secrets to success
>> Thursday, June 16, 2011
Mom, you are still eating. Correct or Incorrect?
Mom, I get ice cream when I'm done eating. Correct or Incorrect?
Mom, you have red cracks in your eyes. Correct or Incorrect?
(answer key: correct, correct, correct)
I've been busy. And tired. And wishing I could connect with other full-time working mamas to talk about how they do it. But guess what. They're all too busy to connect and if we actually did, I would probably fall asleep before I learned their secrets to success.
But I'm taking off work Monday and (cue trumpets) we're going camping this weekend! A little late for the first camping trip of the season (we're usually out at least once by the end of May) but we're going! With canoe and bikes and our giant tent with no floor and our dog and I think just maybe that this year -- with the baby two-and-a-half going on eight -- might be the least work yet. (Watch that last one come back to bite me.) A few nights in the woods and the water always sets me right again.
And I have nice friends. (Whom I never see in person.) The other night on facebook in an unfiltered moment I blurted
without really giving any thought to the fact that people would read and respond. And the next day, midway through the afternoon after a rough and unintentional coffee-free morning (good lord that was rough) I opened up my account and actually cried at my desk reading the little mini-peptalks from my friends. My favorite was Erika who told me that I exude adequacy and full-assery! Best affirmation ever. Thanks, friend.
Anyway, life is good but I'm just wishing I could be and do everything I want to be and do when I want to be and do it.
(Maybe the trick is to look at it not as just half-ass, but ass-half-full?)
I don't know... I think it's time for bed.
12 comments:
Fabulous. I wish I had seen your half-ass post. Next time!
I think you're doing a bang-up job. And our little lunch helped me feel a wee more balanced in this whole life/balance thing.
Well, I don't know you aside from this space, but I think you ROCK!
I started working full time in the fall, and it's so overwhelming. With work taking up SO much time, it's hard to get to all the other things I am passionate about. Luckily I teach and have the summer off!
Have a lovely camping weekend. I am finally here in Wisconsin/Minnesota for part of the summer and totally loving the warm balmy weather and green, green landscape.
xo
Amen to this post. And my pleasure regarding everything assery. ;) Absorb the woods into your every pore.
Amen! Amen! Amen!!!! You read my mind! Thank you!
Who doesn't or hasn't felt like you do? Most of us just pretend pretty well, unfortunately...
Enjoy your camping trip!!
As a full time working mom I ask myself the same thing everyday. EVERY DAY! So I'm here to stand in solidarity and say forgive yourself.
Ass-half-full! Genius!
Here's a big piece of learning I have from the last 6 years of working full-time & parenting: one night of early bedtime and good sleep goes a long, long way towards perspective.
I haven't read the other comments and I don't want to turn this into a WAHM vs SAHM debate, but this:
I'm just wishing I could be and do everything I want to be and do when I want to be and do it.
I feel that too....a lot.
I think it's an inherently woman feeling as we wear so many hats. We need to please everyone around us and ourselves and it's natural to feel pulled and called in so many directions.
I have no secrets, I get frazzled and stressed and sometimes sad that I cannot do all that I want to do but I remind myself that it is this season of life that I am in and I have a lifetime of "doing".
Oh, that is the trick.
Loved this post: SO YOU.
oh elizabeth, do you know how i resonate with this? me, here, with another child on the way in a few weeks and frantically trying to plan some "rest" before he comes, while excitedly awaiting his arrival. such a paradox, this thing called motherhood. and we're hoping to go camping too. something so nurturing and peaceful about sleeping in a tent, next to the sky. bless you sister.
I know you only told me about the first part of this, the cracks in your eyes. YUP. But I read the whole thing and because of how you write and think, I fell all inspired today. We're all in this rocky motherhood boat together and it's SO HARD and I'm going to "exude adequacy and full-assery" today :)
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