I had a great chat with one of my BFF's, Ashley, yesterday about balance being the key to happiness. I so love my long chats with Ash-we just "get" each other perfectly! Oprah has said this several times on her show & I have always strived to find exactly the right balance to be blissfully happy in life and feel like I have finally achieved it and if not, getting very close. It makes me so happy to hear that many of my friends are feeling the same joy of feeling balanced in their lives between Family, Friends, Career, me-time, etc. It takes a magnitude, not just one of these elements, to create a well-rounded, whole, complete individual. For me, I have learned to feel the balance by attending church at least once a month, scheduling our babysitter for date nights so I can get all dressed up and go out with my husband for dinner & fun datenights, Girls Night Outs which are some of my favorites, playdates with the twins & friends-in which I find the key to this is having many different groups of friends so that it is refreshing & exciting each time you get together, alone time with the twins which I get on days after they have preschool, naps, & Brandon is working late, Me-time which I get when they are at preschool or on weekends (like today!) after I coordinate a wedding-I usually have the Sunday all to myself because Brandon takes the twins to his brothers' or parent's house for the weekend so they can have fun with their cousins & extended family. Me-time includes working out at Lifetime Fitness, editing my family pictures, Oprah, the spa, getting my nails done, shopping, & reading. Finally, and I have now discovered very important, is career. While I loved being a teacher & cherish every moment that I was in the profession, I have found more balance with event planning and thank God everyday that Heather connected me with Amy from A Flawless Events! I am now able to be a Stay at Home Mom but work at least one weekend a month and some months like last month 3 weekends a month and then in Dec. when it is time to celebrate the holidays-no weekends! I feel like I landed the Jackpot in regards to finding balance with family & career which came with prayer & a lot of concepts I learned from the book, The Secret (another Oprah favorite!) Recently, Say Yes to the Dress contacted me to coordinate my Nov. 20th bride's wedding & I cannot wait to be a part of her special day-it is so rewarding making sure the biggest day of these couples' lives goes perfectly, but it is also wonderful that I don't have another wedding until January so I can find the balance with family, friends, & me time! One day, when the twins read this, I want them to know how happy their Momma has been raising them while finding balance at the same time & hope they understand the importance of creating balance in their lives. I have noticed many of my friends finding careers where they reach this balance-some are writers, florists (Shout out to Heather at Stylish Stems!), teach classes at the gym, part time working, and are all happy as can be, which makes me so happy to see! I can't help but notice this happiness is coming when we are all just turning 30, as well. See, turning 30 isn't so bad after all! In honor of turning 30 (and Congratulations to my Mariah for being preganant!) here is a pic from my 30th birthday in January-dinner downtown with great friends & hubby & Mariah Carey concert at The Fox Theater! Cheers to finding the balance in your life! XOXO
Here is the link to the pics from their blog below:
