Taking Care of Business

One of the things that I struggle with being a mom is how to take care of myself. It’s so cliché-sounding but after taking care of the Babes, some days I am too tired to do anything for myself. However, it’s also clichéd-sounding that I have to put the oxygen mask on myself before putting on my Babes’ because how good will I be if I am lying in a heap unable to breathe? All clichéd, but all true (at least for me).

With my first, I totally didn’t get this. I thought that if I was tired, I should just sleep or watch TV or relax. All of that is good, but I slept A LOT because I was always tired. In retrospect, I probably had PPD or even PTSD. Either way, I did learn that doing something for me that wasn’t baby related or sleeping also fills the tank. With my second, I get this. Sometimes I forgo a nap or going to bed early because I like that feeling of filling my tank for the next day.

Last night was one of those nights where I was so tired, but I pushed on to do something I wanted to do. I went to a new writer’s group with some new writer friends. It was great! I feel like this group was a good match. When I told them I blogged, I braced myself for the eye roll, the blank stare, or the back-handed compliment of “Oh I wish I had time to blog, but I am too busy. It must be nice to have that kind of time.” No, these people got it! We may blog for different reasons, but they didn’t fluff it off like I was an idiot. The moderator was very good, and I feel like there are things I could learn from these people. I feel the more groups like this that I attend and the more blogging that I do, I am really, truly embarking on a new career. In fact, it really hit home for me when the moderator said something along the lines of me starting a new career and how I should make sure that I ask my husband for help to make my writing a priority. I don’t know why it took a stranger to say something like that to me to finally solidify the feeling of starting a new career, but it did. And it felt awesome!

I also feel that when I have been taking time to write and giving myself a night off from the bedtime grind, I feel like I am a happier and have more patience which makes the Babes happy which then makes everyone happy. So I think I am going to shift my priority on this whole writing thing from “a want to” to “a need to.”

So there, Friends, I am taking care of business!

And for those who were wondering if I finished my story, I did! It feels so good to say that, too! For the next two weeks, I am going to write my query letters and get everything in order to send it out. Yeaa!