If you follow this blog, or have just visted for the first time, you may have noticed that I haven’t made an update in more than two months. I took on a third part-time event management gig and with it came hoards of work in preparation for their annual conference this week. What began as a 12-hours-per week position quickly ballooned at last week’s count to forty. I also work with two other groups who have between them eight other events scheduled throughout the fall. Most important, my children are only in preschool 18 hours total per week. This put tremendous strain on my parenting capabilities. While the work had to get done because there is literally no one else to do it, I also had to care for my family, which came at a cost. I found myself putting the kids in front of a movie far too often, and having a near nervous breakdown when I discovered my two-year-old in my office, jumping on my charging laptop , which was sitting on the floor (lesson learned).
The work is very cyclical, which can be nice. While I put in extra hours ahead of an event, it also means that I will have very slow weeks, and can enjoy more time being a mom. Working from home is convenient, but far too convenient. I can hear my office phone ringing at 8 p.m. because someone is calling from west coast, and I will pick it up. As I prepared for this week’s conference I found it increasingly difficult to distance myself from work. I was making myself available at all hours. It made me miserable.
This weekend I didn’t work at all. I think of it as the calm before the storm. There will be a flurry of activity the first day onsite at the event, and no matter how much I prepare I cannot anticipate the number of walk-ins, the people who want to change registrations at the last minute, or the inevitable snafus that will arise. I spent this weekend playing with my family, working on small projects around the house, baking a pie, and now, as it snows on this Sunday in October, a little time writing my blog. My sanity will thank me for it.
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