Ask any of my friends. I am OBSESSED with work. I go to my weekly coffee date with my closest people, and my laptop is usually out while we visit. I think about new products, product photography, wholesale accounts, how to have both a storefront and a functioning studio, etc. I also think about how to balance a healthy marriage, 3 kids, part time child care, how to get the dog groomed, how to feed my kids something that isn't "cheese flavored", and how to actually get a load of laundry out of the washing machine and into the dryer before it starts to mildew!
BUT, my friends, this week was Christmas! Sure, we moved the Gingiber studio on the 26th of December in the cold and pouring rain. Yet, for 2 whole days, I did not work. I played with my kids, cooked a great Christmas lunch of brisket, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, homemade biscuits, and berry trifle, and managed to sneak away to a holiday party with my husband. My mom came into town and babysat for several hours. And, for 2 whole days, I felt my work anxiety slip away.
Today, however, that pesky anxiety was back. I started to get overwhelmed with all of the challenges on my plate. How do any of us get anything done when a trip to the local water utilities office takes 30 minutes instead of 5? Or when you forget that all of the baby wipes are in your car instead of at home with the babysitter?
Lately, I've been feeling a lot of those complicated feelings. The knowledge that these problems are good problems to have. If I need to move my studio it is because something better is around the corner. 1 day a week I have the greatest babysitter on the planet love on my kiddos and this allows me to run those long errands (like to the water utilities office) that I could never do with 3 kids in tow.
Do any of you ever get so deep in your own head that you fail to notice the really great things all around you? This is my battle as of late. I'm trying to really "take pause" when I become aware of my thought patterns running away from me. And right now, I am sitting in a coffee shop, instead of sorting through boxes from the studio move. I'm eating banana bread and drinking a chai, and I am breathing deep.
Oh, and I cannot stop looking at photos from my Christmas break with my kids. My kids are a gift. My husband is a gift. And I'm thankful for every bit of it.