Strategic Serendipity

A little over twenty years ago, my friend and I jumped in her car the day after finals and moved to Washington, DC, without a place to live or a job (both of which were remedied within 48 hours of arriving in DC - ahhhh the good old days).  Today I pack up again.  Now I have a legal career I am proud to have served in, a new business in Executive Coaching with certifications in multiple areas, a two-year old son I couldn't be more proud of, and a new chapter ahead. While I will return to DC for work over the next few years, I will have a new home in the heart of the Midwest.  I will miss the friends I have made here but I look forward to renewing old friendships, making new friends, and reconnecting with family I have been away from for too long.  I leave the comfort of having four Starbucks within walking distance and a grocery store in the basement of my condo for the comfort of having both parents within a mile of home.  The nearest Starbucks will be about ...

I ran into a friend who has a newborn last night and she honestly said "this is hard!" I couldn't help but laugh at her honesty and the very mirror of my own daily feelings. Luckily, I was laughing with her. I started thinking about all my amazing mother friends who make one, two, or more look so easy and juggle it with a bunch of things I can't even imagine. I wonder, do they all struggle at one time or another? Judging by the number of popular mommy blogs I have read, I am willing to bet my friend and I are not the only two. But here's the thing, her simple statement made me feel like a weight had lifted off my shoulders. Because it was okay for someone I admire and respect and believe could run the free world if asked to say this is hard. So this is for all those women out there who have struggled at one point in their lives (whether by themselves or with a supportive partner) with that all important "mommy" role. I love you because I know whether ...

When you are childless and go through a break up it is hard.  I remember chocolate ice cream, Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs, and whole weekends spent on my couch.  And then slowly you get back into things, maybe go out for a night on the town with friends or speed dating (preferably combined with a wine tasting).  The entire process is about you and, well, processing what you have gone through. When you go through that break up with a child, however, it is different (still hard).  The process now becomes about making sure your little (or not so little) one is comfortable with the new normal and you are forever tied with "the one that got away" through your child (or children).  What's more, you now are doing most of it on your own (possibly without financial support) and quite frankly, that is draining in a way I can't even begin to explain. No matter what the circumstances of the parting of ways, no matter how amicable or how much of a relief it is, your mi...

This time of year always makes me nostalgic.  While I get to go to class throughout the year and each time is like a mini flashback , there is nothing quite like the build up to the start of a new school year.  A friend of mine published a blog post on those "school" supplies that moms love the most , and I must say, her list (and the instant "Oh yeah I need those!" reaction we all have reading it) make me think that I am not the only one in the start-of-school-envy boat. We all know that kids pick up on what we do even (especially?) when it doesn't match what we say.  So, what are you modeling for your children about lifelong learning? I have a friend whose morning post today was that her daughter asked to start off her first day of school by attending a 6:30 AM sales meeting (celebrating a record sales month) with her mom.  It is easy to see that her second grader sees learning as an integral piece of the pie; that she sees execution as a by-product of tha...

There is a great song called "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins about how children watch and mimic us at our best and at our worst. It was a sweet and funny song until the first time my sweet little toddler said "s$@t" when he couldn't get his duplos to snap together. I had to suppress a small bit of pride that he had used it in the right context and make a split decision about what to do. Since he was 16 months at the time I ignored it and immediately took the word out of my vocabulary. (Since I get excited about every new word, this worked...this time.). What I learned is that he is taking in every single thing I do and say. I started practicing saying please and thank you and encouraging his use of them and he is often the first to say it now when someone holds the door for me while pushing the stroller.  It made me think about developing others. You can tell people to do things until you are blue in the face but if you are not modeling the practice you ...

I feel like I spent the first twenty years of my life listening to my mom telling me to clean up my room and a good portion of the next twenty listening to roommates, officemates, etc. talk about the condition of my home and office.  Since I had my son, I have one room he is allowed to do anything he wants to. At 21 months he is finally figuring out our "put things away" game and I don't have to spend his naps and after he goes to bed cleaning up.  But over the last few months, I've increasingly yearned for a clean desk at work and a clean office, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom at home.  Maybe it is the uncertainty, craziness, and change in my life combined with the increasing number of ideas and goals running through my head, but I just want a place for everything and everything in its place. It doesn't exactly stress me out that it isn't there yet, and I move forward a little every week so I am not overwhelmed with the project.  But it has got me thinking....

Is there anything better for a mental recharge than physical activity?  I hit the jackpot today.  The Friendship Firehouse in Alexandria, Virginia was having an open house.  That means a whole street blocked off and lined with big, red fire trucks and pint-size firefighters.  I don't have a car and it is five miles away so I took a cab there and started the morning with my little pint-size guy.  We explored the reflective surfaces of the hubcaps, the hidey-holes that store supplies, the thick fire hoses that put out fires, and someone even checked out the underside of an ambulance!  After an exciting morning with friends from his class, we were ready to head home.  And that is where my fun began.  A five-mile meandering walk with a quick stop for lunch about half-way while the little guy was napping.  It was a beautiful day.  And as I walked the stress from the week started to melt away.  Not all of it yet, I am guessing that will b...

Country music fans will recognize the title of this post as a line from Sugarland's "Something More."  (If you don't recognize it, it is definitely worth a download.)  What I love about the song is that it is about finding and following your passion.  Living up to everything there is in store for you.  But not in a "fate" type of way, but in a proactive - create your own happiness type of way.   Another song I love for this is "Firework" by Katy Perry.  It challenges you to open the door to the perfect road.   These are just two of the songs I regularly listen to in the morning to get ready for the day.  Consider it a pre-game ritual.   Does music boost your spirit and energy level?  What songs do you listen to to get you inspired?  Do you make it a routine? Something More by Sugarland Firework by Katy Perry Monday, hard to wake up Fill my coffee cup, I'm out the door Yeah, the freeway's standin...

As part of the 31-day blogging challenge I am participating in during July, we are asked to comment on other participants' blogs.  Which means, I am reading the blogs of people I might never have found.  Today I chose to read Lisa Friedt's  A Pocket Full of Rocks .  I loved what she said in her post today about not taking yourself too seriously and being able to laugh at yourself (read the post if you need a good laugh!).  But what struck panic in me was when she said that we are now in the second half of the year.  Yes, I know, it is simple math.  I just hadn't done the math yet. So here we are on July 2, 2013.  How did that happen?  Seriously, how???? As years go, this has been a positive one.  I love my chosen career even if my current job doesn't have the security I would prefer.  I work with caring and amazing people who are weathering the uncertainty better than I am (and more than I give them credit for).  We focu...

You can take away my paycheck but you can't stop me from working!  (Legal Disclaimer #1: I am not working on anything related to any of my government duties.) Let me paint the picture of my morning for you...I slept in, showered leisurely, dropped my son off at daycare just as Miss Rosa brought his second breakfast in at 9:00 AM, wandered across the park to the Starbucks, ordered my Trenta Unsweetened Iced Green Tea and Raspberry Swirl pound cake, had an amazing call about a volunteer position I am so excited about (more later), talked to my mom on the phone, sent out an e-mail to start booking some additional work on my other furlough days that aren't the Friday before a long weekend, started a new fundraising campaign on my Scentsy Family sites ( Scentsy and Velata ), and am sitting here writing this post and it is not even noon yet!  My afternoon will be filled with working on that volunteer project and a Franklin Covey virtual certification.  The Starbuck's has wi-...

Are you the type of person who likes to start one thing, finish it, and move on to the next? If so, I truly admire you! If not, I feel your drive (and sometimes pain) to be in the middle of many multiple projects all at once. People with this quality have to watch out for two major detailers - not finishing anything and losing track of things. Before I got pregnant, I rarely kept a solid calendar and made lists only when I was feeling overwhelmed. Call it mommy-brain or call it exceeding my capacity to remember things (or call it way too much Diet Coke) but now if something exceeds three things I have to make a list. Considering that I am usually juggling multiple types of projects at work, multiple volunteer commitments, multiple home-based businesses, a pile of bills that always seem to add up to more than my income, and raising a 17-month old son this new "rule of three" means everything goes on a list. 1. Consolidated Source for Lists My favorite way to do this...