I have posted on our social media pages {Facebook | Instagram} about something kind of exciting that happened to me this year. I have been waiting for the magazine to hit the newsstand just in case something fell through before I said anything, but last week I finally got my hands on a printed copy of the August/September issue of Working Mother Magazine–and what do you know? There I am.
So here is the little story of how that happened, because the one thing I know for sure is that I definitely don’t have this whole ‘Working Mother’ thing down.
Early last spring I got an email from an Editor at Working Mother Magazine, basically saying they had seen my home office on Pinterest and would I allow them to submit it for consideration for an upcoming story about work at home offices? Sure, I said. Mentally half-laughing, half-crying inside since the office they wanted to show was in a home we were moving out of in about a month’s time.
Overall, I didn’t get too worked up about it as I knew that through the vetting process I might not get selected. I did give the room a quick glance and mentally noted about ten things that I would have to do if they wanted to come do a photoshoot–you know, like repaint the whole thing, add legs to my drooping craft table, hang the pictures proportionally, trim the bookcases, get new curtains…you get it, so before a mild panic could set in, I put it out of my head.
A few weeks later I got an email saying I was selected, and could I send more photos and answer some questions? We were just about to move, and it was apparent that they planned to use my images rather then come shoot it, so I breathed a sigh of relief, sent an email answering the questions, sent in a few more photos, and that was that.
All that being said, the part I haven’t mentioned is a little while after reading the email saying I’d been selected I had a very strange feeling {again the half-laughing/half crying thing actually}, because here is the thing…
I don’t have this whole “working mom” thing down, not one bit.
Prior to taking a full-time job last year, I loved doing the “Pinterest Mom” stuff–writing this blog with my friends meant I had every excuse to have kids with homemade Valentines, decorated bathrooms, and detailed birthday parties. It was fun, it was a creative outlet, and it was material for this website. But, I am not going to pretend that I can still pull all those things off while managing a full-time job, as great and flexible as my work is.
To keep it real, nowadays I am that mom just trying to make it work– reading work emails while making lunches at 6AM, writing blog posts at soccer practice, and I am currently at least 3 months overdue for a haircut. If the doorbell rings around 6PM at our house my kids barely look up when they say “Dinner’s here”–NOT LYING. Some seasons of life are like this, and all moms (working outside the home or not) know it’s hard day-in, day-out to keep up. I am no exception.
Here’s my honest story–I love writing for this blog and I love my job, I work with great people and after three expensive cross-state moves in three years and three kids who need to go to college, my income is important. I have major mom guilt, I constantly run late, I ‘drop the ball’ and I am more tired than I ever thought possible {oh yeah, I also have a sucky chronic health condition}. I am still figuring out how to be a full-time working mom and yet still be the mom I want to be. I am not by any means ahead of any other mother out there juggling a job and a family.
So being in a national magazine about being a working mother was just thrilling, strange and mildly guilt-inducing, lest someone think I was portending I totally had my act together!
Anyway…not to be dramatic–cause it was really it is just about my office decor–right? 🙂
Click HERE to read the article: {Be sure to check out the beautiful office of our friend, Diane from In My Own Style too}.
So, that’s my story about being in a magazine. It’s exciting and flattering and still a little surreal. I now have a great memory of an office I threw together in our formal living room a week before I started my job {that whole story is in the post on the office HERE} , in a home we rented for just a year. The magazine featured a room painted apple GREEN– a color I probably would never have picked in my own home– but likely that is what caught the Editor’s attention in the first place.
Life sure can be funny, can’t it? So, please remember if you bump into me with my fighting children, with coffee spilled on my shirt, realizing I forgot the snacks we were assigned for the soccer game, that just because I was once in Working Mother does not mean I have anything all figured out.
I am grateful to Working Mother, the editors and their readers for including me, and I appreciate all they do to support working mothers each month!
Thanks for stopping by~
