Two months ago yesterday I left my job in the corporate world to “take a pause” and stay home with my girls. It was time to slow down a bit and hit the reset button. It also meant that the girls would no longer be in daycare 5-full days.

Now, I went into this with open eyes and what I thought were reasonable expectations of what life as a Stay At Home Mom would be (you can read about that here.) To say that the past two months have been a walk in the park would be, well, a lie. During the first month I think I text my husband at least once a week telling him that this wasn’t working and I was going back to work.

There were days that the kids wouldn’t nap at all (usually on the days that I desperately needed a nap myself, or a shower!) There were days where I would yell and give time outs (sometimes by 9:30am!) There were days where I had planned outings but because we couldn’t agree on what to wear, or to brush our hair/teeth/etc. we couldn’t even make it out of the house. There were even days where I felt like I was failing as a mother, the days where I sat on the floor on the verge of tears because that’s not the kind of mom I wanted to be.

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Hey guys! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted anything (sorry, not sorry) and well, there have been a few changes over here and since this blog is all about keeping it real here it goes…

I quit my job.

This decision to leave the corporate world was definitely one of the hardest and scariest decisions I think we’ve had to make. It was by no means taken lightly, hell we discussed it for years before we actually took the plunge. And yes I said “we.” I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the support and encouragement from my husband, and because we’re in this together I say “we.”

It’s really more of a temporary life change, a “pause” in my career if you will. After careful consideration it felt like the right time to hit the reset button and give myself a chance to course-correct, but the plan is to go back to work. How long is that? Well that all depends on how long it takes to find the next gig that is right for me, something that reignites that fire in my belly.

So how do I feel about this life change? Excited, nervous, guilty, happy, afraid, relaxed, paranoid, stressed…inspired.

I’m not naive, I know that I won’t make much of a dent (if any) in my growing  “stay at home mom list.” I know that we will have to work at adjusting to living off of one income. I know that there will be days that I’ll plop the girls in front of the TV just so that I can get some things done around the house (don’t judge, it happens.) I also know that the girls will only be this little for what will seem like seconds in the timeline of my life, so I want to be able to soak in every possible minute that I can with them. Imprint the memories in my mind. So good riddance gridlock traffic, so long client deadlines. Give me sticky fingers, playdates and mommy-and-me field trips. I’m ready.

Like Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

 

 

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Do any of you remember that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes, the one where Kathy Bates is in the parking lot and a couple of girls steal her parking spot? So she rams their car saying “face it girls, I’m older and I have more insurance.” Well, recently I had my first experience of being the “older” woman in a room full of 18 and 20-somethings. Let me tell ya, I’m not 21 anymore.

A few weekends ago I went to Canada for a neighbors 40th birthday party. We had a lovely birthday outing planned – a massage at the spa followed by dinner and drinks, a little casino action and then some dancing at the hotel club. Sounds like a great girls weekend, right?

As we made our way to the dance floor, some younger ladies that were dancing up on the “stage” area started to point and call out to us. I could make out one of the girls saying “I want those moms up here with me!” M-O-M-S, it was almost as if she were screaming it in slow-motion, you know like in the movies so it was super drawn out? Another one came over exclaiming “you have to come up there with us, you’re hot moms!” Their words stunned me, like whiplash I didn’t know what hit me.

Those moms. Hot moms. Ouch.

I’m going to give the young women the benefit of the doubt and assume they had no intention (or clue) of sounding patronizing. Or were they really making fun of us? I’m sure I’ve been that 20-something at the bar egging on the 40-something woman to come dance in our circle. Maybe it was karma. Either way, it was naive of me to think I could walk into club and blend in with a room full of young 20-somethings dressed in crop tops, leggings and heels.

Needless to say this was the first time I actually felt my age. And the whole time the only thing I could think of was…Kathy Bates.

Here’s to the #momsquad, Kathy Bates and #towanda, there’s no other bunch of hot moms that I’d rather dance on tables with…*muah*

Hey y’all! I know it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted anything and I have no excuse other than “life happens.” I’ve had so many ideas and topics in my head that I’ve wanted to write about, but by the time the work day is over I’m lucky if I get a few minutes to unwind check my social media let alone time to write a blog post.

Lately I have found myself talking to some of my female co-workers about their work/life routines and what I’ve come to find out is that our “balance” is not all that uncommon. Here I’ve thought that Michael and I were the only couple that struggled with the constant feeling that we’re always playing catch-up — and by catch-up I mean take a day off from work in the middle of the week, push through as much laundry as possible, run errands, make a home cooked meal, fix those home maintenance projects that have been on the “to do” list for far too long, etc. only to find ourselves a few weeks later (if that) slip back to playing catch-up. It’s a vicious cycle that we’ve grown tired of, but how do we stop it? No really, how do we stop it?

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