Hello… My name is Leah. I am a stay at home mother…actually a new stay at home mother. For years I have worked in management in hotels, which in my opinion would be a hilarious source for a blog due to the ridiculous employees that tend to gravitate toward hospitality and the ridiculous events that hotel guests bring, but this blog is about my life as a stay at home mother. I am a bit nervous to begin writing a blog as my life seems so simple and I was worried that I would have nothing to share. But I believe everyone has a voice. Everyone. The homeless guy at the soup kitchen, the kindergarten teacher, the CEO of a multimillion dollar company, the dance instructor, the line cook at the local dive, hell even me the quinessential normal stay at home mom. So, either people read or they do not, but I am sharing my voice and my life either way. My hope for this blog is to try new things and share them, to motivate myself to live as naturally as I can in this new year 2010, and figure out how to not go crazy while staying home with my two adorable children; Ezra age five and Lucas age 7 months. I say this as I am listening to Looney Toons cartoons coming from the back of the house and with my new uber sensitive mommy ears am listening to my Lucas crawling on the floor, making sure he is not getting into anything he should not as my house is not yet 100% baby proof. Yes, call me mother of the year. I can say we have installed latches on the cabinets and put outlet plugs in but that is about it. I will have to get on that. Lucas is now stuck under the coffee table and I will need to go assist him. My life up until the birth of my second child was busy. Actually, that is a great understatment. I had my five year old to take care of and I was the Assistant to the General Manager at an upscale hotel. I handled the budgeting, payroll, most of the bookkeeping, condo timeshares, marketing, and following up with all of the front desk procedures, as well as manning it from time to time as there was not a front desk manager. A short coming that the dim witted and stoned hippie owners did not seem to think was a problem in the economic times. When they started to make cut backs in payroll and I saw my co-workers being laid off one by one, I decided to step down as I was looking forward to staying home with my new little one and did not want anyone else to lose thier job when I was planning on leaving once he was born anyway. So, I had two months of my pregnancy at home to relax. What a blessing! My life now however is much calmer. We get up. I take my son to school, spend some time cleaning, excercise (if Lucas will let me), pick Ezra up from school midmorning, come home and let the day take us where it will. Sometimes I wonder if my skills are being wasted on taking care of children all day. Sometimes I come to the conclusion that they are, sometimes I think who better to benefit from my care? I am sure millions of mothers out there can relate to that feeling. Success comes in many types. For now this is mine… oh wait…. am I successful at this? Success is defined in the dictionary as: 1.the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors. 2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
I guess by the standards of definition #1, yes I am successful. In my endeavor to raise children I am. They grow everyday no matter what I do. In my endeavor to not lose my sanity being home with them all day, I am mostly successful. I have distinct moments in my memory that I believe my sanity was on the tetering edge about to fly out my bedroom window. But most of these moments happened at about 2AM so I am not sure they count. Of course, my sanity returned the next day as I watch my Lucas eat and smile up at me. Anyhow, sidetracked! Back to success. I believe that is a relative term and yes, time moves forward everyday and I make it through and more importantly my children make it through with out being sent to travel with the circus. Ezra would be wonderful on the trapeze by the way if anyone reading happens to know a circus in need.
As far as definition #2 for success, No I am not. Being a mother does not award wealth and honors. No award is really granted for Mother of the Year or Worlds Best Mom other than those printed on $5 coffee mugs. But, I guess that is enough for me. 🙂