Giving up or Prioritize

Mamma's Thoughts

If you are a mother, chances are you are faced with many decisions on a daily basis. If you are a working mother, those decisions often have to deal with choosing between work related events/opportunity and motherhood related duties. How do you make the decision? Which one do you prioritize. One would argue that the choice is easy. A mother will always choose family, right? I guess, I agree, as I find myself making that choice on a daily basis. But what are the costs? and more importantly, how to do handle avoiding being left behind?
I have learned very quickly, once I got back to work full time, how my professional network did not have my back. How those that want to get ahead will get ahead without thinking about what the consequences may be for other. So, I started thinking, what does a mother do in these situations? What are the best approaches so to continue the climb on the career ladder, without compromising your integrity, values and reputation (unlike others)? I have to tell you, I have yet to find an answer. I choose very carefully what opportunities are "worth" prioritizing at the sake of my family and what opportunities I can miss. It is not always black and white, but I remind myself that the priority is always family. As result, I have no regrets when making my choices.
However, in dealing with such a puzzle, one has to face the fact that the chance of being left behind is more likely than not. Therefore, the fight to constantly stay afloat continues.
Have you ever experienced being left behind? Or see the fruits of your labor taken? How did you handle it? How do you make your career/motherhood decisions?

What is new with Baby Maya

Maya is growing. fast. She is now 8 months old and we cannot believe how fast time has gone by. It is unbelievable to think that 9 months of pregnancy and 8 months of her life have already passed and that we are approaching the one year mark. In other news, Maya's first fall is coming up and I am so excited. I love American Fall. The smell of pumpkin, cinnamon and maple everywhere you go is something that I love and cannot wait to share with Maya. Plus, Halloween is going to be fun and pumpkin pie eating and pumpkin carving are going to be a top priority. In preparation of fall, we picked some pumpkins for decorations. Here is Maya with her picks!

What's for dinner?

Well, nothing exciting, except that Mamma and Papa' finally got a chance to a night out. We had a wedding to go to and were lucky enough to have grandma and grandpa babysit (first time!). Here we are all glamorized.

Mamma's Tips

If you are into crafts (or Pinterest!) chances are that you have compiled a list of things you want to do for your nursery, chld bedroom, child album etc. Well, I had my eyes on a cool project that I found of Etsy. I thought $35 for it was not too bad...until...the idea of not having to pay anything became even more appealing. And so, I decided to make it myself. This is what I made:

I love the idea of framing the Baby's birth info. And I had seen the idea on Etsy. It was so so easy to make. I used Microsoft Word, and WordArt. Cannot wait to frame it. You can make it with any information you wish to include. You can personalize it with your favorite colors, nursery colors or baby girl/baby boy colors. It is fun and it takes only 20 minutes!

Happy Parenting!