Holidays & Family

I read something this morning about consumers feeling gloomy at the start of the holiday season.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080930/economy.html?.pf=personal-finance
Hmmm. My outlook on it-we're going to get through it, and live to enjoy it. There's so much that reaffirms my belief that we'll focus on family time, not on material objects. My children will always want this toy, or that trip, and R and I will always want to go to that restaurant or go to that special place. But really, do we need it? I'm focusing on what we have, not on what we want. I'm fed up with thinking about making lists-the top one being what toys to buy for our children. The second being what I or R "really, really want" to ensure our real happiness. My children don't have a clue about how toys are marketed towards them. R and I also are thinking more and more about how we live our lives, how money doesn't equate happiness, and really, all we want is to be safe and secure. So, I'm going to focus more of our resources on establishing our long term, financial security, and not on the short term aspects of having a wonderful holiday season. We'll trim a lot of the expenses, but use the money elsewhere, where its needed. When it comes down to it, we have control over the $$, our boys don't. And really, by looking at scrapbook pages of different women this weekend, you couldn't tell who spent a fortune, and those who kept their wallets shut. All that you saw were smiling faces, isn't that what its supposed to be about?

On a totally different topic.....

I've thought long and hard about going back to work. I'm doing it to get us out from under a rock and a hard place, I feel restless at home, and I'm not feeling up to par. Why I feel better when I have a gazillion things to do, than when I'm just lounging around (even then, as a SAHM, its never real lounging), I don't know. My kids are happier going to school, being with friends, than sometimes staying at home all day with me. I feel like I can focus better on the time I do have w/ my kids when I'm doing something for myself. Plus, I feel that in our personal situation, I have a place that I trust to share the load of childcare. Maybe I'd feel different if I had family closer by, but since R and me live so far away from family, even getting emotional support-I always have reminders that we're on our own-it really helps to have a place, even if it is a child care facility and preschool, that we can connect with. It really hits home when the preschool teachers talk w/ me about going back to work-especially since they've faced the same thing at one point or another. So, to ease the financial burden, and to promote our self sufficiency as a family, I'm going back to work part time. How it will be, I don't know. But as everything else has happened in the past few months, life is too short to wonder what-if all the time. I've never been one to shy away from just diving into the great unknown-so why should this time be any different?