Balance

I really have a thing for balance in life. I seek it out in a rather OCD-ish way by making schedules and lists and setting goals. I'm very ambitious, but living a balanced life doesn't come naturally to me. I tend to get obsessed with one thing at a time and want to focus all my energy on that, whether it's blogging or shopping or cooking or work. So I'm constantly checking myself to make sure that I don't sabotage all the other areas.

This is how my priorities tend to go: Half my life is devoted to work, the other half is personal. In the personal area, my husband is obviously the most important thing, but he's around all the time so we get plenty of time with each other. The rest of my time I have to figure out, prioritizing when I'm going to do the laundry, get a manicure, indulge in my hobbies, etc., and basically how I am going to allocate enough -- but not too much -- time to all the things I want to do and accomplish.

So does everyone, right? But I get a little obsessive about it. I really NEED to feel that I am living a balanced life. And I just cannot for the life of me imagine how I would do that with a child.

Let's take what I consider to be my top three priorities at the moment, for instance (again, aside from my husband, who kind of overrides all:)

-Career

-Home (meaning keeping ours looking nice, and generally just taking care of domestic business, including cooking and all that).

-Taking care of myself (including eating right, working out, and looking good.)

What would happen to those three things if I had a child? I shudder to think. Not to mention all the other stuff I try to fit in when I can get a break from the above, like watching baseball, writing this blog, journaling, reading, etc.

I have enough trouble trying to balance my life as it is. I will never understand how anyone feels balanced, centered, and like they have enough time to do the things that THEY really want to do, with a child. Never.