Guilty

Before C was born I worked a LOT. During grad school I had started working for Pier 1 and found that I really enjoyed retail. I know it sounds weird but, it was fun because you never had the same day twice. Every day was different. I was always busy. It burned a lot of calories! After 3 years of moving up from associate to assistant manager, I became a store manager with my own store. At the time it was cool because my husband was a musician and worked odd hours. It worked for us.

Retail has its down sides though. Crazy hours, working at 6am the day after Thanksgiving or staying until midnight because you have a visit the next day from the VP. Shoppers that assume you're uneducated because you work in a retail store. Shoppers that treat you like you're their servant. People that come in and seem to feel like they are entitled to something more than every one else. Or that person that wants to take their bad day out on every one else.

Despite these things I loved working in retail. I loved the visual aspects of it, moving displays and changing products for the appropriate seasons. I liked helping customers find what they were looking for and more. I even liked unloading trucks. So, when I became a stay at home mom it was a hard change.

Days began to feel like weeks when C would just sleep for hours and hours. I didn't know what to do with myself. Gradually, I adjusted and begin to love my new career as Mommy. When K came along I couldn't imagine myself working outside the home, at least until both kids were in school. Unfortunately, life doesn't always work out like we think.

When it was decided that I had to return to work part-time the first thing I thought of was retail. It's what I know and what I enjoy doing. It's also flexible with those crazy hours. I ended up getting a job at The Container Store which is not only and awesome place to shop, it's an awesome place to work.

But, I find myself feeling guilty for liking my job so much. When the ice storm hit a few weeks ago and I wasn't able to get to work for two days I found myself feeling sad that I was missing work. Some times it seems as if my job is actually a break from my life as Mom. I love C and K more than the world but, it's nice to have some time to breathe and not have a small person hanging off your leg. I know there are moms out there that feel guilty for having to work but, do they feel guilty that they like to work?

Organization is My New Middle Name

Browsing through blogs today I came across I'm an Organizing Junkie's 52 week organization challenge. I thought to myself, "this is awesome!"

When I got my part-time job in October it was at The Container Store, the guru of organization. I love The Container Store, I've shopped there since college. Unfortunately, I am not a guru of organization. I'm more of an organized mess. I feel like a hypocrite some days working there helping people organize their lives when I can't even organize my own. I will say though, that I have started to organize more of my stuff and look for more creative ways to do so since I started there. There are just so many cool ways to store and organize your things.

I've been trying to figure out how to organize myself and my family better. My husband is constantly trying to get me to put my things away and they just pile up on my dresser. I would love to buy a ton of elfa products from The Container Store but, until I've saved enough for that I'll be content to reorganize(or organize for the first time) what I have. This is where Org Junkie's 52 week challenge comes in. Each week you do something little so you don't feel overwhelmed by it all. I love that!

This is the first week and the topic is "Where will you start?" Each week Laura will post a few questions about the week's projects on Friday for everyone to discuss. I'm just so excited about it!! I found out about this at the end of the week but, I already have tons of ideas brewing. So, this week's questions are...

1. Do you have your list written? (if you missed it, you can find the pdf here)

I'm still working on my list but, among the things on it are...February do the kids closet, March the kitchen, April master bedroom closet, May master bathroom, I need to work on each individual week.

2. What is the first thing on it that you hope to accomplish this week?

I actually had a goal before I saw this challenge to clean out my glass and tupperware cabinet and I did it on Tuesday. I was so excited!

3. How are you going to make it happen?

I love to cross things off of a list that's a huge motivation but, I'm also counting on my husband and readers to hold me accountable.

This should be fun. I'll take pictures of each project I'm tackling and do a post each Friday. Are you in??