The Office

We moved everything out of our cute office on Historic 25th Street in Downtown Ogden right over the Pig in a Jelly Jar restaurant and the historic neon dragon sign.

An awesome thing happened to me 1.5 years ago. A friend called me up and offered me a consulting gig. I could work from my home. The pay was really good and it would only take five hours per week. It grew to 15-20 hours per week and the nice thing about that was that I was able to replace all of my writing income and all of my in-home daycare income and focus my attention on this one opportunity.

I really loved the prospect of working from my home. Even though my life can be chaotic and noisy, I have adjusted over the years and I can manage my way through a lot of distractions and interruptions (most days). It has become one of my finest skills. I have had to write a lot of stories on deadline while keeping a houseful of little kids and babies safe, fed and happy. Not even just my own little ones. It is a juggling act that I have gotten pretty good at.

My kids are growing up and I only watch other kids after school and for a few hours during the day on Mondays. So, compared to the last fourteen years, my life is pretty mellow even if I am homeschooling my seven-year-old, welcoming a gaggle of kids into our home in the afternoons and endlessly shuttling kids to lessons, activities and orthodontist appointments. There are many more quiet moments in my day to get my office work done than ever before.

But, my friend and colleague felt that we urgently needed an office to inspire our creativity, promote productivity and give us the perfect space to collaborate and synergize and make the world an overall better place. Very soon after I accepted this work from home gig, she found a place for us.

I admit that if I had to go to an office, this was the perfect one. It was newly remodeled, trendy, on the second floor of a building that is about 100 years old with walls of crumbling exposed brick and beautiful hardwood floors. The ceilings were high and my window had a great view. Historic 25th Street is a darling place that is often used as the backdrop for films. It is close to my home--literally a lovely 5 minute drive. There are fantastic restaurants (like the tasty and healthy Good Life Cafe). I enjoyed the space and I definitely appreciated the time with my colleague who is one of my favorite people in the world.

But, going to the office was almost always stressful. I love to work from home where I can take a break to throw in a load of laundry, wash some dishes, get a head start on dinner or be available to my children when they are home if they need me. I love to wash my hair, get an hour of work done while it air dries, and take a break from sitting at my desk to finish getting ready for the day without having to rush through my morning.

I didn't love packing up my computer, my planner, my water bottle, power cord and all the things I might need for the day to haul it to the office and haul it all back home at the end of the day.

Sometimes the parking situation wasn't great and that could be a headache.

Overall, it made me feel more stressed than it made me feel inspired. So, when my colleague told me in July that we were breaking our lease, that was good news to me. At first she wanted to find another space for us, but I convinced her that the space we really needed could be found in our own homes. Home sweet home! I love being blessed to work from my home. Especially now that I have a new freedom to come and go as I please.

Babysitting will always have a special place in my heart and I am grateful for the experiences I had and the children I will always love dearly because I saw them grow up. But, there is no break in the day when you watch other peoples' children. There is no babysitter for the babysitter. And, that can be hard because sometimes you need to run to the grocery store or the dentist or a host of other places, which can be tricky to do with your entourage of little people always at your side. Even trickier than finishing a story for a newspaper while keeping the whole circus in check.

Tonight Brian and I went to the office and moved all the furniture out. It is a little sad. The end of an era. More than anything else, I loved to tell people that I had an office on 25th Street over the Pig in a Jelly Jar restaurant and the historic neon dragon sign. A home office doesn't sound nearly as cool. But, it is.