Archive for the Work Life Balance

The following guest post was written by Julie Frans, Co-owner of Dining Details, the featured gourmet caterer for the upcoming January 21st event, The 4th Annual Making The Most of Your Personal Strategy New Year Kickoff.  Julie also owns Chickpeas, which provides nutritious school lunches for growing children.  You can follow Julie on Twitter.

Julie is a member of Six Figure Moms Club.  I’m proud to know her and to have the opportunity to learn from her as another working mother following her dreams and working through the challenges every day.  Thank you Julie for sharing this wonderful post with us.  May you find everything you always wanted…that’s not already right in front of you.

Psssst….!!! It’s my birthday the week of  November 1st.

So What? Right?

Well the week is so full of great things that you just have to know about them!  I’m one of those people who believes that you should always celebrate your birthday and that if you want to have a good party…throw one for yourself.  However, this year, three great folks are having terrific events during my birthday week.  And you know what?  They really have almost nothing to do with me and absolutely everything to do with you guys.  Both of the following events are so good that you won’t want to miss them!

You know you’re starving for a recharge when you drink it in like it’s a $5 Pulp Fiction milkshake.

I had so much work to do on my flight from San Diego to Houston but as a working mother doing double duty, I’d been jumping from one deadline to the next for weeks.  When I saw the in-flight movie preview, I felt a strong, undeniable pull to watch.  It seemed the best thing I could do for my sanity (and that of everyone around me) was pay some respect to work life balance, buy a headset, sit back and unwind.  After all, this is precious time on a plane, alone, no internet access, no cell phones allowed, no twitter (sorry friend).

This is the longest stretch I’ve ever gone without posting to my blog and I’ve missed you guys.  Where do I start?  Everyday I think about a blog post I’d like to write but time just passes by. What I need most is to clone myself.  I know you all know what I mean.  The days of a working mother are crazy during normal times but throw any wrench into the daily routine and everything goes haywire. We’ve had a few wrenches at my house in the past few weeks.

Tracy Green just launched a new website, www.smartworkingmom.com.  Her site is worth a look if you have a minute.  This week, she emailed me and also left a comment on my blog.  I’d like to share them both with you because I think you’ll relate to what she’s saying.

 Email:  “I applaude you!  It was so refreshing to see a website that makes it okay for moms to work, and want to work and celebrates those who do!  I’m emailing to ask your permission to list www.sixfiguremomsclub.com as a  HOT LINK on my evolving website:  www.smartworkingmom.com.  I’m a full-time, plus working mom of two boys and enjoy having a career. My issue became that I was in complete control and successful at the office, but at home — forget it! I was out of my element.  (Snipped)

Six Figure Moms, What are you REALLY grateful for?  As I’ve read other blogs and articles, I’ve been thinking about this question all week.  I decided I wanted my post to be narrow so I’ve asked myself this question:

“If you only get to give one answer, what ONE thing are you most grateful for?” 

My answer is STRUGGLE.  I’m so thankful for the struggle I have in my life and for so many reasons.

• Struggle makes me continue to grow and think about things from a multitude of perspectives.
• Struggle reminds me that I’m alive.

I’m sitting in Clay’s, La Jolla which is the rooftop lounge at the La Jolla Hotel. The west facing wall is lined with windows and the sun is setting. The whole sky is a beautiful pink, orange, purple, blue. (Yes, of course, before you ask, my close friend, Twitter is here and I’ve been Twittering away.)

I’ve talked with women all over the US about the loss of identity that often occurs when professional women have children. This feeling seems to be common among executive women that I speak to who usually range in ages between 30 to 45.

For example, I once interviewed a woman who was previously a partner in a very large law firm in Washington DC making over $.5 Million per year. Prior to deciding to start a family, she was the major breadwinner for her family. Once she and her husband embarked upon becoming three, they decided her husband’s career would become the focus and hers would take the back seat.

I wanted to pass along a great opportunity to participate in a conference coming up in Orange county on October 16: The Next Generation of Work Flexibility: An Innovative Forum for Employers and The Flexible Work Force.

The goal of the event is to help promote an open dialog about flexibility in the workplace for the many professional mothers and fathers who struggle with work life balance and the employers competing for talent in today’s increasingly demanding work environment. You can read more specifics about the event at their web site but below are a few of the highlights of the conference:

I just returned from an 18 day trip last night. My last stop was Blog World Expo ‘08 in Las Vegas. I went to the conference to enhance my understanding of the New Media industry and to learn how to better serve you, my readers, as a writer/blogger. Little did I know of the almost limitless benefits that this little four day trip would bring me. I’m still digesting everything I learned over the past few days and I know I will be for quite some time. However, the one gem of the conference is this: