A new way of living - The big reveal part 2

The time has come for a change. A new way of living.

And so we are down-shifting in income to share care of our children and share earning, and so that I can give more time to my writing/ creativity and build my other soul work beyond mothering.

My heart is singing. I can smell freedom.

My husband can smell freedom too - from a hugely challenging job which he has not enjoyed, juggling a vast amount of different roles with lots of evening and weekend work. Down to three days a week of office hours and more limited responsibility but in a field he feels confident and interested.

But we are both still local - which we treasure - no commuting - wasting time and oil - we will be working from home and at my family business in the village.

To many it would seem madness. Dropping our already not huge income by over a third. Ditching a stable job which looks good on a CV at a time of economic uncertainty. Are we being irresponsible?

We don't think so. We are honouring our sanity, our family, my creativity, honouring taking a chance above stability, safeness, above prestige, and certainly above money.

This is not  what we were told to aspire to at school. We both graduated top of our classes in school and University - we should be earning big money, we should have professions.

When I was doing my teacher training and became pregnant a number of the teachers asked when I was going to return to work after the baby. I said I wasn't. They said "what about your career?" I said the most important thing to me was to be happy. Everything else would fall into place. These people with safe jobs and safe lives looked at me as though I had four heads.

In reality we are not taking any huge risks. We have a house with a mortgage we can afford, just one car, humble needs. We have shared work and childcare before when we had one child. We have survived on much less money.

It is exciting to be going further down the radical homemaking path. Hopefully with this lifting of the yoke of a full time job for my husband and full time mothering for me, we will both get a little more breathing space. A little more chance to see, feel, touch who we are, what we are, what we need and what we can be.

So this year we will be poorer in money, but richer in time. It is a transitional step. A time of chances, growth, hope. I am looking forward to taking another major step on my life path. (*thumbing nose to careers adviser!)

So wish us luck! We'll keep you posted as to how it goes.