I honestly don't see how women can work full-time and take care of a baby. This is hard work. Maybe many working moms have a stronger desire to work and can organize a schedule way better than I can. I'm just not cut out for this. I can barely find the time to make dinner more than twice a week, let alone blog. (And my nights to cook are currently Saturday and Sunday.)

At least I'm having the time of my life being a mother. Remind me to post pictures sometime of my now 4-month-old and 12-and-a-half pound child. She's growing too fast. Blogging is still going to be light until I retire from the working world in May, but I will post our final residency programs decisions and such sometime in the next few days.

Stu is on his final interview in Chattanooga. Yay! He's been gone most of this month criss-crossing the country with interviews for his residency program. It's so hard to believe we're this close to a new phase in his career! He had 9 interviews total, and once he finishes all of them he will rank the programs and then, we wait. March 1st (maybe 2nd this year, since March 1st is a Sunday; we're not sure) is Match Day, where every med student is (ideally) placed in a residency program based on their preferences and the programs' desire to accept them. (It's some really complicated computer-type matching system that I'm completely ignorant about.)

Anyway, here's my list of programs, based mainly on location, size, and proximity to Atlanta. Stu's ranking may be slightly different. Unforunately, Atlanta did not ask Stu for an interview :-(, but as you can see we have other great options:

Chattanooga: This would be the MOST IDEAL PLACE EVER. Stu and I both love the city, after having lived there for 4 years during college. It has a small-town feel, but enough stuff to do that you won't get bored. Plus, it's only 2 hours from Atlanta. Stu hasn't finished his interview yet, so I don't have much to say about the program. UPDATED TO ADD: Well, Stu just finished the interview, and said that the program in Chattanooga is a bit sketchy, since it's brand new. That means that it may be lower on the list. Don't know yet.

Nashville: While Nashville is 4 hours from Atlanta, it has one of Stu's favorite programs, and it's also only 4 hours from my grandparents in Indy. I would love to live here with its cold(er) winters and changing of seasons. Of course, any location we've looked at has a winter that is colder than Houston's!

Columbia, SC: Another city where Stu loved the program, so it's very close in rank to Nashville. It's also 4 hours from Atlanta, but I rank it lower than Nashville since it's further south and farther from my grandparents. It seems like a beautiful city, though, and a great place to live.

Augusta, GA: Only 2 1/2 hours from Atlanta, but the program isn't quite as good as the ones listed above. It's almost in a dead tie with Birmingham, in my opinion.

Birmingham: Pretty much the same as Augusta. See above.

Dallas: Stu felt the program was solid, and it would be great to be close to his family. So this is a great fall-back city. I think it's a bit too big of a city for me, though, and we both would prefer to be in the Southeast.

Houston: I only rank it above the others below because we're familiar with this place. The program is only so-so, and the salary is one of the lowest out there.

St. Louis: Stu interviewed here only because his best friend currently lives here. While we'd be happy where ever we go, this is a bit too far from all family and friends.

Charlottesville, VA: Stu only interviewed here because they asked and we thought Virginia, it's in the South, right? It can't be that far from Atlanta. Well, we were wrong. It's at least 12 hours from anyone we know. But the program is great and the city is beautiful, so if we end up here it's not the end of the world.

Once Stu finishes all the interviews, we'll talk and pray about our final ranking decisions.

I miss blogging. It feels like forever since I've had a substantial post. Now that I've returned back to work the time seems to vanish before I even realize it.

I started back on December 2nd, and that was probably one of the hardest days of my life. Stu was away on another residency interview (a topic in which I hope to discuss sometime soon) that morning, so it was just me and Maddie curled up in bed and that was the hardest thing to get up with her sweet sleeping self next to me knowing that I had to leave her with a relative stranger for 9-plus hours.

Plus, my darling little one was still refusing to take a bottle. It makes me happy to know that she prefers nursing that much, but it was still rather stressful to be called in the middle of the day to go over to the daycare to nurse her. Especially when I had to walk home, then drive over there. As I mentioned, Hubby Dear was having a residency interview (in Birmingham, I think), so he wasn't quite able to come and pick me up.

The day went well enough, and it was wonderful to see everyone I've missed for the past 8 weeks. But I still can't wait for the day 5 and a half months from now when I can stay home and just be Maddie's mom full time.

Things are getting better on the bottle front now, since Maddie found a nipple she likes and she was able to drink four ounces yesterday. Yay! That was pretty comforting to me.

Anyway, I'm hoping to soon create a routine in which I'll be able to blog more frequently. We'll see. :-)

I apologize that this post was a bit long in coming. To refresh yourselves on my first article, see Women in the Workforce Pt. 1. My intention with the second post in this series is to discuss my thoughts on home management while also working full time. However, since my schedule is currently in flux, I've been trying to figure out what would be best to write, so I have been slow to get it all down on the computer.

As a working wife, I struggle to find the time to work and keep home. I can't even imagine how the "Superwomen" of our culture pretend to manage this! I know I never could. I would like to discuss more about how I think the Bible addresses the subject of working women in my next post, but for now I'll just mention what my current routine looks like, and how I juggle both responsibilities.

I've been blessed to have a position in which when I come home, I'm home. I don't have to think about the office, what needs to be done, who else I need to call, etc. So when I get home, I just concern myself with my serving my husband and taking care of daily tasks. I wouldn't ever want a job where my main focus isn't my family. Someday Hubby and I plan for me to stay home while we raise children together, so now is valuable time to learn the skills I need once children come along. Even still, I find my time is tight, since most of it is presently consumed at the office. It can be very difficult to find the time to keep house.

I'm sure most every woman could say this, but I find that I just don't have enough hours in the day. I'm committed to the office from 8 to 5 (more if you count preparing to leave in the morning and commuting), so I'm left with only 5 or so hours at the end of the day before I crash at 10:30. Since those hours are precious, I'm trying to get a schedule in line to make the most of the time I have. With my indecisive nature, this schedule is always being tweaked. Many times it is also because I'm tired from a long day at work, but others it simply is because I want to spend time with Hubby. It is more important to me to have a messy house than to neglect the one I love.

Making a schedule and sticking to it as always been somewhat of a challenge for me. As I've mentioned before, I am currently in flux, transitioning from one schedule to another. I usually save one major cleaning activity for the evening, along with cooking, dishes, and laundry. Some nights I relax with Hubby, others he needs to study, so I find other projects such as my sewing when Hubby is busy. I find it too difficult to do all the chores on Saturday, since this tends to be Hubby's free day as well.

Here is a brief rundown of my old schedule:
Monday: Cleaning the bathroom
Tuesday: Decluttering and organizing
Wednesday: Vacuuming and dusting
Thursday: Cleaning the kitchen
Friday: Making the bed and meal planning
Saturday: Groceries

The problem I have with this schedule is that if I don't get something done that day, it probably won't get done until the next week. I also don't have a place for "fun" tasks, such as reading, sewing, or cross-stitching. I also am trying to transition to grocery shopping on Tuesday evenings after work, since the local farmer's market operates that day, and I would love to shop then rather than twice a week.

As I'm transitioning, I hope to put more emphasis on improving my skills as a housewife (I have no idea how to fold fitted sheets!), and I hope to create a home from the apartment we live in. If I can create a schedule that allows me to grow as a homemaker, spend time with Hubby, and be as good of a steward of my time as possible, I'll be happy.

I was once asked to elaborate more on what I do for a living, and it got me thinking not only about my own job, but what it means to me to be a working wife. I hope to cover this topic with a few posts on this subject, but first I'll explain more about what I do.

I think I've said before that I work in cancer research. It sounds wonderfully complex and difficult, but I assure you, it's not very hard. My main focus is to consent patients for the protocols we have, as well as making sure the urine, blood, and tissue samples get to the lab and the computer. I'm also responsible for processing and freezing the samples should the person who normally processes be out. It's a rather low job on the totem pole, and I'm not doing a lot of bench work (so I won't be finding the gene that breaks the code!), but it is a fulfilling and rewarding job.

I get to be one of the faces of the research side of our department to many of our patients. I get to meet with them and talk to them, something I wouldn't be able to do if I was confined to a bench all day. Since I can put faces to the names I see on the paper, it makes my job so much more, well, human. These are real humans we are dealing with every day, not just a sample. These are real people who are hurting and have come to receive help after the dreadful diagnosis of cancer. I can't even imagine such a diagnosis myself. I think I would have trouble being a nurse, since they just have to detach themselves from their patients, or their jobs would become unbearable. I don't think I ever could do that (but I sure admire the nurses who do!). I feel for the patients too much. After talking with many of these patients, I shoot up a quick prayer for them. Many of them are facing horrible diagnoses, and prayer is all that I can do. Even though my job is not very significant on paper, I thoroughly enjoy what I do, and I love that I can make a contribution to help fight this horrible disease. And I know that this is where God wants me, right now.

Even though I love what I do, for me it is transient as I wait (although not always patiently!) to move on to the next stage of my life (Lord willing). I believe my true calling is to be a keeper of the home and mother. While I'm not a mother just yet, being a homemaker is something I'm cultivating when I'm not at work. In the next section, I hope to continue this theme and discuss how I balance work and home life.