#working-mom

I love the time after a conference where you sit back and read your notes. Not because I’m a big nerd, but because the initial emotions are over, and now you can really reflect and see what parts of the speaker really gave you that “aha” moment. The mom conference really brought some light into my life. Not to be cliche, but that’s the whole point of going to conferences, even if they are online.…

December 12, 2012

School was a bust today, mostly my fault.  I was up way too late last night, slept in and then had a minor family crisis and needed to check in with my family before I started the day.  At 10am I felt all was ok and the crisis was adverted.  

However, as I had been on the phone for the last hour, I had missed my morning Shakeology and was really hungry, so it was straight to my Breakfast Muesli, tasted great and a hardy way to start the day.  However, as it is now approaching noon, my boys are working on writing Christmas cards to their friends (part of their homeschool writing assignment) and in about 40 minutes the  boys off to the local pool for some exercise with their friends.  Luckily, my dear friend Marianna, along with her two kids, also 6 and 8, has agreed to watch my boys  so I can get some work done.  

Then this afternoon I need to bake holiday sugar cookies for my 6 year-old's homeschool co-op group. Then dinner, clean-up, family time and bed time.  So, no real school today. Its one of the great flexibilities of homeschool – I know we’ll make it up later and so its not terrible.  Though I have to confess that I’m not feeling like I have disadvantaged my kids today, that I failed to educate them.  

Somedays I feel like I achieve that precarious balance between Wife-Mom, Mom-Consultant, Teacher-Household Manager. Today is not one of those days.  Last night I read part of a recent blog entry by Poppy Montgomery on the difficulty of finding balance and her challenges as a single mom and actress.  I have an active, reliable (and wonderful) partner to help with the kids (and with my work) but still balance eludes me.  And honestly, I’m not sure I’ll ever achieve what feels like a peaceful balance, possibly in part due to my upbringing, which included a low-dose of perpetual Catholic guilt, or possibly due to the fact that I just have a lot on my plate – wife, household manager (and laborer), mom, homeschool teacher, and consultant.

Meet Candace Bridges: Working mommy blogger (YWA member, past YWA President and current Vice President of Finance (whew!))

With a full-time, round-the-clock job of being a mom AND working as Human Resources Manager for a software company, we don’t know how Candace finds the time to blog, but she does (maybe during nap-time??). Bridges in Austin chronicles the life of The Bridges Family by keeping up with Eli (the newbie).

As all mothers know – not much else comes before, or after, the kids; so although on the surface it’s all about Eli, Candace also touches on balancing a newborn and work (especially when that company is in a growth spurt and has actually become MORE demanding than before maternity leave), traveling with the babe, and the relief of a child-free date night or two. Check on her post, "Back to Reality" on becoming an official working mom.