It's a Monday morning after a busy few weeks of travel/work and an even busier weekend with family stuff. It feels like the first time in a while I'm able to come up for air, even if it's a short time before diving into other deadlines. Speaking of, it's tax season so I'm also hustling to finish up on what my CPA needs to finish out 2019.
Surely this is normal, but I'm constantly thinking about what it means to be an adult. I could be wrong, but I'd assume Saint Anne the Wife and I are candidates. It's not like you hit a specified marker and "bam!" you're a full-grown adult. She and I are both racing towards 40 yrs old too and good Lord that's odd.
We're in that spot where we've got our professional responsibilities while also crazy busy doing family stuff. Our older boy had his first sleep over at a friend's house Friday night, two back-to-back birthday parties on Saturday, and then another event Sunday after church. Our two year old is still in drunk octopus mode so we're fighting to stay above water and not let him drag us into the abyss. How self-employed creatives in this time in life are able to juggle paid work, family responsibilities, and any kind of personal work baffles me.
My parents were both in their 30s when I showed up and absolutely remember being in the kitchen with my mom while she was making my dad's 40th birthday cake. I was in childcare and school obviously, but they also took me to work with them and I never thought anything about it. My mom was a teacher and it seems like I was always with her at school or professional conferences she taught during the summers. When I was younger, my dad worked for a group in Texas and we made quite a few family trips to Dallas for his work stuff. He was self-employed when I got older with several retail stores in the Oklahoma City metro. By the time I was in third grade I was running a cash register and making spending money by keeping vending machines in his stores full, mowing around the properties, and cleaning up the warehouses. When I was old enough to drive, I was reselling wooden pallets and making deliveries. Pretty sure that time was very much a part of who I am today.
My boys are still too young for manual labor, but you'd better believe they'll be hauling my camera gear around soon enough. With me being out and crazy busy the week before, Anne had some much needed alone time last Saturday while I was out with both boys picking up gear before the next job. It was basically us getting in and out of hired cars with me holding our two year old in one arm, a large Pelican case in the other, and making sure our older boy kept up. Anne's current school is far enough away to feel like it's on another planet so I doubt the boys will ever spend much time there. Back in Oklahoma she shuttled them to and from school/childcare every morning, but I'm running that show at the moment. It's a mad dash at times when I have a job come in and we have to make arrangements with other people to get our kids to and from where they need to be.
It's a weird season but absolutely part of the deal. I'm thankful for my parents for doing what they had to do and only now honestly be able to somewhat appreciate it. I'm still not sure I'm an adult, but I feel like I'm getting better at it.
