One Secret to a Working Mom's Success: Keep Standing

Me, standing in Barbados Those of us who live our lives out loud on the internet subject ourselves to scrutiny. Some comment, "Nobody's life is perfect. These posts must be fake," Those making those comments might even be close to us because they "know our business" and they whisper and gossip and say, "she's so fake".  To those who may read my blog and make such comments, (the trolls) know that I hear you, see you, and completely disagree. 

The Number One Secret to Succeeding as a Working Mom: Improvise

My daughter at the Pittsburgh Zoo #ZooBoo 


"My whole life has been one big improvisation." Clint Eastwood
If you’ve been reading this blog, I am sure you’ll agree that I’m not going to win mother of the year, but I do think that I’m doing alright. The reason I’m giving myself a bit of a pep talk is because I have witnessed some fantastic displays of motherhood creativity this AM and need to let myself know that even though I may not be knocking the ball out of the park, I am making solid base hits and above all, the kids are alright...

That said, today was an exercise in humility...


Snack at my son's school. The mom who made these raised the bar!
The first thing I saw this AM was an awesome snack display at my son’s school. It was a sight to behold-- truly Pinterest/Ladies Home and Garden/Redbook worthy. Who would have thought to shape Rice Krispie treats into triangles and to decorate them like candy corn? Combining a tried and true snack with a Halloween tradition—pure genius. The sight alone made me think that I need to step my game up!

Normally, parents don’t have to bring snack. However, today is Halloween carnival day. And like the teacher said at the morning meeting, there is no instruction today, only fun! This morning, I remembered that the kids were allowed to pass out treats. And because it was a late memory and there wasn’t time to make something homemade or even to go to the store to buy something, I improvised.

Finding candy in the haystack that we ultimately gave to his friends...
My son participated in the treat giving because we had candy at home that had been collected at a community event, a birthday party and at Zoo Boo compliments of the Pittsburgh Zoo. That's right, we totally re-gifted!!! I am certain that I violated some cardinal mommy code by doing that, and then committed And even though he probably had the lamest treat to share with his friends, he walked over and handed his treats to his teacher with pride and a smile. Fortunately, they were contained in a festive jack-o-lantern box. Let’s just hope there were pieces of hay in there from the community event…

The second thing that made me question my mom cred was a costume that I saw on Facebook. A friend commissioned someone to make her ten year old daughter a phoenix costume. I happened to see it while I was looking on Facebook. Let me tell you this costume rivals those found in Broadway productions! It was truly spectacular. I immediately thought two things. 1) Is that how we're rolling now?! 2) I'm really glad that my daughter doesn't attend school with the owner of the costume because her costume was a Zulily special and trust me, Broadway wouldn't have that costume anywhere near it's stage! That said, the costume is the one my daughter asked for and I know that she'll be happy wearing it. So, I'll count it as a win! I also will make sure that she doesn't see that phoenix costume...

Happy Friday!

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