Well, and hello to you!! The fall air brings about a few changes and not just in temperature.
I fairly well collapsed following this year's
family 5k walk/run a week and a half ago. The event was eight months in the making and boiled down to six hours in the doing. My family and I left our house at 6 am on Saturday and we were back by noon; needless to say, also all ready for a nap! It seems crazy how so much work and planning can go into a two hour event. It's a little like Christmas in the respect that there is all the anticipation of Christmas morning...with so much thought put into gifts, time and money spent on decorations, months of Christmas music on the radio {I'd replace that with months of emailing for 5k purposes} and then poof...it's over until next year. Gifts that might have taken all year to save for were opened in twenty minutes. Decorations that took weeks to place, need to come down and be packed up. Giddiness and anticipation replaced with exhaustion, and hopefully, contintedness.
Family 5k planning is all in good fun and spirit, and was certainly very worthwhile. This year's event was our fourth annual, and was the largest and smoothest running 5k we've had yet. As excited as I am about it, I'm equally relieved that it is over. For all that was great about it, there is as well, just as much room for improvement. It is time to put together a 5k committee to handle growth, and to provide adequate organization & management for future year's events. I will be working with Valerie of Durango Pregnancy Center in the coming months to organize the committee. Please be in touch with either of us if you would like to be involved!
Since this year's event took me the better part of a
year to put together, it's also going to take me some time to clean up. I have been working on this year's family 5k wrap up for the past week, and plan to get the details & thank you email out in a few days. In it will be found: timing results, a link to view and order pictures, and fundraising results. All sponsors and participants of the event should already be on the email list. But, if you're not sure if you are and would like to receive family 5k related emails, you may do so by
clicking here to subscribe.
So now, here's a little on the changes I'm faced with this fall. To cut through the crap and just say it like it is...I've been neglectful of my family for the past two months, which sounds like a huge contradiction when pairing "planning the
family 5k" with "neglecting my
family". At any rate, I'm not blaming the 5k. Putting on and organizing an event like it would be taxing on anyone if the time to do so weren't a part of their day, or if there wasn't an allowance for the time somewhere. It's no one's fault but my own that their isn't a time
allowance for it. Which is why I will be forming a committee.
I'm a stay at home mom. Anyone who has ever been a stay at home mom knows that there isn't a whole lot of time to spend on extra things. Extra things in my world are classified in our household as "working on my stuff".
Working on my stuff can be broken down as follows: writing/blogging, making Pretty by JL accessories, planning/executing the yearly family 5k, marketing Pretty by JL products {including Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, email marketing/newsletters, graphic & web design}, networking/fundraising event participation, stocking/selling via online stores like
Etsy &
Goodsie, product photos, building line sheets & catalogs, finding/building wholesale relationships, order fulfillment, planning, dreaming, hoping, dreaming, crying, pulling my hair out, dreaming, sketching, trying to convince my husband there's a point to any of it, and more dreaming.
Sound like fun? Lot's of it is. Some of it isn't. Most people who know me well, know that I'm obsessed with
working on my stuff. I do very little else with my extra time. I've been saying for years that, "I'm working on it now in hopes that I will have created a career for myself by the time my kids start school."
Why might I put it like that? Why not just create a career now?...
Because being a stay at home mom is
the dream. My dream. The dream I had before I dreampt up PBfNM. I'm already living it,
and am lucky enough to get to! I want to enjoy it and see it through. But, I've been so busy laying the foundation of my "career" that I forgot what the whole point was. I've been saying lately how much I wish True were in school. I've been willing Elle West to be 3 1/2 and in pre-school. I haven't been camping, fishing, or horse back riding once this summer with my husband. I've felt guilty for enjoying all the time I put into
my stuff and rushing all the rest...in essence, robbing my family of time with me, and
me of [precious] time with
them, in order to give more to
working on my stuff. I've done it financially, too. We eat beans so I can buy silk...well, we'd eat beans anyway, but you get where I'm going with this.
The point is, there is too much to do in a day. Social media is thrown at us now from every direction. I have more on my plate than I can touch and I haven't even looked at a quarter of what's out there...a quarter of what I even know of...I'm certain there's more!
A few years back when I was writing my business plan for PBfNM, I also wrote my life's mission. Sound crazy?...yeah, well I sort of am crazy. Anyway, this past Saturday night {one week following this year's family 5k} while trying to fall asleep I decided that I needed to get off of Facebook. To be sure it made any sense, and that it wasn't just some late-night-Jerry-McGuire-style-epiphany {which in all reality it probably is} I started to say my mission in my head...to see where Facebook fit in.
I will have, hold, and grow the joys this life offers me; realizing my ultimate potential and happiness.
&
I will let go of each joy, gracefully, when its time comes.
Facebook's time has come. This is it's gracious ending for me. What once was a joy is no longer. I find myself giving it far more time and attention than other, higher ranking, extras. I've tried "discipline", "posting/checking once daily", and "time allotments". I've failed at them all. Once I login I find myself fascinated, over stimulated and obsessed with whatever my Facebook task at hand may be. I've mulled this over for a few days and know it's the right thing to do because I'm relieved.
I'm going to can my Twitter account, too, because I never use it. I don't even know how to tweet. I will stay on LinkedIn for now because it's meant to be resourceful...I only get on if I need to. I will stay on Pinterest because it's also resourceful and I'm in no way obsessed. I will use
Instagram as my primary source of social media. I like to take pictures, but I don't feel obligated to. I also enjoy seeing other people's posts on Instagram more than I do anywhere else. You may follow me there @prettybyjl. Tag your Pretty by JL accessory photos with the hashtag #prettybyjl to share them...I'd love that!
One of my very favorite things to do is post to my blog, and I've only recently learned that about myself. I'm just getting started and want to try to post to it daily. That is something that makes me nervous about leaving Facebook. Most of my blog readership comes from the links I post on Facebook. But, I'm not going to worry about that. I post to my blog because I enjoy it; as much as I appreciate your reading it...I'd post to it, and will continue, anyway. If you don't already receive daily PRETTYblog posts in your email, you can
subscribe to those here, or consider
following along on Bloglovin'.
If you are my friend on Facebook, you are still my friend!!! Call me, text me or email, and I will do the same to you! Business partners, it's no different, you are a friend!...call me, text me or email! My contact info can be found from the blog's
about page and from
www.prettybyjl.com. This decision feels very selfish from the friend standpoint because I've really enjoyed connecting with friends via Facebook that I don't get to see often {or ever}. But I've got to let you go on Facebook. I would LOVE to be in touch with you here, or read
your blog if you have one!!! Leave it in the comments so I can follow along if I don't already! I'm hoping to read more of my favorite blogs...I think it would be fun to do that for entertainment and to pass time instead of scrolling the Facebook feed. I hope to connect better.
I'll be here again tomorrow. I have lots of fun things to share :)
Love, JL
