I scanned the clothes in my closet and realized that I had nothing to wear. A friend had invited me to an event she organized for her new employer – one of those corporate breakfasts that purportedly allows you to enjoy the best of two worlds: network with a great group of people and absorb words of wisdom from an esteemed group of panelists, and still get to your desk job at a decent hour.
Which is all well and good when you normally wake up at the crack of dawn to go to work, but challenging when you no longer need to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to work. Happy that my friend thought of me and grateful for the invitation, I convinced myself that the event would be good for me – you never know who might require freelance writing services. The girls were off from school and I enlisted Chloe to babysit Sophie. I rolled out of bed and hustled to get ready because I was already running late. And that’s when I opened my closet doors and froze.
How do you make time? I thought I’d be making a lot of time after I quit my job last year. Hell, I’d be freeing up at least 60 hours a week to do lots of things. Making time to raise my kids, making time to train a puppy, making time to whip myself into shape, making time to take on some consulting gigs, making time to write…
There are three ways of looking at it. Cup half-empty: I’m either one-half of 90 or five years shy of 50. Cup half-full: I’m celebrating the third anniversary of my 15th birthday (credit to my friend for that one).
I started www.pinkmenot.com six years ago, when Chloe was just shy of seven years old and Sophie had just celebrated her second birthday. That’s an eternity in kid years, but more like a blip on the radar screen for us adults.
Truffle the monster puppy has been with us for almost five weeks now. And I’m finally starting to feel like equilibrium is returning to our household. He’s a bit calmer, a bit smarter and a much better listener than he was even two weeks ago.
Chloe knows that I want to make a go of writing. We’ve talked at length about the concept for the kids’ book that’s been percolating for several months in my ever-distracted brain. She also knows that I’ve been working on all manner of projects while procrastinating on the one that matters most to her (or at least the one that she finds most compelling).
The good news is that the girls are settling into their new routines. Busy at school, busy with homework, busy with activities and busy with friends. The bad news is that, despite my best efforts, my intended routine evades me. I have lots of time blocked off in my calendar to write, but the kind of writing I plan to do during those hours remains stubbornly trapped in my brain. I’ll get it out eventually.
I’ve been wearing the Chief Mom Officer hat for five whirlwind months. It’s been an amazing five months on three continents. I wake up every morning thinking about my experience so far and I feel lucky. So very lucky.
It seemed a little disingenuous to celebrate Independence Day today. Although we had a perfectly lovely time at our town’s lively July 4th parade, my mind kept wandering to the endlessly entertaining saga that has become the Snowden scandal.
