Hi Daily Feelers,
It’s Thursday and I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. Whew. Since my last blog, we’ve adjusted too many schedules to get into a new flow of life that I’m already excited about Fall Break and Christmas. It’s only September. This year has felt like a daze. Every year, I pick a word to focus on. 2019 is Fluidity. So, let me just say that I am like a rushing river at this point in life. Whew, the kind you go kayaking down. I don’t mind it, but I may have lost a paddle somewhere back there.
So, the last blog, I shared my ER scare. I vowed to slow down, and I talked about the 3 areas that I was going to decrease stress: work life, mom life, and love life. I’m happy to report that most of these goals are gaining traction. However, I’m not sure our original plan was the best one.
What these goals HAVE done was give me breathing room, something I didn’t know I needed. Yes, the schedules of school, work, and self-care are changing daily. Yes, you are correct. They didn’t necessarily give me downtime as I’d hoped. Matter of fact, I’ve not slowed down much at all. I’ve just changed the things that I am busy with. So, I kinda haven’t done anything I said I was going to do in my last blog. Sorry guys. Even the best of intentions can get caught up in the realities of life. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong. Or terrible. Or even out of control. It just means I guessed at what the goal should be, and now I know more clearly what it really is. So I’m gonna recap each goal and tweak them just a hair.
- Work Life – I’m not working for a big client at the moment, so I’m available to focus on our business more closely from home while the kids are at school. Things are steady. I have tons of work to do managing our jobs, so I’ve been thankful for this change. We do not have a nanny now. So, intermittently, I am doing laundry while dictating an email about inquiries and quotes. It doesn’t pay a day rate. That’s different. But totally ok.
- Mom Life – The kids go to two different schools. Ollie is 8:30 drop off. Sam is 9:30am. So it’s a race around town playing Lyft but it gets done. After school, both kids can stay and play until 4pm. Some days, Ollie is good to go. Some days, it’s too much. Cool thing, it’s a chance for his old classmates to see how much he’s improved in SPED. We think that’s rad. Ollie’s social skills are improving daily and I am so glad I can be available to help him hit HIS goals. ABA Therapy will start soon. We have an aid that comes twice a week to work with the kids and give me a hand, courtesy of The Lanterman Regional Center, the program Ollie was accepted into when he was diagnosed with ASD. She’s so nice. All in all, it’s a lot but it’s a good thing. I’m thankful for their support. It’s given me so much hope. I pray all moms with special needs kiddos can find similar advocates. I see so much progress, and we are just getting started.
- Love Life – this is the goal that hasn’t changed. I’m proud of my spouse. He and I had a plan and together, this area is exactly where we need to be. Our 7th wedding anniversary is soon. We’ve got 9 years total under our belt. Some days, it’s easy. Some days, it’s absolutely crazy. One thing’s for sure, any relationship that lasts is really just two people who keep sitting down at the table, coming up with new strategies together, then giving it a go. Now, we know. So, yea.
Now, back to breathing room. That’s the title of this blog, right? As you can see, I don’t have a ton of breathing room, do I? Well, literally, no. However, imagine me trying to do all that above WHILE working 60-70hrs, outside my home. I did it for 11 years…and you can bet, if my family needed me to do it again I’d dive right in. But at this VERY moment, there are more important things to do. So when I look at it like this, I can appreciate the recent hand life has dealt me and focus my “breathing room” on the things that give me the most hope in life. My family.
Look, family isn’t perfect. Not one of them looks anything like anyone else’s either. Some are small. Some are large. Some are cool. A lot are complicated. We all have our strategies to make it work, but I bet we all struggle through them in hopes of the same outcome, to be happy.
In my own pursuit of happiness, I’ve sat down at that table to strategize and been all by myself. It happens occasionally. But you know what, I stayed true to my heart as often as I could and day by day, those seats have filled back up with people who are on my level and WANT to help. It’s not magic. It’s not fate. It’s breathing room. Use it to reshuffle your deck when life gets hard. Then, just give it another go.
Good luck out there.
The Phoenix
JB McCann has worked in “The Biz” for almost a decade, yet she’s somehow managed to keep her feet firmly on the ground. Her altruistic spirit aims to evoke your Inner Phoenix and encourage readers to take the difficult leaps in life, so you can continue to grow.