The Cards You're Dealt

For two days I have been off of work touring daycares and interviewing sitters and nannies. I am getting a taste of what it would be like to not have a career. Mommy business is a full-time pursuit and your always on the clock, but through this out of the box experience I have had a freedom that has allowed me to do some lifestyle spring cleaning. When you work 40 or so hours a week, it leaves little time for upkeep. You set things up and trust that they will run themselves with little attention. When the routine things get off track, it seems like the world is crumbling, but us mothers seem to be at our best when we are challenged, especially when it comes to our children.

For example, my 4 year old reminded me to call the insurance company today when she asked about building fires. I had been meaning to setup renters insurance since we moved in December, but it had slipped through the cracks, it didn't even make it to the notepad. In the same call to our friendly State Farm neighbor I asked why my auto insurance premium had increased, which did happen to be on the to-do list. (Just so you know the minimum coverage in Texas went up. There's no getting around that!)

In our society today we see a multitude of women entrepreneurs. I envy admire those who were so determined that they took the leap to pursue their talents and have become their own boss. My best friends and I joke about being The Real Housewives of Fort Worth and daydream about living the ultimate housewife's dream: to be able to support and provide for our children while being the sole caregiver. To juggle work and play to such a fine line that it doesn't seem like work because you love it so much. So that we can truly parent and have full control over how our one-of-a-kind kiddos are raised, but mostly so we can smother them. How great it would be to be their personal security guard, to train them to be just like us, to build them up, spoil them rotten and sharpen their strengths 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But that's not MY life. That's why I personally try to jam pack creative and spiritual activities into our schedule so that our time together outside of 9 to 5 is a super dose of quality time. That is something that was not always an easy feat until I removed my own selfishness and shifted my whole-hearted focus to the most meaningful cute little things to ever happen to me. Life is what you make it, right? I try not to take a single blessing for granted and keep a positive attitude because the things that happen to me are out of my control, but I catch myself and remind myself that my reaction isn't. And we'll continue to go through changes, like when the kids go off to school, but I'll keep doing my very best to keep building a house of bricks and not one of straw or twigs, so when those unexpected things occur, it's a breeze that won't blow the house down.

So if you don't get anything else from this post, I hope that you leave this page slightly encouraged that you're not the only one and slightly content with the hand-crafted, custom cards you've been dealt.