Mom's Finding Balance - Laura's BIG Secret and My Ever Changing Balancing Act

{Welcome to our blog series of guest posts from other business-owning moms, to encourage all you other entrepreneurial moms who either already have your own business or those of you who wish you did! We want to inspire you to follow your dream and give you tips along the way for balancing motherhood, your business/creative passions, and the rest of your life! We certainly don’t claim to have all the answers, so that’s why we want to create a community of encouraging moms here on the Blue Ladybug Mamas blog!}


Sooo, I (Laura) have a BIG secret!

I’ve been dying to share it with you, and after the ultrasound today, I finally can!

 That’s right, the other Blue Ladybug Mama is expecting now too.  This will be baby #3 for our family.

I’m nearly 12 weeks along and closing in quickly on the first trimester.  Hallelujah!  Which leads me to some “splainin’” I need to do.  I’ve been sick.  Real sick.  And tired and grumpy and unmotivated.  You know, the usual drill for a pregnant woman in her first trimester.  Which has immensely affected The Blue Ladybug.  Perhaps you have placed and order and it seemed to take an extra long time, or you’ve wondered why the crickets seem to be chirping on our facebook and blog.  Or what happened to all those new designs we promised.  Well, making a new life kind of took precedence.  So I beg for your forgiveness if you’ve been left wondering, “what happened?”  I’m certainly hoping to be feeling more like myself very soon here. 

Which leads me right in to talking about how I balance my life as a mom, wife and business owner.   Like many other moms, I do a lot of morning emailing and communicating while the kids are eating breakfast and just getting themselves around.  I spend the morning playing with them, doing chores together, and doing our version of what we call Tot school.  Once I’ve put the kids down for a nap, I have an hour or two to check emails and convos again, and then start sewing!   And if we’ve been extra busy, I’ll sew in the evening for a bit, after the kids are in bed, if my husband is occupied with something else.   The hardest part for me is, trying to squeeze in the time for blogging, working on new items, creating new listings, taking and editing photos.

I won’t lie, when I first started The Blue Ladybug, I was still working another part time gig.  I was completely consumed with all the sewing and crafting.  My ideas were flooding out of me, and I was learning all the ropes of operating my own Etsy shop.  Constantly photographing, editing and listing all the new products I was making.  I had no rhythm or routine.  I worked every moment I was awake.  And I quickly learned how it was hurting my family, and turning me into a not-so-nice person.  When I finally developed a routine that worked for my family, it made such a difference for the kids and my husband.  And I felt a lot less stressed.  But it took time, and trial and error to discover what worked for us. 

I still come up with a lot of new ideas and products.  But I don’t always have time to turn them into a new creation, or photograph and edit them.  This used to frustrate me.  But I’ve recently come to a point where I know that my #1 most important job is the family that God has blessed me with.  They deserve the best from me.  Sure my family needs the extra income, but I have to ask myself sometimes, “at what expense am I willing to pay?”  That usually helps realign my thinking and my heart.

And my nice little routine will probably change in April when baby #3 arrives.  Newborns have a way of doing that.  I’ve also started babysitting my niece a few days a week, who is only 3 months old.  So she rearranges our schedule too.  Sometimes I have to remind myself, that my goal is not to be a powerful business woman.  My goal is to do a job that I enjoy, that helps my family financially.  And that yes, I have limits, I am not superwoman (shhhh…don’t tell anyone).  I used to feel bad for passing up a big new opportunity for The Blue Ladybug to grow and expand, but truthfully, we’re the perfect amount of busy for mamas of wee little ones.  And I wouldn’t trade that for all the money in the world.

I’m so looking forward to the rest of this series with our other guest bloggers.  I love to hear what works for others, get new ideas from moms in the trenches, and most importantly, that confirmation that we’re all in this together.  The best part of being a woman/mom is when I get together with other woman/moms and just chat over our lives.  I feel like I walk away with a new perspective, a tidbit of new information in my pocket, and the chance to have dropped a load off my shoulders.  I hope this blog can do that for you too this week.

Two Peas in a Pod Giveaway ends tomorrow night at 10pm est. You won't want to miss out on it- go back to Monday's post for one great mom's advice on balance, and the giveaway information!