I've not been blogging much in the last few weeks because my priorities have shifted. The Sonish arrived mid June and we have been having a ball! I simply can't get enough of this kid so that means family time has been top priority with work to follow. Everything else seems to have fallen by the wayside. For the first time in my life, that's perfectly fine with me.
As women, we are always in a struggle to achieve balance. People will ask how I am or how work is going and my response is always, "Oh you know how it is. Always juggling and trying to balance everything." I'm so used to juggling everything that I think it's normal. It's some sort of badge of honor that I wear. It's been my way of saying, "I am Super Woman! Hear me roar!" all while wearing cute shoes and not smudging my eyeliner. So I decided to put everything but family and the basic work requirements on hold for the 3 weeks the Sonish is in town. I learned a lot.
First thing I learned was that life will go on even when I say no to a few things. That's right, life can move on with out me. Cross country parenting, as we do in our home, means that we have concentrated blocks of time with our son. He visits a couple of times a year for a few weeks. Thank God for texting and cell phones the rest of the year. As we prepared for this visit, we scheduled our lives so that family is top priority, work second, and the rest of the world is put on hold for 3 weeks. It turns out life really did go on without us. The world didn't stop turning just because we didn't attend a board meeting or go out to dinner at our normal spot one night. We get so caught up in our routine that we often think we can't change it or something terrible will happen. Since the world hasn't crumbled and no one died, I'd say its a safe bet the world will go on.
The second thing I learned was that most people will understand. We work for two of the best employers in the universe who value us and the time we need to spend as a family. The work still gets done on time but we are allowed to arrange our schedules accordingly to make this time a priority. Everyone else understands as well. Friends certainly respect that we need time as a family right now and are happy to schedule time for later in the summer. Not one person has questioned our lack of availability during our time with our son. I'm sure that has something to do with the quality of people we choose to be friends with and work for.
The final thing I learned is that i'm a little lost when I'm not juggling and balancing everything. I'm a planner by nature & love to organize. I freely admit I've designed our crazy busy lives on purpose much because we both get board with the same routine every day. This time to step back and focus on family has made me realize I thrive on the juggling and balancing of our lives. I get a high from knowing our schedule off the top of my head and always having something fantastic planned. While I'm never going to relax and completely live in the moment, I'm learning there's more to life than all this juggling.
Ironically, this time has taught me what I already knew. I'm blessed beyond measure by these amazing people I'm fortunate enough to call family.