Some days I'm running full force, non-stop and feeling pretty darn close to SuperWoman. Other days ... well, other days I'm lucky to make it all the way to bedtime without wanting to just curl up in the fetal position.
My job during the day is demanding. It's mentally exhausting and, as of late, filled with meetings, deadlines, performance reviews, policy creations, jumping in and taking over staff responsibility to allow for vacation requests. I'm THAT woman ... the one who is the "Type-A", the one who says, "no, really, I can handle it." And I am that woman who takes on way too many tasks because it will take too long to teach someone else and honestly, I'm really flipping good at multitasking. Not bragging ... just saying, I truly have it down to an art. Thinking about it, I'm not sure when I became that way, but I remember really being able to define that skill when I worked in the Emergency Room at the main campus hospital for the Health System I work for. 12-hour shifts from 7pm to 7am ... running all night in a Level I Trauma Center taking in everything from the "I just want a bed and a meal" to the "level I trauma ETA 3 minutes!" I perfected the ability to jump from one thing to another and while doing one of them, I was able to start the next.
Or .. perhaps it goes back to starting my entire working career as a waitress and then bartender. Being able to work the entire floor even on a busy Friday night and come out of it without breaking a sweat. Expertly weaving in and out and making one trip of the floor to address each and every table.
I guess we all become a combination of our life experiences ... and I think our ability to take those life experiences and really refine the good ones and weed out the bad ones becomes an art form in and of itself. I've never claimed to live a perfect life, however I can claim to being able to steer clear of the bad decisions more often than not in my 'old' age, simply because, I've been down the other fork in the road ... and this chick is NOT going backwards!
During the weekdays it's a long haul for my husband and I. We both work full time; opposite shifts. This way our 5 1/2 year old is not having to do the before/after school thing and we can save the outrageous prices of daycare. (Seriously, have you priced it lately?? The before/after school program at my daughter's school for just ONE day a week is $60/week. That's $240/month! For ONE day a week for 1 hour after school.)
I start my day at 5:20am. Up, dressed and out the door to be at work at 6:30am. For the first 30 minutes of my work day I actually have peace. No one at my desk with questions and hardly anyone in the office yet. It's a little slice of heaven. Especially when you haven't even had a first cup of caffeine. Just sayin'. However the crunch of the day is soon upon me and before I know it, it's time to leave. Then it's a mad dash home to get there in time for my husband to leave for work and for me to take charge of the LIttle Miss.
Between getting my chores done around the house, cooking dinner, quickly buzzing through my emails and social media that I've not been able to do all day, possibly getting a network TV show favorite in, cleaning up the house for the FINAL time of the night, the bath and bedtime ritual for Little Miss and then getting to squeeze in some Scentsy business .... I'm lucky to have my head hit the pillow by 11pm. On a good night.
So ... how do I do that and NOT be curled up in the fetal position every single night?? Well, I'm about to share the 7 little things that I do to get myself (and my sanity!) through the day.
7. My iPhone.
Yep. Siri is literally my Personal Assistant. She schedules all my bill payments throughout the month, reminds me of my grocery store list, blocks out reminders for my Scentsy business work, keeps me on track with my marketing and social media branding, and of course, reminds me of the important things like, "Mom's birthday" or "Don't forget about the Leadership Seminar scheduled for Tuesday," you know, so I don't blindly just drive to the office that day instead of across town to the Convention Center .... (no, that's NEVER happened. HA!) I seriously take full advantage of the brain in my Smart Phone. Without it I would constantly be wondering if I paid the credit card bills on time, or if the water bill is due this week or next week and when the dentist appointments are. Yes, a planner is all fine and good ... but does it make a noise when it's trying to remind you to do something you scheduled?? I think not.
6. My Lunch break at Work.
This is seriously one of my most coveted things during the week. Why?? Well, I think I covered the whole, 'my job is mentally exhausting' part, right? And the part where I have no decompress time between work and jumping in to do my evening duties as Mom while my husband works. My lunch break is a whole 30-45 minutes that I can sit. I can mentally recharge. I can READ A BOOK. I can check Facebook or ... on a really good day - do some pinning on Pinterest. It's a time in the day where I escape into the corner of the building and just .... BE.
5. Happy Texts.
Yes, my husband and I have fun ... even when we are apart. If he knows my day is going downhill, he'll send me a funny picture, a cute YouTube video he knows I'll like, or something as simple as, "You're awesome." It's seriously one of the best ways to keep my sanity in check. And I love him for it.
4. My Heating Pad.
Oh, Heating Pad, how I love thee!! So I have this whole Disk Degeneration Disease in my back and need at least one back surgery. Who's got time for that?! I have lived with it for many years so I almost consider myself to be have a pretty high tolerance for the daily pains. However ... stress is a major trigger for my back pain because my whole body is tense and tight and it just exacerbates the pain I already have. After the chores are done and Little Miss is happily coloring and watching Netflix ... I have a nice 30 minute window to sit with my heating pad and watch the nightly news. As soon as that heat hits my back ... I can start to take those deep cleansing breaths and get in a little bit of relief.
3. Playing with Little Miss.
Yep. Sometimes you gotta take your perspective down a notch or two and look at it from a child's point of view. She absolutely loves to color so most times we color, sometimes we play the Match card game and other times we dance it out. Yep. The Pandora App will get switched on the Xbox One and we will dance it out! Crazy, fun, shake your hair, bounce around kind of dancing that leaves you feeling euphoric.
2. Balance the Happy with the Rest.
I'm a nice little ball of stress most weeks due to my work, but I have this really awesome home business in my Scentsy business. It's a job, but it's one that makes me smile just thinking of it. It's the job where I can be ME and I get to create the atmosphere and just have FUN. I chat with people about the product and their love for it, I add people to my team and get to know a new 'family' in them ... it just makes me happy. And you have to have some happiness to balance out the stress; if you don't, you will only be left with the stress and that, my friends, is when you find yourself curled up in the fetal position!
1. De-Gig From the Day.
This is a term my husband has always used since I met him. "I need to de-gig from work," as he plays an hour of GTA5 instead of going to bed when he gets home from work. It took me awhile to understand it, but once I did ... I totally OWNED IT. After everything is done for the day, my house is clean again, Little Miss is having sugar plums dancing through her dreams, my quirky need to lock, re-lock, and double check the entire house before escaping to my bedroom. And my bed. Oh, how I adore my bed!! My husband and I finally, yes, FINALLY bought a new bed, (we were probably ten years overdue) and for as many years as we put it off, all I can say is: we were stupid. A good, comfy, supporting bed is the most heavenly thing ever. So, when the day is done and the house is quiet I retreat to my bed. I have two Scentsy warmers in there with only relaxing scents and softly glowing light shining and the ambiance is just perfect. Some nights I just lay there and enjoy the quiet. Others I might hop on Pinterest until my eye lids get heavy, and others when I might do a Netflixing binge before closing my eyes. It's all "mindless entertainment" but it settles me. It relaxes me. It keeps my mind from thinking of the 72 things I forgot to do during the day at work and how I probably should have done that load of laundry tonight and that I don't want to forget to grab my headphones off my home office desk so I'll have them for work tomorrow, and 'oh - did I lock the front door?' Yea ... my mind is one of THOSE. The ability to allow myself to just de-gig from the day is better than anything else I could give myself.
All in all, it's about balance. About getting hit with the punches, but learning to dodge some of them. My happiness can come from the important people in my life that I most care about, a heating pad to calm my nerve endings, or simply doing a little Netflixing at the end of the day. Yen and Yang. Stress and happiness. Anxiety and relaxation.
At the end of the day I am blessed to have the opportunity to have all this hustle and bustle in my life. The hustle my husband and I do each and every week allows us to have two full time incomes, plus my part time Scentsy income. We can give our family and kids the things they need and some of the things they just "have to have!" And I am peaceful in knowing that my kids see us hard working and pushing for the life we want because I don't want them to live in the fairy tale that life is easy and handed to you. That you can't just rely on other people to do the things you could be doing for yourself. If you want something; you work for it. And if you want it bad enough ... you'll find the time to make it happen. We are making little people here ... and they need direction and strong influences in their life.
At the end of the day you just have to have a little more happiness than you do stress. And that, my friends, is perfect balance.
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