Home Office Woes

"Mama is working right now."

The five-word sentence, is probably my biggest regret in life.  To this day, it haunts me.

I have worked at home pretty much my whole married life.  I think there was probably like a year, maybe, total that I worked outside the home.  So..I have always had a computer and an "office" at home.  The "office" thing has been a problem of some sort.  I have never really had a room that was my office, I have always just had a space.  In New Mexico, my office space was in the garage for a while, but then I moved it into the kitchen.   Here in Cali, my office space has always been in the family room.  Yes, the family room, right between the kitchen and the garage door and the television and the doggie door.... you get the picture. My office space is probably the busiest spot in the house.   I do have an empty(ish) bedroom upstairs that instead of making a guest room I could have transformed into my office.  But, I decided against it.  It was my thinking that at the time I finally got all settled into my new office, my daughter would be gone, my son was already gone, and my husband worked days or worked nights and slept days...so the family room seemed to be still okay for me.

This worked...until I got labs.  Labrador Retrievers that is!  My desk is right by the sliding glass door in the family room and their doggie door is attached to the door making their in and out traffic route right past my desk.  Without fail, unless they are in a hurry, when going outside, they make a large sweep and come right past my chair for a quick petting before they head out.  Sometimes this is as little as an ear scratch, sometimes it involves a full body massage.

Lately, in the Indian Summer days, my doggies have just wanted mama to go out and play or walk or something.  I think Moosie gets as tired of seeing me at this desk as I get at sitting at it.  When they return in from being outside, both Maggie and Moosie have been stopping by and literally pushing my chair away from my desk and standing in front of me blocking me from my keyboard.  I give them a quick scratch and then I say that terrible sentence --  Mama is working right now.
I hope my children have forgiven me for the times I said those words.  I hope they understand why.  My job is at my home, I can't just leave work at the office...because the office is right there.  Even though my furry babies don't understand as much, I hope they can forgive me as well.   Believe me...I hate saying those words probably as much as they hated hearing them.

Well...gotta do it again... Mama is working right now...

XOXO