Leap Day Due Date

8 years ago today was my due date and the last day I worked before my pregnancy leave.. It would be 11 days of forced rest and relaxation before Holly was ready to join the world.. We talk a lot about today as part of her birth story.. She tells me she didn't want to be a February birthday that only came around every 4 years so she waited to come out.. 

Plus Mommy's belly was too cozy.. 

So here we are 8 years later and my life is so vastly different! But interestingly enough not as different as I thought it would be... Having worked in academia before having children I find my life as PTA Board President, Manager of After school enrichment classes and Special education advocate not that different..  

I still attend lots of meetings and am part of many committes and District work groups, trying how to figure out how to do more with less.. Budget and funding concerns and educational outcomes.. 

Just in a much more personal and meaningful way now.. I still work with faculty and I still train people on technology and I even still register students with an online system my husband created (how crazy is that... Rosterizer 8.0)

I still am full of information pointing people to the help and resources that they need.. And I still love my job.. Though I still have a work day that goes long into the night.. I guess the big difference is I am now paid in hugs, thank you's and the personal gratification that I've helped make my school and community a better place..

But I also get to spend long days playing barbies, climbing at the park, jumping on the trampoline, hosting play dates, pushing swings, splashing in the pool, napping occasionally with my 2 year old and driving all over town to see friends and attend play dates, classes, and other community events..

I'm also surprisingly a much more relaxed person.. In someways the stakes are much higher when you are raising kids but somehow most of the time I realize things will work out just as they were supposed to.. I occasionally even remember that the journey is half the fun so I should make time to smell the roses.. 

And though I'm much busier now, I get much less sleep, and hardly any time to myself (other then 2am) and even less alone time with my husband.. It's worth every second.. And really my children will only be almost 8 and just over 2 once.. And tomorrow they will be that much older.. So on this day of reflection I am reminding myself to appreciate every minute.. Because even though it will be 4 more years before today comes around again.. My god my girls will be almost 12 and just 6.. I will have a middle schooler and looking back on this letter to myself it will feel like only days past since I wrote it.. This day will be back and those 4 years will pass like a blink of an eye.. I wonder how much the same and different my life will look then...