6 years ago, I came home to Nathan excitingly writing on a yellow legal pad. In his numbers and lists, he brought up the idea of being “work optional” by the time we were 30. I listened, but thought there was no way that would ever work. At this point, we were only married a little bit, still living in an apartment, not really saving much money. How could we ever get to this point in a few years?! Side note: I am the day to day thinker and he is the long term planner. After many years of planning, job changes, buying a house, adopting some pets, and loving life…we are here!

Today is my first day not working full time anymore! It doesn’t feel like it, because typically I have the summer months off anyway. The next few months, I am going to explore all areas of life, deciding how I want each week to look.

Starting in August, I will be teaching again. I am going to teach clarinet a few days each week. I have no clue how many students I will have or want to teach, so I won’t be making a set “schedule” anytime soon. However, I do want a lot of balance, so this is really only one of many things I want to spend time with in a week.

For now I look forward to finishing my coffee before lunch, waking up when my body is ready (today was 6:45), and getting lost in a project without thinking about time. It’s summertime, and the living is definitely going to be easy.

Jennifer