That First Year

Tonight I hosted a Mary Kay party at my house. As we soaked our feet, we chatted. And as we munched on chips and salsa, we chatted. Girls do that, you know. We chat. And it drives our husbands crazy. Thankfully there were no husbands around to be annoyed by our incessant chatting.

We flew through several topics until we landed on one I that really piqued my interest. A friend of mine was talking about how teaching is so labor-intensive the first year because you have to put together your curriculum. After that first year, it's a lot easier because everything is already in place and you go over it with your new students each year. I can completely relate to this. Every single night this week (and probably last week - okay, and maybe even the week before that), I have been up into the wee hours of the night working. I've been designing marketing materials and ordering products and researching companies and learning about connecting all the dots in this crazy thing I call "business life".

It's hard to run your own business. I find it difficult to disconnect my mind from business and connect it to family - and vice versa. I feel like my mind is always running 396 miles per minute with new branding ideas, thoughts on organizing the kids' toys, deciding where to put my desk, and so on and so forth. And lest I sound like I'm complaining...I'm totally not. I love this crazy life! I just have to learn how to adjust to it. I feel like so often I get sucked into working and forget to enjoy the little things in life.

In honor of my family, I'd like to share with you my son's very first "paint" project on the computer. He did this several weeks (months?) ago and I saved it like any good mother would. And now I will share it with you.

Here's to the little things in life: