There were so many things I had planned to do this summer in terms of ‘working at home’. If you read some of my blog posts or saw my IG stories toward the end of the school year, you probably know that my goal this summer, was to get a lot accomplished with my website and with Beautycounter. It didn’t go as planned and I had a few Roadblocks & Detours. These clearly weren’t on my agenda!
In April, my daughter and granddaughter moved in with us. She moved back to her home state from North Carolina and of course we opened up our home for her to get settled in and regroup, so to speak. So much went through my head at the time – like, how will we adjust to a toddler living with us day in and day out? Where will her toys go? How will they adjust to living with us? And of course, when will I test/cook recipes and/or dedicate the time to Beautycounter? Obviously there are people out there with kids who do all the things that I just questioned BUT you have to remember, I was pretty much was an empty nester and now, things would be changing — a lot!
Having my girls home has been such a delight! I can’t even begin to tell you how fun it is to see Mazzy’s face coming upstairs in the morning and saying, “Good morning Nana!” She truly brings so much joy into our lives and I’m ecstatic to have her in my daily life, as well as my best friend, Nicolle. That said, Mazzy’s pitter patter of running about the house, laughing/screaming, constantly asking questions and/or crying, has made it difficult for me to tackle the things I wanted to tackle while being off on summer break. Again, I’m sure it’s something many of you deal with but I personally had a goal ….and my goal was to work on my business a minimum of 6 hours per day! Minimum. I’ve been truly lucky if I could get in 6 hours per week.
Here’s the thing ….
My priorities switched. Once the girls were here and were getting settling in, I sensed that Mazzy needed some attention because of her not understanding why she left her ‘other home’. My daughter felt the angst of Mazzy and she began to feel guilty, so she needed my support. While I many times had a ‘to-do’ list written down first thing in the morning, it took a back seat by mid-morning because of my girls. They needed me and I wanted to be there for them.
I had guilty feelings about not putting in the hours I had intended on putting in, especially since I decided not to work summer school. I mean, up until just a few days ago, I was kicking myself for not testing out a couple of recipes yet! But I finally realized that I needed to ‘Let It Go’! All the recipe tweaking and “business” will be there for me the next day …..or the next! My girls needed their mom and nana and I realized that THIS was my priority and it was beautifully planned out with me not having to go into work day in and day out!
I still got work done. And at the same time, I was able to spend so much quality time with not only Nicolle and Mazzy but my daughter Kylie when she wasn’t working. We were able to hang out and my 2 daughters were able to connect again, after not seeing each other or living with one another for years. There has been so much to be thankful for and I truly believe that I declined a summer school position for a reason – and though I thought it was to dedicate time to my home business, it was really to be here and available to help get my girls through a pretty traumatic time in their lives. It’s mid August and they seem very well adjusted at this point and that makes a momma happy!
Will I set goals for my business again? Yes. Definitely! But on a different scale. While my girls won’t be living with me forever, they will be here for the time being and I will scale my business to meet the needs of my family. I definitely have goals…..though they aren’t as rigid as I planned for the summer BUT they are more than I had been doing so there’s that! And little by little, I’ll raise the bar.
I share this with you because sometimes we are so set on our plan …our schedule and the goal, that we forget about what’s right in front of us. I think we all need to remember to be flexible and though we have things we are striving for, we can adjust accordingly. It certainly doesn’t mean a fail (something I had to remind myself over and over!), it just means we take a slight detour and get right back on the path when we can!
