What can I do in a month?

Today is January 3rd.

On February 3rd, I turn 35.

35 seems like a big deal, or at least it felt that way ever since turning 34. I find myself at this wonderful place in my life – with kids and happy with the decision to stop at 2 beautiful, healthy, verbal and sometimes too whiny and binky/blanky addicted, little girls.

The business thing is definitely under control, and my plans to expand its growth and potential continue.

I get along nicely with Husband Extraordinaire, who is supportive in all of my endeavors and who offers on-the-money advice when I request it.

As 35 looms, my biggest accomplishment is perhaps letting go of the idea of attaining perfection. My interest today lies more in keeping myself focused, allowing myself indulgences (clothes & shoes, primarily), surrounding myself with caring and supportive and authentic friends, and making sure to actively love my family, and not just say I love my family, and not just assume that saying “I love you” is enough. And, with all things social-drama and work related, I keep this mantra in mind:

Illegitimi non carborundum

So, yes, I feel I’m in a good place as I approach the not-so-big, but big-feeling birthday. And here’s what I hope to accomplish this month:

1. Make headway on my self-published law school admission guidance book so it’s ready for printing and marketing in March. it’ll be here soon!

2. Work, work, work, but not lose my stamina…. the end of my busy season is days away and the end of the season is always the hardest – people are more stressed out, deadlines loom, and expectations may be difficult to manage.

3. Run every day for a week. Then I get to buy myself new running shoes to replace the $30 pair I bought 2 years ago. That’s my motivation for picking back up where I left off with my workouts.

4. Planning my birthday celebration. I’m inviting friends to my house for champagne and cupcakes, and even though I down scaled the original idea to avoid exhibiting ostentatious behavior during our current economic crisis, I still plan to wear my best new strapless cocktail dress from Saks (therefore instilling additional motivation to keep going with the running).

5. Plan my daughter’s 5th birthday, vowing not to go overboard. I swear I’m using e-vite, and not spending more than $250. ($150 of that is for the gymnastics place…..)

6. Enjoy two weekends in Palm Springs: one with my family (involving watching the girls in the pool, watching the girls bike, working during naptimes, and my husband’s BBQ prowess at its best), and one with three close friends (involving premium outlet shopping, tennis, yummy restaurants, a good cocktail or too, and logging some pool time when I am actually able to read a book in the sun).

7. Hosting my book club. Which means actually reading the book I selected. I’ve been so busy reading other things (and I promise to blog about all of the books soon) that this book has so far eluded my attention. Better add that to the list of things I’ll accomplish in Palm Springs this weekend.

8. Welcoming our new au pair from Bosnia. Please, please wish us luck on that one. Please. I maintain such high hopes and faith in people…. let’s hope I don’t start blogging about au pair frustrations anytime soon. (Any good references for Bosnian culture I should know about? Google proves puzzingly elusive on the topic).

9. Lead a nonprofit board meeting by keeping my fingers crossed under the table and praying under my breath, “please, no controversy, please no controversy, please! please!”

10. Get to 1,500 twitter followers. twitter counter certainly says it’s possible. Why not go for it?

11. Continue moving my marketing and web team ahead with changes to my business and to decorating this blog appropriately.

12. Change my business model slightly so I’m not quite so accessible to people who haven’t paid me yet : )

Ok, now I’m off to go for a nice run. Gotta earn those running shoes.

How a Mompreneur Spends a Saturday

This is my tax season. I’m a law school admission consultant, so if I’m not busy on November 1st I should just close up shop. So, it’s November 1st, a Saturday, and I’m home working.  At least it’s rainy. That helps.

B (husband extraordinaire) took the girls to visit their great-grandparents. He does this to do a nice thing – guilt free work for me, and also not having to spend an afternoon cooped up in uncomfortable quarters (don’t get me wrong, I love his grandparents, but I get my bonus points by calling them weekly for about 45 minutes a pop, right?). Besides, B will have to do his end-of-the-month lawyerly billing tomorrow so it’s his time to enjoy the girls.

And, I have 98 e-mails to answer in the meantime:

78 of those are from clients who need something reviewed ASAP.

2 are from Neiman Marcus, enticing me to the 40% off sale that is ending in a few hours. (Alas, I already indulged on Thursday and am guiltily awaiting my shipment of a cashmere juicy sweatsuit and a gorgeous blue Vince Admiral coat... hopefully it won’t all fit and my personal assistant -or one of my personal assistants, I should say now that I’ve hired a second friend to help me with my computer issues- will return it for me….then it will be truly guilt-free because for some silly reason I haven’t told B about it….. he was so nice this week, telling me not to shop online but to actually go and enjoy the experience of shopping and then find something really nice)…

The rest of the e-mails are from friends congratulating me on the new blog, so that’s cool. Thanks, Friends! (This is what my daughter’s preschool teacher, Katie, would say… she addresses all the kids as “Friends” and it’s pretty sickeningly cute and effective).

Since starting this post, I’ve answered two client calls. So I guess they’d actually like me to review their applications now (the audacity! they pay me and then actually expect me to do work!).

For those of you who are curious about how a Mompreneur spends a Saturday afternoon, I will cram through as much work as possible from noon -2:30 or so, then grocery shop (you know it’s bad when the au pair is buying her own butter and eggs!) and I promised Brent I’d work out (must stay 117 pounds FOREVER). I hope to go for a jog in the rain. The gym will be too crowded (or so I assume – I haven’t actually been there since JULY!!!! and yes, I’m still paying the monthly fee just in case running in the rain loses its appeal).

That’ll get me to 4:30 or so, when I’ll start missing my beautiful girls like crazy. They will come home and be grouchy and demanding (especially since I’ve cruelly taken away my almost-2-year-old’s pacifier) and I’ll be itching for date night to begin.

Tonight’s babysitter is Hannah. Brent asks if that’s the tatooed one. Yes. He says, “Oh, I like her. She’s a nice girl.” He says that because her tatoos are all of flowers. I like her because she knits.

And date night? I have no idea. Anywhere I can wear my jeans would feel right. There’s a local brewery we like. Generally, though, our fall back date night place is the cheap sushi joint we’ve been going for years where sharing a large Kirin and some sushi gets us out of there for under $35. And then it’s either to Baskin Robbins or Coffee Bean.

So, now, instead of dreaming my day through I am going to live it. Have a wonderful Saturday, wherever yours takes you.