Safari Park

Now that I have some more free time, we have been hanging out together on the weekends.  We know our time is limited because soccer games start the weekend after labor day, but for now, we are enjoying ourselves.  This past weekend, we went to Safari Park (formerly the Wild Animal Park).  We made it in time to see the keeper talk for the carocal, which is a pretty amazing cat.

We had a picnic lunch.

And we hung out with the bats.  I was surprised at how active they were-- we watched them eat and climb and even stretch out.  And we found a few bats of our own:

One week down

This week we returned to school.

We took our typical "back to school" and "on the way to school" photos.
It was fun to see familiar faces and feel the energy of the new school year.

Marcie has a teacher new to her grade, but she seems nice -- and I loved that she walked down the line of kids on the first day of school and introduced herself to everyone.

Casey gets to bring an iPad to school this year.  His teacher is pretty technology-forward-thinking, so we are interested to see (and learn) from him this year.

Tate slept at school for the first time this week.  Successfully.  Today he hugged a new friend good-bye.  Even though the school wasn't our first choice, it's actually looking like it's just what Tate needs-- lots of opportunity to play in the water, make new friends, play dress up and general explore life as a preschooler.

Jason started work this week, too.  So far, so good.

Oh My.

So I just discovered that I have not posted on my beloved blog since February of this year. That's six months. Six months is a long time. Let me just say that I could share a million excuses. But the truth is that when you spend 12+ hours a day staring at a computer screen, researching, drafting, emailing-- whatever -- it is hard to come home at night and blog.

But here we are. It's August. And I have left big law. I admit, I am a little sad to see it go -- to say good-bye. In my short time at my last firm, I made some really great friends. I got to try all sorts of new things. I was given increasing levels of responsibility. And people seemed to like my work. I even managed some pretty successful actions and developed real client relationships. It's everything a girl could want in big law. And that was my problem.

Even the best of us with families - those of us who really, truly wanted to put our families first - were limited in our ability to do so.  Because to be part of a culture where client service comes first, that often means that work has to come before family.  Not if you have a family emergency.  And in my practice group, everyone was very supportive of my role as a mother in addition to being an attorney.  But, truth be told, money isn't everything.  And so, while I was well compensated, I felt like I was never present.  Even when I was home, it wasn't present.  I left super bowl games to work.  I worked on Mother's Day.  And Father's Day.  I missed school events and activities.  I skipped out on parts of Halloween trick-or-treating.  (Though, to the firm's credit, when I went on vacation I had a real, honest, no-contact-with-work vacation.)  Much of that was probably my "choice."  But when you are driven to do excellent work you have to push through.

So I left.  Jason took a job as a senior software engineer-- and my amazing husband was able to get a job that is treating him as if he basically has been working for these past two years in the industry.

I took a job at a local law school, where I am directing their Academic Success program and teaching courses as an adjunct professor. It is totally up my alley.  I'm only two weeks in, but I love it already.

And thought I actually think it will be more difficult in many ways to balance/juggle work and home-- before I could (and did) just check out from family life, it also means I will be more present.  And I am looking forward to that.

And to having time and energy (and things about which) to blog.

So I'm home.  I hope you will tune in to follow me again . . .