* Warning personal rambling post about life, no hurt feeling if you pass this one by!*

I don’t know about you guys with kids but it’s time for school to get in session!  My kiddos are still little so we are only doing preschool but STILL! This year the twins missed the cut of for kinder by 3 days, they turn 5 on October 3rd.  So we have one more year at our morning preschool, Falls Church Day School (which we LOVE by the way if you are local and looking for a great program).  They are in a kindergarten program this year so they basically get kinder 2x which is awesome.  My little Greyson will start preschool 3 mornings a week, I can’t believe it.  Then I’ll just have Hunter at home.  I am really lucky to have a nanny that helps me with a super flexible schedule, I have her about 20 hours a week and then work during naps and in the evenings.  Each transition we figure out how to make the most of my time to “work” and still be able to be with the kids daily.  It’s not easy for anyone but totally worth it.  There are always too many things to get done and not enough time to do them all but it is important to me to be there daily with the kids.  I like to bring them to school and pick them up and so it’s a constant juggling act.  When things get overwhelming I just say to myself “you’ll never regret spending time with them” and it’s true but I might regret not being there and putting work first.  Not everyone has this choice and I am blessed to have it be a choice.

If you own your own business you know it’s a blessing + a curse.  You never really stop working BUT it’s yours and you get to pick the priority.  I have so many people say “I wish you blogged more I used to love to read your what you were up to personally + professionally.” The truth is that blogging always ends up last on my priority list.  If you blog you know it takes more time than people think to write a basic little blog post (like this one). It might take me a couple hours all in time and so they don’t get done….instead I post on Instagram and try and share in my stories (love that I can use filters to hide my bags under my eyes!).  I’m going to try more live video too.  These communication mediums are just faster.

Blogging and social media has also changed so much since I started blogging 10 years ago (seriously that is a LONG time ago!).  Now there is a lot of pressure to only publish beautiful images and magazine worthy content + photography.  It can be intimidating and this is just one tiny sliver of my business and one that doesn’t pay me.  Those of you out there that have home studios to photograph things beautifully and time I am jealous of your time and dedication ….. you’ll find the real me on IG Stories #hotmessexpress #hustle ha! The other day I shared in IG stories that I got all the big kids loaded up in the car and out to a birthday party and went to check the address on my phone and realized the party was NEXT Saturday…..as I said REAL LIFE …no ones life is perfect no matter what you see on social media we are all just scraping by some days better than other!

I think I’m just babbling at this point …… where did I start this post …. oh right…back to school. So I’m sure you all with kids are either getting yours into school next week or getting started to put them back into preschool.  Thank the lord for a little “you” time.  A little part of you is probably sad like I am that they are a year old and time is flying by …but really ….bring on being able to go to the bathroom without kids calling “mom, mama, where are you??  He hit me, she pinched me, I’m hungry….can I watch TV…..” or whatever version of this happens in your home.  I have a new found friend that said to me the other day “I was using the bathroom the other day and thought to myself, when does Kelly go to the bathroom?” Ha! this cracked me up and if she is reading this blog post I hope she smiles that I mentioned it.  The reality is when you have 4 kids 4 and under you just keep on rolling……if you don’t you might get squashed!

Happy Friday!

** Pardon the typos + spelling error **