My son’s preschool has been shut down for the last two days for Teacher In-Service.  The new “school year” begins after Labor Day and the teachers use this time to prepare their classrooms for the switch.  I know that I am lucky that my son goes to a year round school that is open most of the year.  With the standard holidays, four inservice days a year (two in the Fall and two in the Spring), and a week off between Christmas and New Year’s, I know that I am lucky.  I rarely have to find alternative arrangements. 

Still every year, the inservice days creep up on me and I find myself desperately making alternate arrangements.  Okay, maybe not desperate.  But this heat and forgetting to mark the days in my calendar is making me just a teeny bit crabby about the situation.  When I was complaining to a neighbor with school age kids that I was struggling to stay on task while working from home and having a four year old that was ready to break out of the house, she quickly told me to get used to it.  She pulled out the school calendar and showed me that in our local school district there is an inservice day at least once every month.  Throw in Christmas Break, Ski week and Easter break and a whole slew of other days - and we are talking almost 45 days off during the school year.

I practically had a panic attack about all those days off and my kid won’t be starting Kindergarten for another year.

Read the rest of this entry

This evening, I came across the latest issue of BusinessWeek, a issue being touted as special because it’s the first issue “created in collaboration with readers.”  With the help of surveys, blogs and polls, the magazine identified the problems its readers were facing at work, and attempted to find the answers.

Interesting.

I quickly flipped to the article entitled “How to Get a Life and Do Your Job,” and tucked in.  I mean, if there was ever a person who was having a hard time achieving work-life balance these days, I am that person.  I’ve been working almost twelve-hour days lately, and feel like I’m neglecting my husband and daughter.  Something has to give, and I couldn’t wait to read the article to learn what quick tips I could do to manage my life a little better.

Now before I go any further, let me just say that some of the tips submitted by readers are reasonable and logical.  “Switch off the e-mail and the Blackberry,” says one wise employee.  “My wife and I have achieved a great work-life balance through strategic planning,” explained another.  The ideas presenting by both are worth reading.  That said, do you know what almost half of the contributing readers said that they did to achieve their work-life balance?  Do you?

Read the rest of this entry

On Thursday, I eagerly showed up for my son’s four year old check-up with his pediatrician 10 minutes early.  I was feeling a tad bit guilty that it took me over 2 months to schedule the check-up, but I wasn’t going to let that get me down.  My son and I had a pleasant morning.  I was able to attend a 1-hr conference call without relying on any TV to quietly occupy my son.  We ate breakfast together.  I had even managed to get out of my sweatpants and put on a little makeup.  And now I had arrived 10 minutes early to the appointment when I usually arrive ten minutes late.  Honestly, I felt like I deserved my own Gold Medal in Work-Life Balance. 

Too bad the nurse quickly burst my “I’ve really got my act together” bubble. 
Read the rest of this entry

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling.  A LOT of traveling.  While my most recent trip away was a 3-day getaway with some girlfriends, most of my travel has been work- or career-related.

Luckily, I’m married to a man who is a really engaged father.  While I’m away, I have no worries that Alex is going to get all the attention and care she would if I were home.  Marcus is a wonderful dad, and she’s in great hands.

Thing is?  Since coming home, I’ve noticed that things are different.  It’s subtle, of course:  Alex and I continue to have a very close relationship.  But I’ve noticed that unlike six months ago, Marcus is now as effective as I am in calming tears.  She’s as likely to come running to him as she is to me.  She’s not as stuck-to-my-side as she used to be.

Read the rest of this entry

One of my dearest friends, Holly, is about to embark on the role of a lifetime - motherhood.  I am so excited for her.   It’s been a blast planning her baby shower and answering the only-another-working-mom-would-know sort of questions.  Like is that $300 pump really worth it?  YES!

Holly has already decided that she will be returning to work.  Just like most of us, the choice was already made for Holly.  She simply cannot afford to not work full-time.  I remember feeling the same way when pregnant with my son - wishing that I had the option of not having to work. 

I want so much to share not so much my wisdom but my experiences with Holly about juggling motherhood and career.  I’ve made a little list for her:

Read the rest of this entry

This is one of my favorite meals to make because it is so.o.o.o.o. simple AND my kid can help the whole way through.  This recipe dates back to my Girl Scout days when we made this at a sleepover.  So easy.  You can actually put your kids to work and they won’t even notice that it is they who are cooking the meal. 

English Muffin Mini-Pizzas

Ingredients:

• Engligh Muffins (my preference is either wheat or sourdough, but choose whatever you like).  I typically count 1.5 muffins per adult, 1 muffin for kids, and .5 muffin for toddlers. Hungry dads and teens can easily eat 2+ muffins.
• Shredded Cheese - I mix one pack of pre-shredded mozzarella with a hunk of cheddar I shred myself
• Tomato Sauce - use canned pizza, canned pasta, or homemade sauce - whatever you have on hand will work
• Your Favorite Pizza fixings - whatever you like on your pizza.  This is where the kids can customize their pizzas. Just remember that these are mini-pizzas so a little goes a long way.

 Instructions:

Slice the English Muffins in half the same way you would for breakfast.  If your kids are helping (and you want to stretch the time), you can have them individually toast the muffins in your toaster.  If you are pressed for time, throw them under the broiler for a couple of minutes until browned.

Turn the oven on to 450 degrees.

Slap on a spoonful of sauce on top of each toasty muffin.  Add your cheese and your toppings.  To save yourself the headache, let your kids customize their own pizzas.  Let them pile up on the veggies.

Tip: to remember which pizza belongs to each family member, have them write their name on the foil next to each pizza that they have created.

 
Cook in the 450 degree overn for 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted and lightly browned. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.  I typically serve mine with a fresh fruit smoothie or veggie sticks.

This is a great meal to go with a family movie night - and will cost you a fraction of the price of getting a pizza delivered.

On Monday, I went to work, as did every employee in the Houston area, wondering if my company was going to be open for business on the following day.  In the previous twenty-four hours, Tropical Storm Edouard had appeared in the Gulf of Mexico, and while it showed little possibility of strengthening into a hurricane, all indications were that it was headed straight for the Houston metropolitan area.

Predictably, my daughter’s preschool announced it would be closed on Tuesday, the day Edouard was scheduled to make landfall.  Similar, my husband’s employer announced the same.  Great, I thought to myself, we’ll all be home together as a family when the storm hits.  Then Outlook pinged its announcement of an incoming email:

“We will remain open tomorrow,” the e-mail said, “however, your safety is of utmost importance.  We leave it to your discretion as to whether you feel you can make it safely to the office.”

You know where this is going, right?

As it happened, management had scheduled an all-day meeting for Tuesday, and further, made it clear that the meeting wouldn’t be canceled.  I knew that there was no way I was going to get out of that meeting.  And so, I went.

It turns out that Tropical Storm Edouard was really a non-event as far as my part of town was concerned: while there was a lot of rain, I made it to my meeting without any fear of danger, my husband was home with my daughter, and all was well.  But still, I have to admit that I was perturbed I felt pressured to do what it took to brave the weather.  I can’t help but wonder if “your safety is of utmost importance” was nothing more than lip service.

And the fact that the meeting was 12-hours long, and one of the managers made a joke of his expectation that we “consider the company our spouse” didn’t improve my mood much, either.

The number one question I get asked when people find out that I work full-time (the majority of which is outside of the home) is “How do you do it all?”  I always have a lot on my plate.  I work a high-stress job in the high-stress field of software, hold a position on my son’s preschool Board of Directors, write regularly on four different blogs, and cook a meal every night.  Somewhere in between I do my best to find ample quality time to spend with my son whether it is fighting for a flexible schedule or taking a afternoon off to head to the zoo.  I’m like a duck who looks calm and collected on the surface but whos legs are frantically moving underneath. 

Sometimes I think I do too good of a job at making it look easy.  I won’t easily admit how many times I’ve cried in the bathroom at work from missing my son, times I’ve lashed out at my family for an issue related to work, or had felt so overwhelmed that all I can do it sit on the couch and veg out. It’s much easier to look like the calm, collected Super Mom Project Manager than to admit that I don’t have my act together.  Most days I am flying my the seat of pants with my blackberry in one hand and my child’s hand in the other.

The truth is, I don’t “do it all.”  We have a regular housekeeper, we have lots of family in our area that support us tremendously, I haven’t stepped foot in a gym in two years.  I’m hardly “doing it all.”  There are moments where I feel that my juggle between work and home is as balanced as a house of cards - all it will take it one gust of wind for it all to fall apart. 

I’ve come to the realization that I don’t have to do it all.  I’m just doing it.  “It” being whatever needs my attention most whether its my son, my project, the unpaid bills on the counter, the fridge that needs stocking, or that laundry that needs laundering.

Well maybe not the laundry.  That, my friends, rarely get my attention.