Toads-in-the-Hole

After an idyllic summer and autumn of gently honing my domestic technique, I’ve returned to the Land of the Working Girl.

One early morning in November, I was perusing the local newspaper and spied a small ad that read something like, “We need an RN and we need one now!” That same day, I sent my resume to Human Resources, filled out an online application, and was called for an interview. A couple of weeks later, I was offered a position as a nurse at a clinic in town.

Many, many things made this employment offer super, super attractive: its evening hours, its part-time status, its tiny, tiny commute of 1.3 miles. But, I think that the biggest, boldest item in the pro column was that this job would give me the chance everybody's always looking for, to have their cake and eat it, too. Or, I could continue to be Adelaide’s stay-at-home best pal and wrangler for the majority of each day and get some serious nursing experience under my belt and keep my license current.

So, I took the job.

And I’ve been steadily practicing my craft each night a little over a mile from home, helping to treat the headaches, sniffles, and coughs of our community. And Joel and Adelaide have some one-on-one, father-daughter time together each evening, playing roughhouse games with unsuspecting plush rabbits, eating way too much Shepard’s Pie, and singing in the bathtub.

But, here’s the rub … Our new lifestyle means that Adelaide won’t have to use daycare. Not using daycare does mean fewer snotty noses, but it also means fewer friends for Adelaide. So far, I’ve found only a handful of baby-friendly venues where Adelaide can interact with other kids. In a town of our size and persuasion, for the under-one-year set there are story times at the library, church-related functions, and well, that’s about it. I’m probably feeling this way too because it’s wintertime and playing in the cold, wet sandbox at the park or taking wind-buffeted walks by the river are not as fun.

Still when given an opportunity to be charming in public, Adelaide shines. Is it too much to want my funny, sweet little girl to have a chance to make some friends here and there and not grow up to be some sort of sheltered, social recluse?

Although, Emily Dickinson turned out okay, right?