Knowing your creative moments

I am in a season of busy. A season of fun, unforgettable, wonderful (and also slightly stressful) busy. I am having to learn to know myself. What I can handle. What I need to say no to. When and how to tap into my creativity and use it to its fullest potential. I've been planning multiple parties at once, working so hard on photography, taking on this challenge of writing for 31 days straight, and balancing it all with the rest of real life. (You know, being a mom, a wife, cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, making our home a place we enjoy being.)

Shaun and I had a talk that started out as a fight (all my fault that it began that way) where he asked me in my ideal world what would working from home look like for me. (Up to this point it has looked like either staying up way late (like one or two in the morning) after my kids are asleep to edit and missing out on my time with Shaun then starting out the next day exhausted, or trying to work in the morning while all three kids are awake and having needs and I'm getting interrupted constantly and getting very frustrated at how things take two or three times as long as they should when working that way.) So I told him. "It looks like one morning a week where I have a few hours of peace and no one else needing me while I work." I thought it was a crazy, unreachable, unrealistic dream. Mornings are when I feel the most alert, the most creative, but it's also when he is at work every day. But he replied, "Ok, Tuesday mornings I'm taking off work and you'll have three hours to yourself." Oh. My. Gosh. This is unbelievable. Yesterday was the first morning this happened. It was heaven. The whole week leading up to it every time I almost darted down to my office to squeeze in a few minutes of work I stopped myself and remembered, that's what Tuesday morning is for. So my creative moments photography wise now have a home, a place of their very own. It's so good.

On another note, if you know me, then you know I enjoy fashion, and love to put together new combinations of clothes when picking out my outfits. However, in the morning, when I am in a time crunch and trying to dress and feed my three children and get somewhere on time too is not when I feel the most inspired to choose my own clothes. I always clean my closet and switch out my clothes in the spring and the fall, so a few weeks ago when I did the fall clean out and was feeling all kinds of inspired, I made a list of outfits that would be fun to wear in the fall season. Sunday morning we were rushing to get out the door, Shaun and I were speaking at church and I was trying to take care of the boys and last minute thoughts and only ended up with about 10 minutes to get myself ready. My hair was still in a braid from the day before, so I just pulled it half back, looked at my list, picked an outfit from it and was out the door and in the car in record time. Boy was I thankful for that list.

Sweater: Express

Dark Jeggings: AE

Brown boots: Steve Madden

Necklace and Earrings: J. Crew Outlet

Know your creative moments, make space for them, listen to them, write them down, and use them to your advantage.

[This post is part of a 31 day series on being present in the moment]