The Hot Mess Express -Come on the train and ride it!

I started this blog a month before I gave birth to kid #3. I thought it would serve two purposes:

• Give me a bit of a creative outlet for when parenting just became too much and,
• Provide some income because for a variety of reasons I left my full time job a month before having baby #3.

Here is what happened instead – I did nothing. I started this blog, set up Facebook and Twitter, wrote a handful of posts and then gave birth. At that time, I realized having three kids and being a stay at home mom was hard AF. My oldest was home all summer and I had 2 under 2 to manage in addition to her camp schedule.

At that point I knew I needed to take a step back. For that reason, I took the summer off – all off it. I did nothing but figure out how to parent three kids. But summer is over and now I need to figure out what I am going to do with my life. I am a 38-year-old woman with 3 degrees you wouldn’t think this would be a hard question but it is. I have no idea what I am going to do with my life.

But now summer is over, school has started and it is time for me to start trying to get my shit together. Seriously, I even started a Pinterest board called “pull my shit together” but then kept it secret in case I failed.

After serious distraction and disorganization because hello 3 kids, I have come up with 3 goals and decided since I started this blog I might as well use it as a way to track what I am doing.

• Figure out my professional life – And by figure it out, I mean decide what is that I WANT to do now what have I fallen into and then take proactive steps to make it happen. I feel like I have spent the last 7 years falling into things because they happen. That has not been the path to professional happiness so it is time to find that path.
• Organize my life so I can be proactive instead of reactive – This seems all encompassing and overwhelming but it needs to happen. Right now I feel like all I do is put out fires and chase my tail. I need to find a way to focus on goals and priorities, sort out the multiple schedules in our house and move forward. Right now all I do is not drown – time to make a change.
• Heal Thyself – I need to seriously work on self care. Back to back pregnancies have left me 50 lbs heavier than I should be and my body feels it. The chaos of 3 kids, leaving my job and all the financial fall out from both of those has left me super stressed. I eat my feelings. I often hide in bed rather than exercise and the stress manifests itself physically. I can’t deal with anything else if I am broken down in body, mind and spirit. I need to find a way to incorporate that into my life in a realistic way.

So here we go – let’s see where this road takes us. Drop your best hints or advice for me below on any or all of these 3 goals.