Hi there! I’m April from Life Between Lunch Breaks where I occasionally rarely blog from time to time about being a working mom. I’m a wife to my college sweetheart, a mom to a 2.5-year-old independent little lady and the sweetest 1-year-old little man you ever did meet. I’m a marketing professional who loves Jesus, enjoys binge watching TV shows, party planning and a good hard cider. The lovely ladies from The Dainty Details asked me to guest blog today and I was happy to oblige!
With the New Year holiday and celebrations this upcoming weekend I’ve been thinking about 2016 as whole--- this past year has been a growing year for me as a wife and mother. Here are a few gems I’ve learned over the past year:
1. You think you’re tired and that one kid is such a handful until number two comes along. When we had our daughter, I had this notion that I couldn’t do ANTYHING unless she was napping or sleeping that all my attention should be focused on her. I also thought that one child was such a handful, that my time was stretched so thin between mom duties, being a wife, household chores, etc. that I couldn’t be more tired and then we had the Coop man. Two kids are literally life-changing my friends. You don’t know busy, sleep deprived or the easiness of one child until you have two kids but you don’t know it until it actually happens.
2. The sheer volume of stuff I can get done now that I’m a parent is insane. I had a conversation with some friends a few weeks ago about how it used to take all weekend to just clean the house and now I can get the house in working order, fold a load of laundry and load the dishwasher all during one nap time frame. I think I {and all other women} became wonder-woman when that tiny human exited your body.
3. As a working mom, leave the office at the office. Now I know that being a stay at home mom is a full time job, it’s a job I’ve experienced since I’ve always been a working mother and I probably never will. What I do know is that I work two full time jobs, one is as a marketing professional by day and the other is as a homemaker and wife to my husband and mom to two tiny humans. My husband wonders where my brain is all the time, it’s going in about 50 different directions thinking about: my clients, am I getting a bonus, dinner, what groceries we need, taking the bottles away from Cooper because he’s one now, did I handle that client situation incorrectly earlier today, plans that weekend, when is nap time, who needs laundry done, did the dog get fed, is Cree going through a growth spurt will she need new clothes. Don’t get me wrong, I love the craziness and I wouldn’t trade it for anything but it can be very tiring at times and I’ve had to learn to balance it. Leave work thoughts behind when I’m home and focus on what matter most, my role as wife and mom.
4. You MUST make your spouse a priority. When you first have a baby, all you think about it is that baby and sometimes your spouse takes a backseat. You have to learn to balance it as a wife and mother. It’s taken some time for me to get this but our house is much happier when we get to have some quality time together because after all he was the priority before the kids. We try to get out of the house for a date at least once a month, go on parent-only vacations, watch our DVR shows together after the kids go to bed and give each other a break every few weeks for some alone time recharging with our friends. We can and are better parents when we make our marriage a priority.
I don’t know about you but I don’t know normally make resolutions per say for the New Year but I do have some goals I’d like to accomplish during 2017:
1. De-clutter our house and simplify. I want to get rid of the excess stuff in our house, we still have a ton of baby stuff, clothes the kids have grown out of--- this is all taking up space in our house and I want to simplify our home.
2. Blog More. I want get back into blogging more frequently as writing is a passion of mine, it’s a great stress relief outlet and I need to have more extracurricular activities other than watching tv.
3. Volunteer at Church. Pre-Kids I volunteered at church with bringing in food for the volunteer team and I’d like to get back to doing something at church more so with Children’s church though. This kind of goes back to the things I’ve learned this year about time but I have more time and I should use it to help further the Kingdom.
I hope you have a great New Years celebration, hug the ones you love and if you’re living that #momlife go get your nails done and have a cold one because you’re doing great momma!
(If you would like to guest post on our blog then we would love that! -xoxo Dana)
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