How Do You Do It?

Those five words should be a compliment of sorts, but the reality is, whenever someone asks me how I do it (stay home with two kids, work, and whatever else I find myself interested in ... photoshop, budgeting, organizing, cleaning, etc.), I secretly am thinking and laughing to myself... if only they knew.  My secret......?  I sacrifice hygiene.  Yeah, it's pretty disgusting and rather pathetic to admit, but it's the truth.  I don't wear make-up everyday consistently, I sometimes forget to brush my teeth, my hair is a nightmare, my favorite go-to outfit is jeans with a big ol' sweatshirt, I barely shower until I really need to (you'd be surprised how long you can go when you're just kicking it at home all day long), and I live in my baggy Lululemons (kind of fancy, but not if you've seen mine) that are too long and make me trip sometimes - but I don't care, they're just too fabulously comfortable to care!  The only thing I am quite particular about is getting my kids diapers' changed every morning before breakfast, changed into real clothes after breakfast before we head out (if we head out), and lathering onto my own face: toner, serum, moisturizer, and SPF 25.  Yes, I'm a typical Asian - we take our skincare very seriously... well, at least I do! 

When I was working, I always took my showers at night, slept with wet hair in hopes of it coming out fantastic in the morning or being wet enough that I could style it with it only actually doing that miraculously 1 out of every 10 times.  So on the all hands office meeting days when I would actually make the sacrifice to wake up early to shower and do my hair, I would get these odd compliments about if I had just gotten my hair cut or changed it somehow.  Go figure.  

When I began working out consistently and not just for a lousy 10 minutes (mid 20's), I began investing in some fancy work out gear and found myself showering a lot because if you really work out, you can't really get away without a full shower.  That was probably an anomaly in my life to date.  And these days.. even if I do sweat, by the time I get the kids all in order and home to a shower, the sweat has dried off and I seem to forget that I'm in need of one.  Yuck right?  Truth!

When I was dating Andy and I met his family for the first time as his "girlfriend," I'd shower and do my hair everyday.  I remember thinking as I was getting ready one time, looking into the mirror in his sister's bathroom, how odd that I was putting so much effort into getting ready when this would not be a normal part of my day in the future.  But when everyone in the family showers a lot, you kinda feel pressured into doing the same.  Needless to say, how quick we fall... I sure hope Andy doesn't mind or doesn't think his wife has let herself go, because she kind of has.  

The exception would be when I'm back visiting Arcasia and with my mom.  There are high standards for the rare chance that you run into someone you used to know in high school or one of your mom's friends and *gasp, heaven forbid, you embarrass your mother because you aren't looking fabulous and like you were still in college (the good third and fourth year, not the freshman 20 really tired studying for finals kind).  So it makes me laugh when I think about how Andy has chillaxed to my level of laid back slothfulness and how we lost our luggage once and had to hang out all day in Arcasia with him in Nike sweat and Sperry boat shoes.  It was not a pretty look and I feel bad admitting that even I was a bit nervous to go out with him in fear of running into anyone I knew from high school.  HAHAHA.  He kept asking me why I cared.  I couldn't quite explain that it was just a different standard in Arcasia.  Puh-lease, I have a reputation to uphold here right?  HAHAHAHAHA.  

Why do we care so much about what other people think sometimes?  I'm not sure I know the answer, but I do care from time to time.... it ebbs and flows...and I'll let you in on a little secret... even when I'm in my baggy Lulus, I think I look pretty smoking hot.  Those pants sure are flattering, me thinks, though they probably are not.  Even when I'm sporting jeans with a big ol' sweatshirt, I'm thinking - yeah, I wear this sweatshirt well, a sweatshirt never looked so good before!  But I think that is the key to success and confidence sometimes... thinking you got it when you might not.  

At least that's how motherhood and parenthood works sometimes.  HA!  So in conclusion, I don't really do it.  Nobody really does it.  They just fake it until they make it.