What Did You Give Up?

Very few people have only a singular focus in life. Most of us have a million things going on at any one point in time. It's what keeps us occupied, it's what fulfills us, and it's what drives us stark raving mad.

With less than two months to go until Spoiled Baby is born, I've been giving a lot of thought to how I'll manage my time once she's here. For the first 12 or so weeks, I'll be at home on maternity leave. After that, however, it's time to start juggling again.

Here's what I'll be juggling:

• Biggest priority - Raising Spoiled Baby
• Bigger priority - Loving Funny Daddy
• Big priority - Managing Crazy House
• Full time job - HR Project Manager/Analyst
• Part time freelancing - Web content writing and editing
• Constant blogging - Personal and paid
• Occasional judging - HS Speech and Debate
• Cooking shows and sales - Pampered Chef
• Volunteer training - Leadership Development
• Favored pursuit - Fiction writing

Just looking at that list, I feel tired. But with the exception of the first item, the other 9 are already the activities I juggle between in life.

It seems like everybody and their brother loves to tell me that I'm going to have to give up either "everything" or "a whole lot" once Spoiled Baby gets here. But...I don't want to.

Does that sound selfish?

I like my many involvements. I've always had a zillion things going on - dating right back to childhood. I once told my mother, in the second grade, that I was burned out. But when she cut back on my activities the next school year, I was so bored and miserable that I found more things to throw myself into.

I'm convinced that with careful planning, I can still juggle all of these activities and be a good mom to Spoiled Baby. But if it really comes down to it, it'll be the last three items on the list that go by the wayside: my fiction, the training I present, and my Pampered Chef business.

What do you all think? What did you give up when you became a mommy? Leave me comments with your thoughts!