I can't believe it's Friday again! Time just flies like crazy these days. Last week, Lily has *finally* started elementary school, Violet is continuing her speech therapy and is making progress, and little Calvin had his well-baby exam and doing just fine. I, myself was not doing too fine. I was working - overworking myself. Since I'm on maternity/parental leave, I am supplementing our income with freelance work translating and similar language services.
One really important thing I have learned this past week is that life is way too short to do that to myself. The money wasn't worth it. I didn't sleep enough, I wasn't able to spend enough time with my girls. I didn't eat or drink enough and extremely stressed out because of the tight deadline. At 1 am the day of Lily's first day of school I decided that I had to stop that craziness. I emailed the customer and informed them that I was not able to complete the project. I felt lighter. I did not want to spend this special day in Lily's life stressed out about when I could return to my work and then pull an all-nighter. I got some sleep, and I enjoyed Lily's day.
Life is indeed too short to waste it with stress. Instead, I will focus more on filling my days with tons of cuddles, laughter, playing games, taking walks, and enjoying having my family around me.
I think this is a great way to be, life is indeed way too short.
ReplyDeleteIt totally is. So, I'm going to work much harder on focussing on enjoying the time as much as possible :-)
DeleteYES! That is the best way to be. I had a really (good???) job before Tucker was born, but when I was on maternity leave, and being asked to do reports and everything else at 1m, I quit! YAY for you and yay for me and yes. Life is just too short. I'm so happy for you and thank you for linking up!
ReplyDeleteI do work free-lance while I'm on maternity / parental leave, just to supplement our income and because I truly love translating. But sometimes it just gets too much, and I definitely have to learn to stop before I even come close to this point of exhaustion. Yay for you putting your family and yourself first! Have a great weekend!
DeleteGOOD FOR YOU!!!!! Oh, how I love that you were able to see the significance in changing your priorities for the better- for the things that truly matter!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Chris! I have a really hard time to say no to someone, but I'm at the point where I have to or the people I love most will suffer, and I cannot accept that! Have a great weekend!
DeleteI went through a similar thing. My husband was unemployed going to school, and I supplemented the loss of income with freelance work, writing SEO for Macy's. It paid well for freelance work, but I didn't sleep at all. I would go 3 to 5 days straight with no sleep to sleep 4 hours and go another 3 to 5 again with no sleep. I was mean to the kids. The husband, I hated him. He didn't help at all with anything and was sleeping peacefully 8 to 12 hours uninterrupted every night. Finally I had to email them and say, "I just can't do this anymore." It was the best thing I ever did.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad for you that you did what was right for you and your family, Michelle! It wasn't quite as bad for me, but with a new baby and generally being a person who needs a lot of sleep to function, it was pretty hard. Probably the funny thing is that your husband could have done the job you did as well, or couldn't he? I hope your family is doing better again and you are feeling balanced and are able to enjoy your life and your family!
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