Friday, January 18, 2013

The Not So Glamorous Part of Motherhood: Leftovers for Lunch

I know a lot of people might argue that motherhood is not that glamorous given the housekeeping, the spit-up, the poop, the messes our kids can make, the permanent marker stains you catch one second too late, and the PJs we're probably still in around noon or all day for that matter (or maybe that's just me...), but I've always thought it was quite glamorous given the fact that we get to be with our little one all day, that we don't have to wear slacks or dress shirts or stuffy sweaters or nylons or close toed shoes.  That we don't have to get our hair did, put on make-up to look presentable (again, maybe just me), try to stop biting our nails or think "doh!" when we forgot to rub off the bright red or hot black nailpolish so the client doesn't think we're weird when we hand them a report and our nails are... different.  That we get to put time and effort into making a house a home, hang out there all day if we so desire, and spend all the time we want with our little ones.  We also get to watch them grow, watch them learn, decide what our family eats, spends money on, and we can even venture off to the mall, the park, the playground, the zoo, the museum, the ice cream parlor, or a theme park without much thought.  That sort of flexibility in any job is pretty dang impressive and the benefits, the reward and fulfillment is beyond any that an office job could give me.  Sure the comp is a little questionable and my pay day never seems to come, but I do have access to all the money that comes into our family, so...

Maybe I'm still on a motherhood high lately, but I seem to only see the glass half full and all the greatness that comes with motherhood lately.. even when my son spits up, even when he poops all over his clothes, even when he disobeys me, even when he throws a tantrum, and even when he drags the rugs with dried dirt from the snow all over the house forcing me to up my cleaning aspirations for the day.  I think it's because I'm witnessing the miracle of a little baby growing inside of me, kicking me, even though the human eye can't see it yet from the outside, reminding me that he's alive, and then simultaneously I'm watching Jordan learn more every day, respond to my requests for him to get me the remote control or the water from my purse (love this new skill), watch him pick up his golf clubs everyday to practice his swing and become enthralled with professional golf on TV and yell "woah" when someone hits the ball far with their driver, and communicating with him through the few words he knows and the other ones he is using more and more each day.  It's just fascinating to me and the excitement is never ending.  On top of that, given the comparison with work life that I still do part time, I'm realizing that if the work didn't pay me so well, I'd probably not love it as much as I do (and my job is pretty good as it is, I like what I do and I love the spreadsheets and organizing I do for everything that goes on in the company and all the perks), but it's not worth giving up if I had to choose between this motherhood gig and that.  Call me crazy but it's the truth!

And yet in spite of how wonderfully glamorous motherhood is to me... the one not so glamorous part is the leftover for lunch aspect that I seem to encounter everyday lately.  I think at first, having always sorta of informally been forced to eat with my teammates (though I liked it mostly), I kind of longed for a lunch break to go run errands, eat leftovers, or be by myself.  Well, wish granted now because lunch is pretty much by myself, in front of the comp, and it's usually leftovers.  And yet, at some point, I sort of envisioned my lunches would be much like my single days of lunch bringing (only a short time while in San Jose for a rotation), glorious sandwiches or salads and in the worst case scenario, a pb and j sandwich, just anything BUT leftovers!  For a short stint, I was luckily devouring veggie sandwiches that were wannabe Panera Mediterranean Veggies.. but that was only because we had it for dinner one night and I was technically still eating "leftovers."  Alas, when I am once again having my leftovers, I think... this is so sad, but hey, at least it's not busy season (hahaha sorry auditor buds) where lunch with the team was only the first part of a three part series together (we often had an afternoon coffee break and then dinner together too).

I wish I had taken more photos with all my busy season teams.  It's just not something people do.  But now, all those memories of late nights, team bonding, and friendships that came from hours of auditing, they are just that.. memories in my head without a video or a photo for me to relive it.  Oh well... maybe one day I'll write a book about busy season.  Ha!

Happy busy season auditors.  I really did forget it started this year.  That's how long it's been since I was there.  And to the wives of auditors... I'm sorry.

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