I've spent the last 1 1/2 years as an independent contractor. There have been a lot of benefits to my situation. I got the opportunity to work from home and spend lots of quality time with my wife and son. There have also been lots of challenges as well. I have spent a lot of time doing administrative tasks and managing projects. As a result, I've lost the joy of doing what I do.
I just took a full-time position. I've only been with the new company for about a week now but already I'm finding that I'm excited about developing again. I missed the interaction with other developers. I also missed having the time to research, study, and improve my skills. One of the things I'm most looking forward to is brushing up on my Patterns & Practices and expanding my knowledge of Object Oriented architectures. I also look foward to blogging more again.