Looking forward

How were your holidays this year? Ours were busy as usual, and more fun than I anticipated. Not that I didn't anticipate fun, but the run-up to the holidays always feels so frantic and frenetic that I forget to look forward to the actual days with family. But they're always enjoyable and make me wish for more time before everyone returns to work and the everyday business of life.

I wish life was less businesslike, don't you?

But alas, most of us have to make a living (or work toward eventually making a living) and try to fit in all the other things that matter more than money but which don't come as easily if you don't have any money. You don't need money to be happy (so they say) but it sure does help.

To that end, I'm going to start working more hours in mid-January. Instead of twelve hours per week, I'll double that to work 24 hours per week in four 6-hour days. I am sad about leaving the boy for that many hours per week, right when he's starting to be so much fun and on the brink of so many firsts. But I think I'll be less sad than I will be in three years if I still haven't finished my dissertation. I have to get through this thing or else I'll be missing income and a degree, in addition to time with our son. I'll still be home by 3PM every day and I'll have one full weekday with him, which is more than most working parents get the pleasure of having. I'm thankful for that.

I'm also thankful that I'll be working alongside my wonderful man, taking over the conference room of his studio on most days instead of languishing in coffee shops around town, spending needlessly on coffees and lunches. I'm looking forward to our lunches together, getting more work done, finishing a chapter by May, and relishing moments with my boy even more than I do now.

What are you looking forward to in 2011?