Making progress

Over the weekend I finally finished the curtains for the craft room (and even made one of the pillows)

Cool, eh? I know my mom will hate them; she doesn't like toile. As an aside, to hear the word "toile" properly pronounced, go here. This site will also provide TWO pronounciations of the word "shit." Not that I would ever ask my computer to say shit...

And on another front, teamwork in the garage led to the installation of the first set of shutters (just to make sure they're okay before investing in finishing the shutters for the other six windows). So here you go:

I think they look better in person.

So the title of this blog entry relates nicely to the home rennovation theme of this website but as usual I was reading Dooce.com and today's post got me to thinking about progress for women. She brings up the whole, "is it wrong for educated women to stay home to raise children" debate. Read her stuff, I won't try to paraphrase, but as a new mom it's an issue I think about a lot.

Pre-pregnancy Mr. H and I discussed him being a stay at home dad. He seemed to have all the maternal instinct in the family and for the first five years of our marriage he was the one who wanted children. When it came down to it (and after we bought a new house) having one of us stay home just didn't make financial sense so I knew from the beginning I would be going back to work.

At first, I assumed this was definitely the right choice. I have never been particularly fond of babies and couldn't imagine spending every day at home with one. Then baby was born and I spent 2.5 months at home with her, all day, every day and couldn't imagine going back to work and leaving her in daycare.

Before long, January 1 arrived and maternity leave was over. To be honest, going back to work wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. About 4 p.m. I want to give baby a hug but generally I drop her off in the morning and look forward to seeing her when I get home but during the day I'm busy with work.

Being a working mom is less convenient when it comes to breastfeeding. Pumping in my office three times a day works reasonably well but what's a girl to do when stuck traveling all day in a car with the bosses' bosses' boss? I spent two days stuck in a car with the equivalent of the company CEO going from meeting to meeting with nary a potty break. The boobs do not go 6 hours people! I couldn't come up with a tactful way to say, "can we be late to this next meeting? I really need to go milk myself."

But, travel days aside, work is okay. Until I start to think about it and feel guilty about not being home all day with the munchkin. Most of my friends who have kids have decided to stay at home nearly full time adding to the guilt. My sister in law (a working mom of two) assures me that she is a better parent because she's working. Different strokes for different folks.

So I guess my take on the whole feminism thing is that what all those NOW members fought for was the right for women to get an education and make their own choice. Stay at home, go to work, baby in daycare, stay at home dads, the options are endless and many women today can choose what's right for their family.

That's cool, I just wish I knew what was right for me.

Full time blogging works for Heather but I've seen the competition out there and unless Home Depot wants to sponsor this drivel, I think I'll go to work tomorrow.