Living & loving a life of humility

I have come to the conclusion that to live Greene, you have to live a life of humility, with a complete disregard for what others think. This rule of thumb has recently presented itself to me recently in a number of ways, and as per the usual, it requires somewhat of a back story.

I suppose it all started about a year ago, really. My career at the cookie mogul was in a downward spiral. Awkward leadership had been replaced with Clueless leadership and many other changes were made that caused me to question my alignment with "real" mission of the organization vs the "public" mission. My regional office was closed and moved into the larger, communal Nashville office. At the same time this controversial change was taking place, Mark was named as the manager of a completely brand new branch of his company. At this point, I was already beginning to think the Universe was trying to tell me something.

The final straw came in early July, when a purely innocent (seriously, it was *nothing* of importance) act on my part was somehow twisted into a sabotage-like conspiracy theory and I was labeled as the sole perpetrator. Yes, me. I am an evil deviant, apparently. Mark and I decided with almost zero consideration that it was time to move on. But, to what?

(Enter) Stay at Home Mommy.

After Zane was born and with a lot of conversation on the topic, we decided that we needed to find an extra $500/month to pay for school (Mark started his journey to a degree in August). But where does a family of four living on one income find $500? It's not in the couch, I promise. I looked. So the logical decision was for me to go to work part-time. Anything where childcare has a cost is almost not worth doing. If I were still at my old job, I would be making a little over $200/week after the extra gas and childcare came out of my paycheck. So the obvious solution is for me to work when Mark can watch the boys. But, he has homework through the week AND he works full time as well, so we decided that anything over 2 nights a week would be too much. And I do love my husband, so I'm not giving up both of our weekend days together. So what kind of place is going to hire someone to work a few nights a week and one weekend day?

(Enter) Publix.

I love shopping there, and I like the atmosphere of the store, and a brand spanking new one is opening up 15 minutes from my house. I asked a friend about the schedule and she promised it was very workable. So I applied, interviewed, background checked, oriented (?), and finally, had my first day. I work in the bakery, bagging bread...cleaning stuff...helping customers. You could train a monkey to do it. And I barely make minimum wage. BUT...it pays right around $125/week, which is our $500...and the hours are perfect for our life. And I'm an exemplary employee (ahem...they don't know I'm a deviant...yet), so it's a win-win for all involved.

(Enter) Judgement.

So here I am, a college graduate with a degree in Corporate Communications, working for a little over federal minimum wage in the bakery of a grocery store. I'm fine with it, my husband is more than fine with it, and when my boys are adults...ask them. I think they will say they were happy about it. More accurately, ask ME when my boys are adults, because I'm pretty sure I'll never regret spending my late 20s as a SAHM.

But this isn't sitting well with the rest of the world, for some reason. People have been questioning this move all along. Several people I know have said they would never work at a Wal-Mart/fast food place/grocery store. Why? Having a degree doesn't make me unqualified to work there. I'm not somehow "lowering" myself to work in a grocery store. I have already discovered that some days, I am truly thankful to get out and do something mindless and to have conversations with adults. It's like going to work is a mini mid-week vaycay for me.

Living Greene is being perfectly happy to clean the drains in the bakery floor, knowing that while it doesn't pay much, it pays enough. And while I don't work often, I have the hours that fit my family. It's understanding why I'm doing this and not caring what other people think of me for it. I already have the best job in the world, being a mommy to two wonderful little guys. And I'm perfectly content to bag bread on the side ;)