If you are blessed your non-political friends understand this and do not take offense to your lack of timely response to non-pressing emails and phone calls. Thankfully, I seem to be blessed. I think I got caught up on all my emails yesterday and I think I stayed caught up with my phone calls throughout. Yea!

My children have been so patient with me this election season. When they asked for something that I simply did not have the time to do, I told them we would put it on the list for after the election. About 2 weeks prior to the actual primary election day as GigglyGirl was telling God what she was thankful for, she said “Thank you for Mrs. State Rep and Mr. State Rep and for the election being over.” Notice the keywords: election being over – we were still 2 weeks out from it being over. We did arrange for them to go to the pool and for a few playdates with friends so they were not completely without their social interaction during the election cycle.

On Wednesday, I spent the day with the children and made sure they understood how much I appreciated their patience. We had a trip to the toy store, the movie theater, and a special dinner.

Maybe you are wondering what all is involved in a political campaign at a local level. Well, most of it is truly grunt work. There are envelopes to be stuffed, cards to be addressed, doors to be knocked, calls to be made, data to be entered, events to be organized, and commitments to be kept. None of these tasks taken individually is too difficult. With the looming deadline of Election Day, everything must be done as quickly as possible because most of it cannot be put off. I had quite a few sleepless nights and many, many nights with only a very few hours of sleep.

Alas, the primary is over and I did get a little extra rest on Wednesday and Friday. Now it is time to return to the land of the living and the land of the 98% of the population who could care less about campaign activities – these are otherwise known as “normal people.”

During the past couple of months several things have happened that are blog worthy:
1. Each Election Brings New Friends into My Life
2. Honesty and How to Confront Rumors Head-On
3. GigglyGirl’s Desire for a Pet Lizard
4. BusyBoy the Storm-Watcher
5. Completing Kindergarten Registration
6. My Incredible CVS Trip in which I Spent $4 on $76 Worth of Products
7. Our Garden
8. A New Recipe or Two or Three
9. Tooth Fairy Kit
10. How I Lost My First Tooth
11. Consignment Sales Around Atlanta
12. Food Network Challenge

I’ll be writing about each of these over the next couple of weeks. So stay tuned!

This year my New Year’s Resolution was to be in the moment when I am in a moment by not thinking about everything else I could or should be doing.  Since I am working at home, I am finding that it is a bit of a struggle to manage when I should be working and when I should be just a mommy.  Also, I am having trouble remembering that I need to take a least 1 day a week off from work. 

So, this week my goal is to find a work schedule that will work for my family and me.  Since school is back in session, I am working while the children are in preschool.  Also, I have set the alarm clock early to have time in the morning before the rest of the house wakes up. 

This makes for a 6 hour work day rather than an 8 hour workday.  I will have to be as productive in those 6 hours as I would be in 8 hours.  I think I can do this by focusing on what I am working on rather than thinking about what to cook for dinner or thinking I should be playing with my children.

Hopefully, setting these boundaries by adjusting my schedule will help me be in the moment whether it is work time, mommy time, or me time.

With all this craziness, it seems a good idea to reflect on those things for which I am most thankful

1. A loving God who forgives and teaches me how to forgive.
2. An incredible, giving husband who cares so much about our family and me.
3. 2 amazing, miraculous children  – I cannot imagine life without them.
4. The insight from my friend Heather and my brother who encouraged me to start political consulting when things looked so bleak early this summer.
5. Our extended family – our moms, dads, sisters, brothers, and in-laws who have all given us so much love during the challenges we have faced this year.
6. The beautiful fall like weather that we have had around here this week.  It seems that summer is finally going away.

For example:

Today, I did laundry ALL day long.  Before going to bed tonight, there will still be more laundry to be done from the clothes we wore today.  In fact, the day I die, I will leave behind dirty laundry. 

Does it ever end?! 

As it turns out, the week after I started it, my husband decided he had to shut his business of 9 years down and our life has been a bit topsy turvy since then.  After stuggling to rebuild his business for the past 2 years from an ex-partner embezzeling money and 2 very opportunistic employees while my husband was out for surgery, he realized it was time to move on.

The last 2 weeks of June we were in a race to physically shut the office down and liquidate assests.  It was very hard for me to watch what my husband poured his life into for so many years be closed down.  We learned that while it is much easier to tear something down than to build it up, it takes a long time to clean up the rubble after it is torn down.  In a way, we went through mourning the loss of the business (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance).  I really seemed to stay stuck in the anger stage for awhile but have finally let most of that anger go.

In July, we began to regroup.  Mr. Right has been busy sending out resumes, meeting with recruiters, and interviewing with potential employers.  Additionally, I decided to begin political consulting.  I have volunteered on numerous campaigns in the past in various positions.  This is the first time I am working in politics for money.  So far, I have 3 clients and I am working to secure more. 

Now, after being out of the “workforce” aka paid employee rather than volunteer and mother for the last 6 years, I am a work-at-home-mom.  It is a bit of an adjustment.  The children do not start back to preschool until late August.  I have enjoyed their company and the time we have spent together this summer.  I do not relish the thought of them going back to school.  I will miss their company throughout the day while they are in preschool. 

The difficulty we are facing right now is that Mr. Right and I are constantly trying to get work done from the house and trying to parent the children at the same time.  It is such a balancing act.  It is hard to say to the children, you need to go back to play until I finish this project I am working on when I guilty that I cannot play with them.  Hopefully, when they are in preschool, I can make the absolute most of productive use of the time they are away from home  so that when I pick them up from school I can focus on them until after they go to bed. 

At this point we really are not sure what the future holds for us.  We hope that we will be able to keep the household cash flow working so that we do not have to move or make too many more drastic lifestyle changes.  Still, if we do have to make more changes, we know we have each other, our precious children, our loving family, and our compassionate friends.  We have relied on God so much during this time.  I am so thankful to God for giving me such a wonderful husband and such precious children.  We will take it one day at a time.  Minute by minute we will continue to survive and beginn to thrive again soon.