Archives: Self Care Musings

Tiny Magoo is already six and a half months old, which means that Kiddo Magiddo is nine.  That was fast.  I can't help but remember what Kiddo was like at that age, and think about how much we've changed.  Fuzzy lost his main job a bit before Kiddo was born, so he spent most of Kiddo's first year as a stay-at-home father in between gigs.  With Tiny, he's the one with the full-time job and I take Tiny with me to my jobs.  Sometimes I'm tempted to quit the jobs that are outside the house and just put our goals on hold to stay home with Tiny.  The driving is hard, and some days, I just don't want to have her strapped to me for the whole 4-6 hours.  All the same, though, I feel so much more in tune with Tiny than I did with Kiddo. 

We opened the big spring show a couple weeks ago, and the online fabric shop just wrapped up with the spring sale, so now I just have one biggish commission and the piecework to catch up on.  A friend and I were talking today about self care.  There's so much out there about treating yourself and pampering as self care.  For me, very little of self care is about scented bubble bath and vacations to Las Vegas.  Most of the time, I need some down time, a genuine nap and perhaps a day trip to something I haven't seen recently.  I haven't given myself this care recently, and it's showing.  It seems I see those "put on your mask before helping others!" memes, and we all claim to be supportive of people putting themselves first, but the roar becomes a whisper when it appears that we may have to give something up for people to put themselves first.  "Yay, boundaries!"  "Why are you saying no to meeeee?"  Tiny's appearance on the scene has forced me to create some boundaries, and it's hard.  I'm a natural people pleaser in addition to being endlessly convinced that I can't afford to be replaced.  Thank goodness I have two team leaders who recognize my limits and allow me to back away once in a while. 

I just have to stay focused for just a little while longer, and then I get to take a bit of a break.  Pay no attention to how long I've been telling myself that.