My Working Mother's Attitude of Gratitude Front Runners in 2013

10. The Elf on the Shelf for rekindling and challenging my creativity under pressure due to extreme procrastination. Nothing like feeling the heat to create something spectacular in the minutes of realizing your child has awoke looking for his Elf and the stomach sinking reminder that you forgot to move him from the night before...In addition to the magic he brought my child, he brought me little magical stress ulcer...thanks Snowman...glad he is now tucked away in a box, not to return for another 11 months.

9. Pretty Wicked Moms, The Housewives of (All Cities) and The Kardashians for giving me something to look forward to watching during my round the clock newborn feedings rather than infomercials and when I've needed a mindless night cap after a long day of work...Thanks for continuing to put that little voice in my head that maybe a nip, tuck and injection isn't that big of a deal...and I definitely need a cook, driver, personal shopper and multiple nannies...just kidding, only because it's not a reality for me unless I win the lottery.

8. Starbucks and the Starbucks gift cards that were given to me as "push" presents from my husband and friends...new baby or not...this working mother always will need Starbucks...every morning and on the craziest of days..sometimes afternoon and evening!

7. Aging and WIGS...age made an uninvited appearance into my life after this pregnancy with the gift of realization...the realization that it is way harder to bounce and tone right back up as soon as I had 3.5 years prior and I am now more forgetful which makes for being a multi tasking working mother that much more challenging. I also realized that age must has made my husband become either delusional or start to have vision loss problems but in my favor...the comment, "I don't know what you are talking about you look just like you did when we met"...ummm really, that was 11 years ago and obviously you were sleeping through the lesson of gravity or you failed it! I now have a new appreciation for eating well, exercise, overall health and WIGS...I started wearing wigs this year after I shaved my head in support of my younger sister and ended up really liking them. I guess I do have something in common with one of the ladies of the RHO-Atlanta...a shout out to another fellow wig'ger Kim Zolciak! Even though my real hair is growing out...the wigs have become a part of my wardrobe but I do have to admit that I love the easy, no nonsense short hair option when I don't feel like wearing a wig. It's so nice as a busy working mother to cut off about 30+ minutes of my getting ready morning routine and walk out the door with perfect hair and for someone to say "Who does your hair, I love it!" I have no shame in mane...I tell them it's a wig and I how much I love them and a time saver they are!

6. Continuing to gracefully walk the fine line between one glass of wine to take the edge off and full blown alcoholism. Cheers to another year!

5. The windshield is one of my favorite companions. I traveled quite a bit this year, primarily for personal reasons and I learned for the first time that I did not need music blaring or to be on my cell chatting to make the drive bearable...the quiet atmosphere gave me the opportunity to pray, meditate, focus, breathe and think without any distractions or interruptions.

4. The unpredictable, unavoidable and uncontrollable circumstances that literally change your life without any warning and force you to put the things in your life that do not matter at that moment on the backburner (the hardest being my business) and focus on what really matters.

3. My girlfriends for rallying around me and not letting me run away...encouraging me, loving me and drinking a glass or bottle of wine with me anytime I needed it...maybe #6 should have been ranked higher on my list after all...Cheers Again!

2. My husband, family and employees for just being there and offering support when and as needed.

1. It's been a year of having to trust those in my life to take care of what I was unable to at the moment, so I could focus on what really mattered in my life which had nothing to do with business. I was forced in my business for the first time to trust, let go and not be able to control and micro manage every little day to day detail. The flexibility of setting my own schedule; no ceiling of success/accomplishments and being able to have it all by terms, has made all the long hours; stress; chaos and craziness all worth it. I would have never been able to be there on the personal things going on in my life this year that were far more important than my business or career, had I have worked for an employer and for that reason alone I have never been more grateful to be a self-employed working mother.

And that's a wrap of my personal working mother's attitude of gratitude in 2013! Wishing you all an abundance of blessings, happiness, health, success and memory making in 2014!

Visit my blog:

Working Mother

Beautifully and Imperfectly Made

Am I the only woman out there who has that feeling of wanting to shut the doors and close shop when things become so overwhelming and the shocking realization slaps me in the face that.... Wait for it.... I am not perfect! When I say wanting to shut the doors and close shop, I am not referring to my business doors...well not all the time at least, I am referring to my bedroom door; my office door; my pantry door; my laundry room door; my mailbox door; my home door and the list of doors continue. There are so many doors in my life that at different times become so stressful, overwhelming, busy and crazy that if I don't shut the door I feel as though it may all cave in around me. Everyone shuts their doors in different ways, I shut my doors either by blocking whatever it is out and pretending it's nonexistent at the moment or by picking up something new to dabble in as to distract me from having to deal with whatever it is lurking behind that closed door. Neither is a healthy option and almost always results in the inevitable of having to still deal with whatever it is, plus the extra stress that avoiding the situation resulted in. Whether it's stress from suppressed feelings/emotions; playing catch up because it's now piled up even more than what it was before; worsen physical issues and the annoying reminder that I am not perfect. I don't know about you but I spend way more time worrying about how to make everything in my life perfect, rather than putting in the time needed to get what needs to be done efficiently. Instead I base everything I do with the goal of perfection, if it's not going to be perfect than what's the point. I typically fret over it until I run out of time, then end up being disappointed because I've built something so amazing in my head that even Martha Stewart would fail at accomplishing it. I become my own stumbling block, causing me to feel more stressed and like a failure because it's doesn't turn out how I envisioned it or no one can help me with it because I always end up micro-managing it to death. Today my Gram came into town and stopped by my house to say hello and see my little ones. As the little ones slept in the living room and I worked away in my home office, she sat down to tell me a story regarding a painting she had started a year ago of a horse for a her dear friend that she started but stopped because she just couldn't seem to get the eyes perfect. She wanted the painting to be perfect for her friend because this horse by the name of Rose had passed away and it was a very special horse and memory to her friend. She decided to pick up the paint brush again a few months ago in hopes to finish it for her friend as a Christmas gift but little did she know this painting would also end up becoming a special blessing to a family who is about to face their first Christmas without a cherished loved one. The loved one that this family lost a few months ago was the grandson of one of my Grams dear friends. He was in his late teens, a loving soul and an incredible and talented artist. My Gram had received a letter from this young mans church asking for stories or items of remembrance for his stocking that would be empty this Christmas. This young mans church wanted to give his family these stories and items to open and have as a little piece of him on this difficult Christmas morning. My Gram did not know this young man well but knew his grandmother and from her felt as though she did know him. As she sat one evening, painting the eyes of the horse and growing frustrated at the imperfection of them, that's when it hit her and she saw this young man in the eyes of the horse and realized the eyes weren't meant to be perfect. In fact our lives aren't meant to be perfect. She finished the painting and gave the painting to her friend for Christmas along with a letter describing her experience while painting her horse. She also wrote a letter to the young mans family with a picture of the horse, sharing with them how his memory inspired her to finish what she couldn't a year ago. This story was inspiring to me, as I often myself get so caught up in trying to be the perfect everything that I probably miss out on alot of opportunities around me to help others who are struggling with things alot tougher, than my Christmas tree being perfectly decorated. This conversation with my Gram, made me realize that there is more beauty in imperfection than there is in perfection and the only one who's missing out in life is me. As she sat across from me, telling me this story, she never knew how her imperfect act of kindness inspired me to write this blog dedicated to her. She is one of the strongest women I know, with the most giving and loving heart and I am lucky to call her my Gram. She truly is beautifully and imperfectly made and for that I am grateful or I may would continue to strive to live in this exhausting and unattainable bubble of perfection until something like, her words of wisdom or act of kindness pop me out of it. I will continue to remind myself daily that I am beautifully and imperfectly made. Visit my blog on Working Mother Magazine at: http://www.workingmother.com/blogs/mother-entrepreneur-redefined/beautifully-and-imperfectly-made