Happy New Year!
2018
We all need to dream bigger darling
The path to your dreams begins outside of your comfort zone. The best things in my life have come to me after venturing out onto a path that scared me. Don’t get me wrong, I am not one to always live life on the wild side. I have spent extended periods in my comfort zone, enjoying the life I have achieved. My young, wild soul always becomes restless when it is time to venture out again. This is one of those periods. My reverie has been disturbed and the fire inside has been lit. So begins my newest journey of life beyond the comfort zone. This time the fire is brighter and hotter than before. It is no longer just me. I have a husband whom I love. I have two sons who teach me, every day of their young lives, how much more I need to learn. The stakes are higher and the dreams are bigger. This blog will document my adventures (and misadventures) beyond my comfort zone.
“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.”
–Unknown
My days for the last three years have been spent being a mom. I am a 45-year-old mom with a 1-year-old and an almost 3-year-old. Is this the journey I expected for myself? No. I have always been focused on my career. I went to school to become a marine biologist and travel the world. I never expected marriage, and I did not think I was a kid person. The thought of a big baby coming out of a little hole in my body horrified me. The part after that terrified me even more. My previous experience with children had been holding one thrust into my arms by an eager parent, the child would scream and cry, and I would pass them back to the parents like a hot potato.
Fast forward twenty years, I became a foster parent. Being a foster parent has opened my eyes to a lot of things I have not previously had much experience. It has taught me to be a better, more empathetic person. It has taught me patience, but I will admit here I am a work in progress. However, the most important thing it has given me is my adopted son. One of the greatest loves of my life, and our younger (foster) son who recently turned 1. He is a happy, healthy, strong-willed boy who gives us a lot of love and laughter every day.
So here I am, a mom of two gorgeous, energetic, little boys (I often refer to as Chaos and Mayhem) and it gobbled up the hours in my day and every ounce of energy in my body. It took some adjustment. I had taken a break from marine biology and ran my own accounting business. Accounting was not a huge transition. I have been doing it since high school. I was working from home, I had one great employee, and things were going well. I had set it up perfectly for when we received our first placement. It did go well until my employee quit. Since then it has been a hot mess, but a hot mess that has taught me patience in a way my previous life never could.
Despite the upheaval, my career and personal goals are still there. They have been reordered dramatically, some are new, but none have gone away. It has left me with a tremendous mountain to climb. So it is time to shed the fat (figuratively and literally) and get a move on up that mountain. It is going to be a wild ride.
