Cordial invitation

Round 35: August 2041 (Winter)

last update/next update

Novak 4 household profile

Maia Novak is 39, Ethan is 35, Willow is 6, River is 4 and Wren is 18 months.

(Jace is 84, Magdalena is 77 and Lia is 44)

Narrated by Maia Novak

I would have been happy with just one kid but now that I've ended up with three, I can say I'm pretty happy with that too.

We’re biased, obviously but I think we've made some very awesome kids.

One of the best things about them might be how good they are together. Neither Ethan or I had an opposite sex sibling growing up, so we weren't sure how brother-sister dynamics usually work out. In our case at least, it’s been wonderful. 

Willow and River are both at school now, so they've got their own friends. But at home, they’re almost always hanging out together.

They have all these little inside jokes with each other that they’re giggling at every time I turn around. I don’t know if they’ll always be as close or if they’ll drift apart a little as they get older but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Thankfully, they are both very sweet with Wren.

Wren is definitely your typical 1.5-year-old. She can be very noisy and whiny and everything is hers, including the other kids’ toys. But River and Willow have been very patient with her, to our immense relief.

Ethan and I talked about adding another kid to our brood but we decided against it. I definitely feel done. Ethan was a little more borderline but he finally realised he was totally content with three as well. 

Approaching 40 as I am, I'm not sure it would happen for us anyway, even if we wanted it to.

Though Lia and I are 5 years apart and she had Peter when she was just a year older than me, without even trying, while she was on birth control.

I’ll just have to pray that super-fertility doesn't run in the family!

Ethan and I are still keeping up with our date nights, as hard as that is with three children at home!

It’s rarely anything fancy where we get dressed up or anything. It’s just a nice casual dinner at a local restaurant.

Sometime after we had River, we figured out that we really need that time away from the kids. Just to keep our sanity. 

It was harder when Wren first came along, because we were both so exhausted all the time but we still tried to make the effort.

It gives us a chance to reconnect as a couple, sans children and we both look forward to it all week. 

We’re even planning on getting away for a little longer one of these days, and taking a short vacation. 

It hasn't really been financially viable before but Ethan is paid very well now and we have Rosa Lucida, which is doing really well. 

Mum and Dad watch the kids while we’re out and Dad always bombards me with questions about the store as soon as we get back home. 

He’s handed it over to me and I have complete control now but I think it’s still kind of his baby.

On some level, he still thinks of it as his and honestly, I do too. It’s hard to believe I actually own it. 

I'm enjoying running Dad’s store, more than I’d enjoy any other job.

It’s quite lovely being surrounded by plants and flowers all day at work. Just green everywhere. It’s my idea of heaven.

I like interacting with other people who obviously appreciate that sort of thing as well. 

Being paid for something I created myself is pretty great as well.

Lately, I think I’d like to do just this and quit the events planning. I've been doing both part-time, with my total hours being about equal to a full-time job. But events planning means you’re sort of unofficially on call, which I've never liked.

I get calls and e-mails in the evening, well after work, which I'm expected to respond to promptly. And I never get weekends off. That’s not ideal at the best of times but especially not when you have a family.

It kills me that Ethan gets to do fun stuff with Willow and River on the weekends, while I'm running some spoiled kid’s overly elaborate graduation bash. 

During the week, they’re at school, so we eat dinner, do homework, play a bit and then it’s bedtime. Not so much quality time. 

I would love a whole two days off to spend with the family. I still get to have fun with them but it’s harder to squeeze it in without weekends to work with.

I've talked about it with Ethan. He knows how stressed I've been and he’s very understanding about it. 

He says if I want to quit, I should. Events planning was never a career for me and I've always been a person who wants to work to live, rather than live to work.

He definitely has that right. If I didn't have to work at all, I wouldn't. I’d find plenty of other things to do with my time!

After talking to Ethan, I’m very strongly leaning towards quitting. It would be such a load off my shoulders.

I can’t help but think it would be the best thing for the whole family as well. Having me on a more conventional schedule can only be good for all of us.

Notes:

• Title is from Cordial Invitation by Giant Drag.
• I hadn't thought of having Maia quit until now but I think it'd be what she'd do. The freedom of being her own boss would be very appealing to her.
• By the way, I don't have any fancy tricks to make her work "part-time" at the events planning. That was just story. She goes full time and I sent her to the shop when I could fit it in. Which was HARD, guys! She really does have too much on her plate.
• I was so sure these two would end up expecting #4 at the end of this update but I think Maia's age is working against her (or in her favour, seeing neither of them want any more kids). Neither she or Ethan are allowed BC, so I think her fertility is just declining. Thank goodness. I don't want to move them! But I'm still cautious, after Lia!
• Willow, River and Wren are really cute together. I've never seen a toddler roll any wants towards anyone but their parents and that continues with Wren but Willow and River roll wants for each other all the time. In my game at least, that's quite rare! They're a very sweet little trio, I have to say.
• Side note but I only just got around to doing Ione and Evan's household profile today. But it's up now, if anyone was wanting to read it. I'm hoping this profile will be up by the time I release this post. I'm feeling 100% for the first time in a long while at the moment, so I have no excuses besides laziness this time!