Mompreneurs: Taking any time off this month?

So, my mompreneur pals, how are you holding up in the midst of the holiday season?  Does your business taper off when the holidays hit, or does it ratchet up to notches unknown?

Working in the toy and game business, we have been in full-tilt-crazy-busy-mode since September/October.  Things will begin to slow down next week, once that window of realistic shipping expectations closes prior to Christmas Eve.

At that point, I will try to finish shopping for my family and bake a few cookies if I have time.  But the scope of my holiday activities has been severely cut back since we launched our business.  My days of channeling Martha Stewart are no more.

Image via flickr cc sarahrzepecki

In another life, I would spend hours poring over recipes, planning holiday menus and making scores of cookies, cakes and candies for family and friends.  These days, a recipe makes the cut if it's fast and only has a handful of ingredients.  And even if it makes the cut, that's only a graduation up to the "Maybe we'll get a chance to bake these" list.  And I won't lie.... I have resorted to store-bought slice and bake in a pinch, or (heaven forbid) cookies already made from the bakery.

That's a painful confession for me.  For years, I pinned a lot of my self worth to my holiday kitchen prowess. It was one of my "things," ya know?  But there is just no way I can dedicate the kind of time that I used to give.  And without that kind of time, I just can't even torture myself by planning to do too much.  That's pressure I just can't take.

So, I've surrendered to the ready-made Christmas on levels I never would have predicted for myself.  It used to make me a little crabby and grouchy if I thought about it for too long...feeling sorry for myself and such, and wondering what the heck I was thinking when I decided to dive into entrepreneurial motherhood.  But I've reached a place where I'm at peace, and where I am able to squeeze in a single, strategically chosen recipe that is time efficient, but still has big "wow" factor.  My family loves it when I do get a chance to bake.  They get so excited.  But they are even happier when I'm pleasant and cheerful and we can take the precious time we have away from work to have fun.

Now that the kids are getting a little older, sometimes, that fun includes shared time in the kitchen baking.

Now, about that tangled string of lights that I haphazardly threw onto the shrubs outside... and the fact that our tree has been sitting in the corner of the front room undecorated for nearly a week. {sigh}  I think it's time I put those kids to work!





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