Perspective. I just read my dear friend Lauren's latest entry and it reminded me how lucky we are to live where we do. As I have said before, she just recently returned from a year in Zimbabwe. Whenever I feel like my life has taken a wrong turn, I know things could always be much, much worse.
It was a beautiful holiday weekend. My husband took a substantial time off of work and we were able to check off a major house project - the fence in our backyard. Our goal this year is to give our house SOME curb appeal. When we bought the place it had nothing, not to mention the heinous color. What a sense of accomplishment to have a new deck and a new fence. All we have left is to paint the exterior. Then we will have a big party.......
These projects have only taken 4 years to accomplish. Part of the reason it took so long is due to my love of the sport of triathlon. Matt has always been supportive but when you have two small children and pending projects around the house, the sport of triathlon doesn't always fit in so well. Not to mention Matt has a love for golf which he has pretty much given up on as well. Both sports can take up the majority of a weekend, so to save our marriage, we have both taken the year off.
I am, however, still very much involved in the sport. I was able to coach a group of triathletes this spring and have supported a few friends trying the sport for the first time. I keep in contact with fellow athletes and live through them vicariously. This past weekend I went to my first triathlon of the year as a spectator. As a mother, wife and athlete, I have to multitask, so my goal while at the tri was to also get in my long run. I knew it was going to be a challenge. I had to force myself to leave the transition area and not socialize to get part of my run in before the race even started. I had an hour in when the elites came in on the bike. I continued to estimate when certain people would be coming in on the bike, going out on the run and then coming back in. It was so much fun. Before I knew it, I had run for 2 hours and 10 minutes. I had a blast cheering everybody in and watching my friends and clients reach their personal goals and come in with smiles on their faces.
I left the triathlon not wishing I would have participated, but happy I accomplished MY goal. When I got home (which was much earlier than I would have if I had competed), my husband was happy and had a great morning with the kids. We had a sitter coming in the afternoon so we could work on the fence together. Now that we are both taking a break from our 2nd loves (the first being our family), we get to accomplish some things together which has indeed brought us closer.
Once in a great while I have that desire to train and race. Then I think to last year when I was constantly dropping the kids at the child center, our house was constantly messy, refrigerator always empty, husband was coming home to said house and refrigerator and asking me what I do all day, laundry piling up, projects remained unaccomplished, husband never got to golf, husband unhappy and mom unhappy(from feeling guilty for not having clean house, full fridge, laundry caught up, children not constantly being enriched....). And you know what that means: If momma ain't happy, nobody happy. That is my perspective. Momma's Happy Now.
I will let you know when we have our party.....
6 comments:
Way to figure out what makes you happy and be happy!
There is a time and place for everything but nothing can be more important than family time!
Can't wait for the party!
It was great to see you at Minneman sporting that popular Darcy smile.
Sounds like a banner day! Nice work ;-)
Glad you guys are getting some quality family time! Enjoy it!
Love you Darcy! You looked so happy and excited on Sat. We all have missed you.... your energy, excitement and smile on these early mornings. But it was so evedent that you were in your happy place - balancing life and participating the way you wanted to. Very admirable to have recognized (with Matt) what is most important and follow thru.
Right on. And you know, give yourself a big pat on the back for knowing what you need and following through That's a skill unmastered by many! So I wasn't at the track tonight partly for the same reason. Should I pat myself, too? Sometimes you need to back off the gas physically, but sometimes you just gotta make room for other stuff. I missed by gal pals though!
Wow, Darcy, this is a fabulous post. It sounds like you and I have a lot in common - except I haven't got the "balance" part figured out as well as you do. Yet! Thanks for this post, I will be thinking on it for a while.
And thanks for your comment on my blog! I appreciate your insight.
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