Stay at Home Mom Corri Riebow

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How It Began
by Corri Riebow
This stay at home mom thing is still somewhat new to me, though it's something I've wanted to be since before my daughter was even born. I began my "stay at home mom" journey almost a year ago shortly after my daughter's 5th birthday. I knew that staying at home has it's own challenges, but I was up for it. I went back to work part time after my daughter was born and it was so hard to leave her. I couldn't wait to pick her up from her grammy's house. It was a long bumpy road, but I have never regretted leaving my job to be able to be more available to my family. I worked as a receptionist at an animal hospital for just shy of ten years and though I love being home, being a mom is a round the clock job! Still I feel so blessed to have had last summer off to spend with my daughter, Imogen before she started kindergarten and would be gone 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

 Like most moms, my days start early and end late, so it was a nice change of pace to be able to relax a little without having to rush off to work or preschool. We needed that break. The weeks leading up to the departure of my job were challenging, trying to get Imogen ready for preschool while I got ready for work. She was just NOT in the mood! We still have some of these same challenges now that she is in kindergarten, but I feel I can better focus on her because I know I don't "have to get it all done" before I leave the house in the morning to take her to school. I've got a more flexible schedule.
We live on about 5 acres in the country so we have lots of room for running around, gardening and tending to our little herd of animals. (Yes, that is the danger of working at an animal hospital!) We will be sprouting seeds for our garden soon....and just 3 more months of school! Thankfully Imogen takes after me and likes to get her hands dirty! (She spent some time "jumping in muddy puddles" last night after dance class.) I look forward to teaching her more about gardening and nature as the years go by because we have more time available to us. And once again this summer we can camp under the stars and sit out by our little campfire. (We had a camp fire two weeks ago even though we still had about a foot of snow on the ground!)We can play in the creek that runs the length of our property and go to the beach on a whim if we feel like it.

 I am just so thankful that my husband's job finally has him in a position where I no longer have to work. (Well, I do still run two home based businesses but that is another story in itself.) I'm not lazy and by no means do I think this is super easy, but it is what I wanted all along and I am just grateful to finally have this dream come true!

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