Starting from Scratch

During my "time off" from working I promised myself to take advantage of this opportunity to do all the things I complained I didn't have time to do while I was a working mom. Creating meal plans, more organized grocery shopping and trying new recipes, cooking more healthy meals from scratch were at the top of the long list.
I put myself down for quite a while because I didn't have what I would describe as an organized household. I worked most weekends so there was very little time for pet projects. Other issues that seemed to be priority kept popping up.   I knew we could save money and time if I could just get us organized. We ate out too often and shopped at convenience stores, paying a heavy price for those conveniences. When we did try to buy fresh foods our lack of planning often caused the food to go bad before we had a chance to cook with it. Oh my Grandmother must have been nagging in her grave. We thought these quick processed foods made our lives easier but we soon discovered they did not make our lives happier. We gained weight, lacked energy, rushed through meals and had wasted more money then we realized.
So when I lost my job I felt it my responsibility to manage the household by finally getting organized! This was my chance to become the homemaker I always wished I could be. Now you would think this would be easy, surely I had all the time in the world - enter the 3 year old, who is now 4. Strange thing . . . kids kinda like attention.  Months go by, things come up and my own big plans get attention only sporadically. Certain I had the time but couldn't understand where the time had run off to.
Turns out I not only needed to organize our household meal planning but I also needed to put our whole day on a schedule or the days would continue to fly by with nothing no show for our time. I know now part of my problem with focusing on the home was that I never expected to be out of work for so long. I wasn't fully committed. As job opportunities came up I would easily become distracted away from home projects. Just biding my time until I could return to work.
The time finally arrived when I began to settle into the role of homemaker. Looking around me I realized that to accomplish any of my goals, to create a well functioning home for my family I would need to start from scratch. Yep, everything needed attention. Consistent cleaning, laundry, meal planning. Bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, storage room, assuring my child a healthy active schedule. Clutter busting, dust bunny hunting, abolishing allergins . . . you name it I needed to address it.
This was war. In this war there would be many battles and a General to plan the campaign.
In all of this I discovered something that changed my future. I discoverd all the ways in which we wasted money. When I worked we never seemed to have money for a real vacation. The budget was always tight. Now here we are living without my salary and yes we are tight but we are making it paycheck to paycheck. If necessary I know we could cut costs even more. These costs would be more painful but certainly ones we could live with.
An epiphany! If and when I do return to work the majority of my salary could all go to savings and finally an opportunity to travel. If you know me and know how much I've whined about not having traveled yet in my life you will understand why the revelation is so powerful.
Yes losing my job was awful but I feel I've gained so much from the experience. We were forced to stop spending behaviors that we had become so accustomed to we didn't see it as any sort of problem at all. Starting from scratch I was able to open my eyes to new opportunity by living more simply and with just a bit more effort. A lesson worth learning that has changed my life and the life of my family for the better.