watch the 6.30 news. Tim jumps in the shower and is at his office by 7am if he is in town, he works away most weeks up to 4 nights of the week. I make the kids lunches and eat breakfast then shower. I iron work/school uniforms if I haven’t done them the night before and start waking the kids at 7.30 for school. If I have time I will hang out a load of washing that I have done overnight. In Australia we use clothes lines outside to dry our clothes, most families have clothes dryers but the cost of electricity is so high here, rarely would anyone use their dryer for every wash! I find in winter I use it more, it’s a lot easier! Jake 16 is always the last to get out of bed, by the time he is up the other 3 have showered and had breakfast. While they are doing this, I do my hair and make-up and dress, then try to tidy the kitchen and make beds. I do Fallon’s hair, everyone is in their school uniforms and we are out the door at about 8.20am. Jake and Britt are both in high school and school starts for them at 8.38am, Laine and Fallon attend a Catholic primary school and they start school at 9am. I start work at 8.30am; luckily both their schools are only several blocks from my office so I am usually on time!

I work in Early Childhood, doing therapy sessions with children aged from birth – school age. I have a half hour lunch break and finish at 4pm. I am studying a Diploma in Children’s Services as well at the moment, it is very hard to find the time to fit it in, but hopefully I will be finished in 12 months . If Tim is in town for work, he will pick the kids up from school at 3.15pm when they finish, if he is away Jake and Britt will walk home and Laine and Fallon walk to my office and stay until I finish.

After work/school during winter we have lots of activities for the week, both the girls do dance lessons, Britt has art lessons and works 1 afternoon a week at her part time job. Fallon has netball training, Laine has tutoring 2 afternoons a week and football training and Jake has a part time job 3 afternoons a week. In winter when netball and football is on we have to travel 320km return each Saturday as our town competes with other surrounding towns. The towns are not big enough to have local competitions so we play other teams. It is very tiring with all the travel, but we all love it and look forward to playing and watching! It’s a great social outing! In summer there is no football or netball so Laine and Fallon do swim training and races with our local swim club.

Our school year runs from the start of February and ends about the week before Christmas in December. We have 4 terms of 10 weeks each then 2 weeks off in between each term throughout the school year. Our seasons are opposite to USA, we have just come out of winter and started with spring this week.

Some afternoons are extremely busy, especially if I have meetings to attend for work, so I try to plan ahead for meals on those days. I like to have dinner ready by around 6pm, the kids are starving by then and it’s easier to have an early meal. After dinner we do homework, feed animals, showers and watch TV. I clean up the kitchen and pick up around the house as well as usually do 2 loads of washing each night.

Sundays are sleep in days! I am exhausted from work and travelling on a Saturday by this stage, but as it’s our only day at home we have to catch up on things around the house. I try to change sheets on the beds, vacuum, mop floors, clean bathrooms etc while Tim will mow the lawn and tidy outside.

The boys love to ride their dirt bikes on weekends, so Tim will take them riding or in the summer we take our ski boat out and the kids enjoy wake boarding. The kids often will have their friends over or hang out at their houses.

Tim and I don’t really get a lot of time alone together, when he is in town with work we try and go out for lunch once a month or so, usually we are just home with the kids doing things. I also find it hard to catch up with friends too, luckily our town is small and I see them at school activities/functions, sports and the supermarket! We don’t really go out anywhere but occasionally we can get away for a concert or show in Sydney or out for dinner with friends.

As much I enjoy living where we do, it can be isolating. We have to travel the 320km round trip to medical appointments and orthodontist appointments. We have a doctor here and a small hospital, but most things we have to travel away for. Fallon was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia and has Chrones disease so we travel to Sydney (1400km round trip) regularly for doctors appointments and hospital admissions. Both Tim and I were born here, we actually went to pre-school together at age 4, then went to different primary schools and the same high school. Both our parents live here and both our sisters live here with their husbands and children.

I have been lucky enough to have travelled to the USA twice; the first time was in 1994 with Tim and in 2011 with Britt. Jake has also travelled to China representing his school in 2011, such a great opportunity for him to participate in. Britt had the most amazing opportunity with her dance school to dance at Disneyland, Universal Studios and Hollywood Boulevard. She had several performances while we were there and the high light was dancing in the Main St parade at Disneyland with over 800 dance kids from all over the world! We were there in July so it was hot and busy! The day the kids danced there were over 400 000 people at Disneyland, it blew us away! We loved the shopping too! I could not believe how cheap the clothes and food was compared to what we pay here in Australia. We came back with 18 pairs of new shoes…….and had to buy 3 more bags to bring our shopping back! I can’t wait to come back and see America again!