Stay At Home Spouse

Considering we don't have children I can't be a stay at home mom so I've recently dubbed myself a "stay at home spouse". I could also go by the title of chauffeur, chef, housemaid, active job seeker, etc, but why be specific when I do all those things as a stay at home spouse?

Since Rob started his week long orientation on Monday I've been home by myself all day. The IU students returned yesterday and today making it almost impossible to get anywhere by car so I've resigned myself to not go anywhere which really is fine with me. I can barely find my way around this town anyways. The first day, Monday, was so refreshing. I haven't been by myself for weeks and my little introverted self just soaked up all the alone time. I've also started writing out small goals for myself every day (ironically, I had a similar list when I had a "real" job) so that at the end of the day I actually feel like I accomplished something. Crossing things off a list just feels so good. You should try it if you don't already.

Here's a short run-down of my daily life as a stay at home spouse:

7:15 am -- alarm goes off for Rob to get up and get ready

7:20 am -- alarm goes off again. I rub his back and encourage him to get up

7:25 am -- alarm again. I push him a little bit and he eventually gets up. I lay there until he's in the shower and then get up and make him oatmeal. (Yesterday I missed this step and fell back asleep and he was almost late because he had to make his own oatmeal...I decided I was not being a good stay at home spouse and decided from here on out I better get up on time)

8:20 am -- say goodbye to Rob and go back to bed

Somewhere between 9 and 9:45 am -- I get up and chide myself for being a lazy butt. (In my defense though I was awake a good chunk of last night because Rob was ranting in his sleep in Spanish. And I was hot.)

9:45 - 10:30ish -- Go for a brisk walk

10:30 am -- eat breakfast and check my email (usually this is with high hopes of hearing back from a job I applied for or someone I emailed about a job. So far, no luck with that)

11:00 - 12:00 -- Read, journal, pray, drink coffee. It really has been great to have so much time for this these days

12:00 - 4:00 -- this part of the day so far has held various things. Today it involved an hour long walk to take Rob his lunch. I considered that my exercise for the day and probably lost four pounds in sweat alone. I am learning however that most drivers in Bloomington are very considerate of pedestrians and the sidewalks are nice for the most part. Monday I worked most of the afternoon on a really nice dinner for Rob and a friend from his program he invited over. I also take care of little things like changing our address on stuff, pay bills, clean, and research places I think I might want to work. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I'm doing with my life and what I think I might want to do with my life in the future.

4:00 - 5:30 -- Watch Oprah and work on dinner during Oprah

5:30 - 6:30 -- Eat dinner with Rob and talk about what I think I'm doing with my life

6:30 - 10:00 -- Since we have all this cable for an undetermined amount of time we've been watching tv some and hanging out together. Last night Rob had some "homework" meaning he had to work on a microteaching presentation for his class today. I am also learning that stay at home spouses (really spouses in general) have to be the best and biggest encouragers of their spouses. So I spent some time doing that last night too when Rob was feeling a bit overwhelmed by his assignment. Ironically, it is helpful for him because I am about at the Spanish level of what his students will be so I just tell him to practice on me and when I look really confused he knows he needs to slow down. It doesn't take much to confuse me in Spanish though so maybe that isn't the best judge for him....

Anyways, I can see how this whole being at home all day thing could get old real fast, but for now it's great and I can tell this is exactly the place I need to be for Rob and for our family. It's helping us move more slowly into our new life here and that is really good. Oh and I'm also learning that looking for a job is a full time job so it's probably good I don't have one of those yet...