Busy is as busy does. Or something like that. When I left St. Louis I was juggling a part-time writing gig for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a full-time job, a part-time adjunct teaching position at a local university and volunteer board positions, about which I felt strongly. In addition, I would periodically write articles for a few different publications, for pleasure more than money. In my spare time, I’ve maintained this blog.

Suddenly, I have one job, and this blog.

Now, my job as a public relations professional keeps me pretty busy and having two kids, as any mom or dad knows, is a time-consuming venture as well. Currently, I do not have any friends in Charlottesville (what? I’ve been here a WEEK!) unless you count my next-door-neighbor (who I really like but just don’t really know very well yet) and my very loose connection friend who is the freshman college roommate of a friend of ours from St. Louis (do I sound desperate?).

Anyway, I’m already considering what to do with my free time; writing, teaching, scrapbooking, cooking and reading are all favorite time-passers. Now it’s time to figure out where to do these things and with whom.

This is day two of working at home full time and I’m still working out some of the kinks (actually, I’m pretty sure I’ll be working them out through summer).

This morning, I was on the phone with a client when my dog, Clover, heard something going on out in front of the house (trash or recycling guy, I’m sure). He barked. My client, who a moment ago said he was having a bit of trouble hearing me said,

“Excuse me, did you just bark at me?”

Whoops.

Fortunately he is a laid back kind of guy and sort of laughed about it (I think) but I made quick use of the Milkbones in my desk drawer in an effort to shut up the pup.

OK — I think I did this all wrong. Today was my first day to permanently work from home and I worked 9.5 hours with one 15 minute break, slugging down leftover soup in my kitchen. Now, here I am after dinner, back at the computer to finish some things up.

And people think working from home is easier!

If I keep going like this I’m likely to have a meltdown. I need to find a pace, realize when it’s time to end the day and stick to it. Tomorrow I must leave the house and register my daughter for the afterschool program so that I can travel next week. This is a non-negotiable. There will have to be a stopping point where I get up and walk away — perhaps this will help.

I can see now that there was some value in racing out the office door at 5:30pm because I had a kid/s to pick up. Now I don’t have that, there are still kids to attend to, dinner to make, life to lead . . . it shouldn’t be harder to be accountable to oneself than it is to be accountable to others.

Mondays are always tough and I’m coming back from a really long time off so I’m going to cut myself some slack for today’s mess of a schedule and start fresh tomorrow.

Today marks the first day of my work-at-home career. For fifteen years I’ve worked outside the house, semi-annually (more often, when the commute was long) wondering if this was the best option for my family, and for me.

My children, nine and fifteen, do not need me to be a stay-at-home mom. That ship has sailed. I think, however, it will be helpful to be here when they leave for school, and when they get home. They might not appreciate me being around so much.

I’ve been off work since Dec. 23 as the office was closed for the holidays and then I took a few days of vacation to complete our 800 mile move across the country. The last week has been spent unpacking and frantically setting up house and home office to meet the deadline of today.

Some people believe working at home is the best middle-of-the-road option. It provides a working mom the career she desires while enabling more family time. I’m thrilled by the lack of useless “windshield time” and hope that this solution will be what I’ve sought all along.

I’m not a car person, but I couldn’t help but notice the vast number of Volvos in the greater Charlottesville area. What’s the deal? I asked in my head, Seinfeld-style. They’re everywhere; in parking lots, driveways, on the road; new, old, tomato-red, black, green, white, gray, wagons and sedans.

Of course, now, I must have a Volvo.

Clover got caught diving into the downstairs fireplace this afternoon. He might have gotten away with his adventure if he hadn’t turned a full half of his face sooty. I cracked up everytime I looked at him afterward and decided to leave the evidence for when the kids got home. Clover’s not a bad dog, although he still jumps on people and gets into the trash. I’m working on these things with him and hope to get him trained better over the next few months, now that I have some time to spend with him.

I just finished reading Marley & Me; Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog, by John Grogan, a former colleague of my sister’s from the Sun-Sentinel in Florida. If you’re a dog lover and a reader, this one’s a must-read.

I’ve left the midwest! I’ve moved to the east coast, uprooting and relocating all that I know. I realize that the name of this blog is no longer truth so I have to figure out what to do about that. In a way, I guess it is true, since my job is still in St. Louis, whereas I am not. That’s one thing that has made this transition easier, the fact that I’ll be traveling to St. Louis often for work and that when I visit I can see friends, co-workers and clients, keeping me connected to the place I’ve lived all my life.

We’ve been in our new city since Dec. 28. The moving van arrived on Monday, Jan. 2 and I’ve been busy unpacking, arranging, cleaning, painting and rearranging ever since. I start working from home on the 9th so this is my chance to get these tasks done.

About my new home: my husband picked out the house, e-mailed me photos and we bought it without my ever having walked through it. It was a thrill to finally get here and be inside the house I only knew online. He did a great job — I love the house and the neighborhood is great. Everyone is very friendly and welcoming.

Since I will be working from the house, I know I need to make an extra effort to meet some people in the community so I will have to find something to join and do to get out once in a while. The neighborhood is woven through with walking trails and everyone seems to have a dog. I’ve enjoyed taking Clover for long walks and I think he enjoys watching the geese on the pond and the squirrels in the backyard. He’s my constant companion now that Mark has gone back to work and the kids have started school. This is my second day “on my own.” Yesterday was very productive (finished setting up three bathrooms and the kitchen, thank you very much) so this morning I’m taking a break and getting a badly needed haircut.