Work-Life Fit

Last week two of my senior associates gave a presentation to our interns about work-life fit.  The presentation gave a unique perspective to the often heard terms "work-life balance" which implies that work and your life outside of work are held to the same regard, they must be equally balanced.  I found this statement to hit me hard since I've been trying to balance my work-life capacity for the last three years.  It gave me a new theory to look into.  Instead of attempting to balance, I really need to fit work into my life.  And most days I think I am.  

Three weeks from today busy season will be over.  It's about this time every year that I get completely burnt out and tend to lose sight of what's important.  This is about the time that Mike and Lily survive on hot dogs and pizza until April 17 (because who wants to cook on the 16th?)  This is about the time the vacuuming stops and the laundry piles up everywhere.  This is about the time my mom comes to the rescue and takes Lily for a week so Mike gets a break from being super dad.  We're just in survival mode - trying to finish the marathon.  I thought I was going to be more prepared this year - 30 some meals were prepared in my freezer in January, we hired a cleaning lady, and my mom is swooping in next week.  

I wasn't, however, ready for the emotional guilt Lily was going to start laying on - and she's been laying it on thick.  For the most part, my flexible work arrangement has been great.  It's allowed me to be home for dinner nearly every night and to enjoy weekends with Mike and Lily.  But it's had to evolve over the last two and half years.  It used to be easy to get back online after Lily went to bed at 6:30.  Now she goes to bed at 8:00 and by the time I reboot my computer back up it's usually 9:00 and I'm exhausted.  So I've become a morning person - kind of - and have been getting up with Mike at 5:30 to start my workday before Lily gets up.  And I've been staying late at the office one night every other week.  

Until this week.  Yesterday when I dropped Lily off at school she was aware it was my "late night" and asked me what present I was going to bring her.  Racking my brain, I realized that every night I'd been home late I showed up with some sort of treat - cookies, candy, hula hoop, crazy odds and ends left over from recruiting events.  I was starting a bad habit....because I felt guilty for not being home.  Coincidentally, a director in my office circulated some great working mom articles yesterday and I decided this week I would be home.  Today I left work at 4:00 and raced to Lily's tea party at school.  I was anxious because I hadn't sat at my desk all day and my inbox had 32 unread messages when I left but that feeling left immediately when I heard Lily shrieking as I walked through the door.  She couldn't wait to show me the tea party decorations and cookies and hang out with her friends while they drank pink lemonade from tiny tea cups.

So tomorrow when my alarm buzzes at 5:30 and I curse busy season, I'll think about that look on Lily's face this afternoon and remember that I really can do it all.

Lily is THREE!

It's truly unfair how quickly life is flying by.  I wish I could freeze time and keep Lily this age forever - minus the terrible three tantrums that is.

For Lily's third birthday, we opted not to have a party and instead took her to Chicago to pick out her first Bitty Baby at the American Girl store.  I'm not sure we saved any money by doing this but Grandma Sundstrand and I sure had fun reliving my childhood in the store.  Lily was on a mission and once she got her doll wanted to immediately return to the hotel to play with her.  Much to my surprise she didn't want to check out many of the other things - she got her doll and her stroller and she was ready to roll.

I'm disappointed that I didn't take many pictures that weekend but the city was filled with crazy St. Patrick's day partiers and my camera didn't make it out of it's case.  But the weather was beautiful and it was finally starting to feel like spring.  We couldn't have asked for a better weekend in March to spend the day in the windy city.

Picasso

Lily is my project queen.  She loves to craft and create and I'm so thankful her preschool teacher is always coming up with something new.  Recently we've been going through paper like crazy.  Lily will sit with a book of construction paper and have colored on every page in less than 30 minutes.

Two years ago  my parents got Lily an easel for Christmas and she used it a handful of times.  When we moved into our new house, the easel was one of the toys (along with the ball pit) that didn't make the cut and was stuck in the basement.  Last night, as Lily yet again destroyed another book of paper, I asked Mike to find the easel and bring it up.  It was as if it was Christmas all over again.  Lily colored until it was bedtime.

Today she asked if she could paint and I was brave enough to let her go at it.  With the sun streaming through our unclean windows, Lily entertained herself for endless minutes.  I couldn't help but pull out my camera and capture her seriousness.  When I asked her to smile she told me she was busy.

This and That

What a long week it has been.  Work has been busy for both of us, terrible threes are in full force, and our septic system malfunctioned.  There's really nothing better than hearing you have to dig up your whole yard when it's minus 10 degrees out and that it will cost you what you were planning to put towards a down payment on a boat.

Lily has been crazy - both a good crazy and a bad crazy.  She can recount her entire day for us, tell us what her favorite things are, tell us who got in trouble at school, boss Diesel around, etc. etc.  She's also been testing both us and her teachers.  She somehow managed to dunk her entire head in the sink at school this week.  And she's quickly losing privileges at home when she's not listening.  But overall, she can still be a pretty sweet little one.

She's been very into cooking.  Mike is grooming her for Top Chef Junior.  She helps us make dinner every night, loves to bake and measure out all the goods herself, and loves loves loves to do the dishes.  If she keeps this up, I'll be able to get rid of my cleaning service and have an in home chef.

In other exciting news, we got to visit with my cousin's new baby this weekend.  Lily was so excited to get over to Aunt Karrie's and see baby Maddie until she realized mommy was going to hold her.  It took her a few minutes to get used to the idea and by the time we were ready to leave she wanted to take Maddie home with us.  If only she knew how her world would be turned upside down if we did.

I made a rash decision this week and chopped off all my hair.  I had a mini panic attack when my stylist asked me if I was ready but I'm getting used to it now.  I packaged up 11.5 inches and put them en route to an organization called Children with Hair Loss based here in Michigan.