Sunday, April 13, 2008

Change

Every time I think our house is getting ready to settle into a nice, predictable rut, everything changes. The latest big change involves my husband and precisely where he is working. He's working from home. From our dining room to be precise.

This is requiring some adjustment for everyone, as you can imagine. Mostly for him though. Since I work from our living room, a mere twenty feet away he's having to learn how to focus on work and not me or the household chores that hang over our heads. I think he was really concerned about how I would accept him being there and he was worried I would constantly be talking to him.

He was pleasantly surprised when he realized I don't talk during the day. I did my usual routine and walked past him numerous times, but it turned out that he was the one talking to me periodically.

I expected that.

I've been working from home for a long time. I have three children who are periodically NOT in school and therefore ARE at home. I'm accustomed to having to block out the people around me in the house in order to get anything accomplished. Not that it always works, but I try. I'm also accustomed to working alone. Well, me, the dog, and the cat, but they don't talk back so I rarely talk to them.

My husband, on the other hand, is accustomed to working in an office, or actually a cubicle and constantly having people stop by and talk to him. He's discovered some real benefits to working in the house. There's no chit chat about what happened on whatever TV show played the night before, nor is anyone stopping by to complain about how bad their commute was that morning. It will be interesting to see if he misses the office interactions. Though he will be going into an office once or twice a week, so that may help ease the adjustment.

The big change for me is now I have someone looking over my shoulder, sort of. It's just making me think a little more about how wisely I'm spending my time so it's really a good thing. I think. I'm hoping it will help me focus and get more queries out. The last couple weeks were very busy with us clearing space for him to work and buying some necessary business machines so he can do what he needs to do. So I didn't really get anything accomplished for my stuff.

Now we're all trying to adjust to his new schedule because strangely enough, now that he's working from home, he's getting up earlier and starting work earlier than he has in years. I suspect it's the added bonus of quitting work so early in the afternoon and then getting to work on his hobbies, cars. This is much easier to do when you don't have to be in an office at five in the afternoon and then commute home.

I might as well give up on anything remaining the same for very long. At this point, we have a son that is due to graduate at the end of next year and two years after that another. Nothing is likely to be anything near predictable for quite some time. It should be fun though. At least I hope so.

5 comments:

BernardL said...

It seems a mutually stimulating change, with each one of you doing more rather than less, and honing in on the productive aspects. Nice.

Virginia Lady said...

Thanks, Bernard. I hope it continues in a positive way.

Edie Ramer said...

Ellie, life is unpredictable. You and your husband will get into a routine. I recently started writing first thing in the morning and not going into the internet until I've written 5 pages. I love it, but there are days I can't do this: Tuesdays and weekends. I have to adjust and do the best I can.

Virginia Lady said...

That's good advice, Edie. I may try that first thing in the morning schedule for writing again. I'm not a morning person, but I have to wake up my teens at 5:30 anyway. A new routine for me will probably help the adjustment period go more smoothly.

Edie Ramer said...

Good luck! I won't allow myself to go online until I finish 5 pages, and that's a HUGE incentive. I'm addicted to my email. lol