I have been able to make this trip to Walt Disney World with my daughter because of my partner. She is home with our son making sure that he gets to the Science Olympiad regional competition, the Orchestra Festival, and tons of other lessons, classes, and practices while still working. Normally most of this falls to me as this is the job I chose. When we were ready to have children we sat down and talked about it and my desire was to stay home and raise our children. Little did we know at that time we would have two kids with very different needs. One is hard of hearing and has anxiety in large group situations and the second is Autistic and needs extra help in socialization.
I am more than grateful for being able to stay home with the kids. But, I am also thankful for her for being there when I cannot physically be in two places at once especially when they are a 100 miles apart. We have had to give up something like matching furniture, new clothes every season, or even dining out often but what we have gained has far out weighed the things we don’t have. We are a close family. We do almost everything together. Some Feis (Irish dance competitions) and concerts are at the same time but we try whenever we can to be together. We eat dinners together and we talk, with our kids a lot. Sometimes, I think more than they want to but in the end I think they both will tell you it was a good thing.
So, today I am thankful for my partner, our family, and my life. I think this sunshine and being out of the cold weather is doing me well because life seems really good right now.
What's for Dinner Moms? 
What a great opportunity!
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Thank you! I am very, very fortunate!
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Those are some wonderful things to be grateful for. Stay blessed and enjoy Disney!
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Thank you so much!
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It is a wonderful reason to be thankful for. Family doesn’t only mean to always do everything together but to hang in for each other and to support. I am happy for you to have it, Marcie!
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Thank you, Erika. I am fortunate beyond belief.
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I think, this awareness is the greatest happiness we can achieve!
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Happy for you! You and your kids sound so blessed. 🙂 …but mostly I’m commenting because I saw you guys do Irish dance and I LOVE that. I used to do it too and really miss going to the Feis!!
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I will be posting our Annual St.Patrick’s Day dancing videos soon!
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Ooooh yay! I’ll look forward to those!! 🙂
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Thanks! My daughter will be doing more Feis on her own next year I too will miss them!
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Wonderful..have an amazing time and a beautiful working together to create the best for everyone.
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Thank you!
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That is wonderful, Marci! Such a blessing to have that close knit family and enjoying life together as it comes. Have a wonderful Disney of a good time with your dauhter! 🙂
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Thank you, Sylvester! Have a great day.
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You’re welcome and thank you!
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This is a lovely post, thanks for sharing it x
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Thank you!
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Nothing like family!
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Yes!
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You are very fortunate to have so much time with your children, Marci. It is very precious.
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I am so very fortunate and grateful for what I get to do with them.
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What a lovely post! I understand how you’re feeling. Not many of us can sacrifice so much to be stay at home Mom’s today. I went back to work when Big Baby Boy was 1 after I had stopped nursing, and we decided we needed to have our own home.
In the 5 years I worked after that I worked hard at setting myself and us up for me to be a “stay at home Mom”.
He-Man wanted another child and I wouldn’t do it if I had to work full time. In that 5 yrs as I worked , saved ,and planned everything lined up to get me where I wanted to be. We bought a house at 12.5 % interest Not too far into the future we refinanced it lowering the interest payment enough to save us a lot of money, and instead of a 30 yr loan I got a 15 yr loan; still saving a ton of money. He-Man was stressed out and didn’t think I could quit, but I did and we made it work. He and I didn’t have the latest fashions, or go on expensive vacations; We camped a lot, and we deferred a lot of house maintenance until our income tax refund came in. Our priorities like you were sports, and music lessons for the kids.
Yes, after I quit and my Big Baby Boy was 7 1/2 yrs old I gave birth to Baby Girl. Fortunately, when Big Baby Boy was heading to college and he wanted to go out of state interest rates had dropped again and I refinanced again and the money we saved paid his tuition and housing.
Baby Girl stayed closer to home and I was able to pay off the house 7 years early adding extra money applied to the principle every month with careful budgeting and planning.
It was worth it, and I’d do it again in nano second and laugh at the SJW’s who ridicule those of us who do it.
They’re lost or have skewed priorities en mon avis.
I hope you two have/had a wonderful time together, and always cherish the time you had together on this last trip to Disney World before college! Did she find the Ears she hoped to?
^5! to your partner for being all in the partnership and taking over your jobs/routine when needed!
It sounds like you two have a pretty great relationship. That’s HUGE! 🙂 Finding the right life partner/soulmate isn’t always easy.
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Wow, Deborah, that’s huge! I am super impressed by your financial finesse!! I hope that my husband and I are able to do half so well in managing our resources and providing for our children. We really want me to be a SAHM, too, so prioritizing needs vs. wants is important to us.
Btw, I’m so curious why you feel attacked by SJWs. You mean “social justice warriors,” right? I have never heard of people who advocate for child abuse survivors and human rights attacking conscientious savers… so I’m terribly curious to hear of how that happened to you!
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Thanks Gritty Momma! Another thing we did was to maintain our cars as well as we could on our own and drive them til they died. Our cars are old, old, old by the time we buy another one, and we save and buy our cars with cash. No financing and huge monthly payments for us! My Va-Va is 8, but since I don’t drive or too far often she still has under 60K miles.
Out here in Silicon Valley there are a lot of working women, and unfortunately, there are quit a lot of SJW’s that put down, and demonize those of us who CHOOSE not to work and stay home to raise our children.
They forget that we fought to have a choice about more than just having, or not having babies, and there’s more than one choice. Don’t get me on this soapbox. It won’t be pretty. The Feminist movement lost me decades ago. Identity politics is lost on me.
I hope you and your family are able to make the choices that are best for you and your family and you’re able to make them work. It won’t always be easy or without sacrifice, but it’s worth it!
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Thank you. My daughter did find her graduation ears! They put them out the day we got there so she purchased one of the first pair. She was so excited. It’s not been easy but I am so glad I was able to chose what I wanted and was able to stick it through. I am very fortunate!
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Yeah! I’m glad she found those ears.
Have you begun to think about life as an “empty nester” yet? It comes at ya fast! I’m enjoying this phase of my life too. 🙂
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I still have one more for three years. It will be different because he is not homeschooled like she was. We are together all the time. I have started to think about the next phase bit don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
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🙂 It’ll come to you. I know you’ll make the most of those 3 years!
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