Priceless

In case you haven’t noticed…I have been extremely busy with work and juggling the day to day aspects of my life. They sold us on these jobs as “work from home” but the times when I am actually home are few and far between. I spend most of my time in my car between sales calls. In the last month alone, I have been to Pittsburgh, Chicago and New York. Crazy right?

Factor in school shopping and getting the boys ready and it has been a crazy month for me. As a working mom, I constantly struggle with making sure that my kids needs are always being met before anything else.

I place my boys at the top of my TO-DO list and everything falls into place after them. I have a lot of friends that don’t agree with me. They put their jobs first, their spouse, etc. In my mind, my job is important but not more than my kids. My husband is extremely important but he is a grown man and can fend for himself if need be. My kids need us to provide a happy and stable household and they can’t do that on their own. They rely on us. I wouldn’t even want my husband to put me over his children. Trust me when I say, if you take care of my boys and are a good father? That takes care of 80% of my personal needs. What can I say? I’m a simple girl.

I think back to when I was a childless woman. My needs were shopping, being cute and having fun. I enjoyed life to the fullest but let’s be frank….it was all about me. There was nothing wrong with that either! That’s what being childless is all about. You should be out enjoying yourself and doing for self.

As the demands of motherhood crept in, I relished taking care of  my boys despite relinquishing all of my selfish time. No more running out to the movies, dinner, blowing an entire paycheck on a trip or shopping. I can’t lie, some of these things were harder for me to let go than others and I struggled with it, still do sometimes. cough*shopping*cough

Now that I am out of the baby phase (*sniff* Tali 2 is getting ready for his first day of Kindergarten in two weeks), I am finally getting a balance back. I have replaced the majority of hanging out with friends once a week with working out and taking care of my health. I have slowed down on the shopping out of other financial needs for our home and our children and instead found small indulgences that I can’t live without and hung on to these as a means of pampering myself when I need some ME time (shout out to coffee shops, pedicures and the occassional trip to Target) to recharge my batteries.

I have grown up a little and shifted my priorities without losing myself in the process. No, I can’t do all of the things I used to and I truly miss that freedom sometimes. However, I do have two boys that need me and love me. They make me laugh at myself and really focus on the world around me. I get to help them grow into responsible young men. I get to experience life through their eyes every single day.

I think I actually made out in this life process. Who needs happy hours and martinis when you come home to cupcakes, family and love? Like they say…it’s Priceless.