Thanks so much!  It is such a relief to be able to talk about this, and anonymously! :>)

Cheryl, one of my fears is that getting back into the job market will be hard, and harder the longer I'm out.  This is really a dream job for me, and there's very, very low turnover in the field.  In other words, I really believe that there wouldn't be another such position like this, in my town, that I could ride my bike to in a few years when I thought I'd be returning to work.

Yeah, I am very much aware of financial precariousness.  I'm glad my dh and I are working on things, and I finally have some confidence there, but we burned through a lot of savings.  Not that I'd up and leave him if I got a job, but yeah, I do want to feel self-sufficient.

I really don't know what's up with my friends.  I do think it's partly about their own choices.  My working mom friends tell me I should go for it, that my happiness counts, that my kids will be fine.  These 2 friends are telling me that I don't know what I'd be getting myself into, that it'd be a nightmare, etc.  Ironically, they both do some consulting type work (out of theirs homes), ~10 hrs/wk.  I thought that they would "get" my desire to work, but I guess not.  (But I think there's also some competitiveness and not very friendly stuff going on.)