I Scheduled Sunrise, Sandwiches, And Laundry — Guess Which Won

We open with a packed weekend and a candid look at what balance really means when a career doesn’t fit into nine to five. We share practical ways to set timelines, accept imperfection, and rebuild routines after a busy season without guilt.

• difference between a job and a career for mothers
• kids’ honest read on parental stress and pride
• grace as a tool for imperfect days
• planning a day around tradeoffs that fit values
• communicating time-bound busy seasons at home
• leaning on a strong team to make work meaningful
• realistic meals and shortcuts that protect sanity
• rebalancing health basics like water, sleep, movement
• returning from crunch time with small, steady habits
• encouragement for women working, studying, and parenting

Keep at it, keep up with it, and I will catch you on the next one

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Weekend Overload
• 0:40 Defining Work-Life Balance
• 1:16 Career Versus Job Reality
• 2:16 What Kids See In Our Stress
• 2:56 Grace, Imperfection, And Plans
• 4:08 A Day Of Choices And Tradeoffs
• 5:00 When Work Spills Past Nine To Five
• 6:05 Family Tradeoffs And Timelines
• 7:10 Loving The Work And The Team
• 8:00 Dinner, Shortcuts, And Reality

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Still Roses Podcast. This podcast was created for women by women to elevate women's voices. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I had a really good weekend. It was just very busy. And I've noticed that like we weren't like this before. We as in my family and I, but for some reason, almost every weekend now there's some kind of an event or some kind of an activity. And I'm absolutely 100% looking forward to the next weekend that there's nothing happening. Although for the next two weekends, I do not foresee that. So now I'm just kind of waiting it out. I've been thinking about topics for the podcast over the past week. I wasn't able to record last week. So first and foremost, what I'd like to talk about is work-life balance. You know, it's it's something I've talked about here a bunch of times, many times, probably a lot more times than I realize. But there is a, there is a definitely a fine line that you have to walk in order to do everything you need to do in a day or everything you want to do in a day. Need to and want to is very different things, right? So it becomes more complex when um you're a working mom. And when you have a career, not just when you're a working mom, but also when you have a career. So it's a little bit different in my eyes, in my opinion. Having a job, you know, is one thing. You clock in, you clock out, you were just there to get that job done. You go home, you kind of leave everything there. It's a little bit different when you're transitioning from, oh, I have a job to I have a profession, I have a career, I'm trying to maintain that career while also having a family and being a wife, all the good stuff, right? So it gets really hectic and it gets very complex. I will say my stepdaughter quite often has said she does not want to have anything to do with having a career in a profession the way that I have one because she sees the breakdown parts. She sees a lot of the ugly and the bad, where I am overwhelmed or, you know, for whatever reason, like just have off, like just bad, bad situations. She's also seen how her siblings react to the fact that I do have a career and a profession that I care very much about. It is very difficult. It is one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do, but it's also something that I'm incredibly proud of. And so when I talk to you about this today, it's really coming from a place of what do I do to try to manage the lunacy. So there's a couple things up front, you guys know how I feel about giving yourself grace. You are not, you have to accept you're not gonna get every single thing done every single thing, every single time. It's not gonna happen. You have to accept that. The moment that you accept imperfection, the weight will lift off your shoulders. You don't need to get to every single task every single day, or you can get to partial tasks. And I'll give you an example today. I had to get laundry folded, but I also wanted to go on a hike with my kids and I wanted to do some cooking for the week or just some like food. Like I like to cook on the weekends. That's my thing. That's what I like to do. So I quite literally scheduled my day. I got to go and see the sunrise with one of my kids. I came back and made breakfast. I spent the whole morning cooking in the kitchen, just making different recipes that I had wanted to try out. And then um around lunchtime, I had told everyone, I'm like, I'm gonna go for a hike. Whoever wants to come, please do. I packed up some sandwiches, off we all went. Whole family goes and packs in the car. Now, my husband on the side was like, no, well, why don't we do this? Why don't we do that? Maybe we should clean out the backyard, this and the next thing. I was like, look, I already have my agenda for the day. And it has to do laundry. Now, the reason why I'm bringing up the day currently that I just went through is because I want to give you a representation of balance. I really wanted to record some episodes today. Last week I didn't get to it. I was just too overwhelmed with other things. I had to prioritize my professional day job over the podcast. That is gonna happen. And I have to accept that. I can't get depressed about that. But on that note, I wanted to make sure I prioritized the podcast today. So do you see what I mean with the balance? Now, the other part here is maybe you're not gonna get everything done the way you think you're going to. I still have laundry to fold, but I did spend about an hour and a half folding laundry and putting things away and trying to, you know, get things done. But I had to accept the fact that I'm not gonna get it all done today. Not if I want to do anything else. So it's that little balance. Now, when you pull that into your week, that work-life balance becomes really skewed. Now, for me as a professional, my job does not adhere to the nine to five quite often. You know, I work with people in different time zones. I get tapped at different times. If I have something urgent that I'm working on, I am gonna prioritize that and work into the evening. It is what it is. It doesn't happen often, but a few times a year, there are things that happen that you can't avoid and you have to really double-time it. And I've basically just made it known to my family, like when these things are coming or when it's happening, it's only a couple more days or it's only two more days. I give them a definitive timeline because I don't want them to think it's like this all the time. So for the most recent spurt of busyness, I had to really pull back on my evenings with my kids. It was really hard for me to do that. I made sure homework was done, but in terms of hanging out with them, in terms of just playing games with them, reading with them, like the little, little things that I've been trying to do this fall, I didn't get to do it the last two weeks. That was really tough on me. That really, that was tough. I was able to do it, you know, as soon as I was done with the busyness, but that was hard. It was a hard thing to do. And, you know, I do make sure that everybody understands, like, I don't love it, but I do love it kind of thing. And it was very funny. Most recently, my kids were home and they heard me getting all worked up with my colleagues. We're all getting worked up about something. When I hung up, my son said he's like, you know, I think you really get mad at your job. Like you really get mad sometimes, but I think you like it. And it's such an interesting observation from a nine-year-old because I do. I really enjoy my job. And part of that is because of the fabulous people that I get to work with. I have been very, very blessed this time around with a team of people that is so extraordinary. I would go to battle with them. They are an extraordinary group of women. Extraordinary. Like, and anyone who knows me would know that if I'm saying that, then this must be one hell of a team because I do not give compliments lightly. Um, I'm definitely not one of those people, but that actually helps me to also prioritize things because I want to make sure I'm showing up for the people that I work with as well. But that balance element. So I'm also a woman who, yes, I have a career, but I like to make sure I have dinner and I can make food for my family every single night. Is it always homemade? No, it's not. Do I have to cut some corners? Yes, I do. But I'm able to fit it in. Now there's nights where we have to order. I've had a couple of crazy weeks, like I mentioned. We've ordered out a lot more than I care to admit. That's that balance. The work-life balance that I'm referring to is not, oh, make sure you clock out at five o'clock and you don't even think about work again. That's not real, that's not reality for me. And I think that's not reality for a lot of people, especially for those of us who are working from home now. Clocking out at the end of the day is not always the end of the day. Like that's not, that's really not how it works. So it's maintaining some semblance of I'm able to prioritize my job on certain days, but then I have to make sure I make time for my family, my kids, my exercise, my health, like whatever else you need to prioritize in your life, that's the balance element. So if you have to, for a few weeks, really kick butt at your job or or wherever, then understand, but then you have to come back around. You do have to balance back out. I just realized yesterday that I was going from drinking 60 ounces of water a day down to like, I don't know, 20, if that. I'm like in bad shape because I haven't been drinking water. And it occurred to me today because I started getting a migraine. I was like, oh my God, I've stopped drinking water. I need to get on that. So it's really everyone, it's just maintaining a, okay, you know what? I have to get myself back to it. I need to get back to my exercises. I need to get myself back into everything because it's okay to have to depart for a little while mentally because you need to take care of other things. But then it's important to also lift your head up out of the sand and understand, like, you can come back and then you can just figure out how to do it better next time if you need to do. But sometimes you don't. Sometimes this is the reality. And you just have to make it work for you and what's best for you and your family or your partner. So on that note, I will let you go. If you are going through it, I know some women that I know, some mothers that I know are working and going to school full time and, you know, making that mom and wife life happen. It is a heavy load to bear, but it is something that's possible. So keep at it, keep up with it, and I will catch you on the next one. Take care.