Someone asked me the other day how I have my “stuff” so together.
I guess it looks that way. Sometimes it feels that way. And sometimes it doesn’t. AT ALL.
It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of prayer but when the stars align, I feel pretty good about how I juggle it all.
Let me start at the beginning:
Matt and I were married for 6 1/2 years before we had our first child. During that time I usually worked 2 jobs while I went back to school to finish my teaching degree. I was always busy. And because we didn’t have any kids we were constantly on the go on the weekends – either traveling or getting together with friends.
We moved to my hometown about a year before we got pregnant. Matt took a job that literally worked him to the bone. Some weeks he worked 120 hours and that’s no exaggeration. I stopped teaching when Kate was born, which in hindsight was the best thing I could have done. I had severe post partum depression, post partum anxiety, post partum ocd, and post traumatic stress disorder. (That was a fun diagnosis to receive from a therapist.) I don’t think I could have gone back to work if I tried. Matt was still working like crazy. Having one child really threw me for a loop. I went to therapy. I took medication. This mothering thing was HARD.
What got me moving every day in those early days when Kate literally cried for a minimum of 7 hours a day was getting dressed first thing in the morning. And I don’t mean at 9 am. I mean, we were both dressed as soon as we finished her first nursing session before even coming down the stairs. It helped me to “officially” start the day. Then we would leave the house. Whether we went to my breastfeeding group, Target (oh the money I spent at Target those days!), the bank, Gymboree class, or the mall, I made sure we got out of the house every morning. I am the type of person, that if I stay in my jammies and sit on the couch, I know I won’t be too productive.
When Caroline was born 14 months later the tradition continued. Technically now, I had 2 babies and a husband who was working over 100 hours a week. To be completely honest, I was flying solo at this parenting thing. And I handled it all rather well, considering. You see, I work best when I am busy. And 2 babies will keep you very busy especially when they are at two different developmental stages.
Now, technically, you shouldn’t get pregnant if you are dealing with post partum issues. But I knew that if we didn’t have another baby soon, I might never want another one. Amazingly enough, adding Caroline to the family was a breeze for me. Juggling naps was an adjustment but I was finally starting to feel so blessed and comfortable in my skin as a mother.
Two babies made me busy. And being busy made me get organized. I started meal planning, scheduling, and organizing.
And then I started my business. You see, I was so happy to be a mom of 2, but at times, I felt like I was ONLY a mom of two. I mean, I just didn’t feel like a person anymore. Do you know what I mean? Where everything you do is for everyone else and all of a sudden you realize you aren’t doing the things you loved to do anymore? If you’re a mother will barely any time on your hands too, you might want to look at sites that can help you set up a website so you could potentially earn money from it in the future, look into this guide site for a review on a website hosting service that’s recommended by many bloggers.
That’s where Sew Curly was born. I needed to do something for myself that wouldn’t necessarily take time away from my children. Something that was flexible but allowed me to be creative and still be smart.
The most common question I get asked is, “How do you do it?” My first instinct is to ask “What?” but then someone will give me that look and sigh. You know that look, don’t you? Maybe you’ve given it or had it given to you. It’s a hard look to describe, but it’s one of curiosity & wonder. Honestly? I don’t deserve it.
While it might appear to others I have it all together, my house is really a mess, my kitchen floors need to be steam mopped, there are crayons on the floor of the girls’s rooms that I need to make sure someone picks up or else the dog will eat them and start pooping in different colors. Our hall bath needs to be cleaned, I have cobwebs in our 2nd story windows, and there’s a mountain of dust collecting on the girls’s windowsills. (Remind me to give them the duster tomorrow, okay?)
I’m joining The Nester in her 31 days of blogging. For the next 31 days, I’ll be blogging about just how I do it. For me this means all the little things I do to keep our life organized and running smoothly. From running my business to running our house. Including making sure I spend enough time with my girls. I’ll share recipes and post about the new line coming into the shop in a few weeks. I’ll also be sure to share what I do that doesn’t work. Because, you know, life doesn’t always work out the way you plan.
And if I’m being completely honest? If I actually blog every day for 31 days I’ll be amazed. Blogging is not easy, y’all. It’s a lot of work and is time consuming. There’s lots of reasons why people struggle to get their content read, and why people get instagram followers with upleap to help tunnel people to their blogs. Not to mention the time spent sitting down and organizing what to write and when to post it. Fair warning though, if there’s ever a conflict between taking the time to blog or taking the time to snuggle up one of our kids, the kids win hands down. Just an FYI. But keep asking me and reminding me. I love sharing my life with all of you.
And this is how we do it….
xoxo
–k
