I’ve had this blog post in my mind for such a long while now. I kept thinking….”nah..no one wants to hear this.” or “really? who cares?”. So….I shelved the idea. Then I began hearing a lot of great friends and business acquaintances express similar thoughts as mine….like EVERY DAY. That got me thinking….maybe people DO want to hear this. It seems like enough people I know are at the same place that I’m actually seeing a sort of “movement”. What am I talking about? Well…here goes:
Running a business…big or small…is HARD.
Being a Mom……is HARD.
Running a business AND being a Mom can be, well, ……BONE-TIRED EXHAUSTING.
Running a business and being a Mom in a bad economy? Well….I won’t even go there.
During the Summers, when the girls are out of school, I’ve always had 2-3 childcare options available to me. This Summer? ALL of them fell through….at the same time. Needless to say, I had about 2 hours of complete PANIC. How am I going to be with the girls all day AND keep up with my business? It’s already hard enough to balance work and family (ok..let’s be honest. THere has NEVER been balance..just the constant attempt and constant failure cycle!). I felt the world closing in on me. Then, I had a moment of clarity. THIS is God presenting you with a perfect opportunity to ENJOY your Summer with the girls. For the last 6-8 months, I’ve been positioning ZozoBugBaby to be more present on the wholesale front, which means designing lines about a year in advance. As of now, Spring/Summer 2013 is about finished and ready to be photographed and handed off to the reps and showrooms. So….why CAN’T I sit back and enjoy my Summer?
I miss those days, when my business was in its infancy, of sitting at a park all day and soaking up the beautiful days! I realized that I’m SO READY for a break. I’m ready to just ENJOY my children all Summer long and put being “MOM” at the forefront again. I was first inspired by my friend, Kelly Moore. I guess maybe it was a year or so ago now, she moved to the country, stopped being so BUSY, and just became MOM (ya know..aside from her bag empire!). She has given me some great advice in that arena! Then came my great friend, Kim Adams. She gave up her busy photography business and just became MOM. She is, like me, a creative dynamo and can’t NOT be creative or she’ll wither and die. Kim is now creative, but is MOM first and not a businesswoman. She is doing what she LOVES and is HAPPY now as a freelance stylist! (Psst…Kim is the stylist for the big upcoming Spring 2013 shoot!). Seeing their brave transformations just really really inspired me!
The more I expressed my desire to change how my business functions for the Summer, the more my business-owner-friends had the same goal! I hear of someone new almost every day now taking the Summer OFF to do personal projects and just ENJOY life~! I think it’s FANTASTIC!!! I know first hand that when you are a very passionate creative type (ok…and in my case…seriously ADD), you can so easily get caught up in that desire to MAKE THINGS. It’s like tunnel vision sometimes. Maybe those of you with a “moderate” personality can achieve balance easier, but…I’m an extremist. “Balance” is merely that middle point I whiz by on my dash from one extreme to another! LOL.
So…I thought…WHY can’t I just do what I love and create 2-3 one-of-a-kind pieces each day or just a few a week, throw them up on FAcebook, and then go bask in the sun? There is no reason! LET’S DO IT! 
I’m on a “BACK TO BASICS” movement! I am SO excited (and a bit nervous) to embrace this opportunity given to me to grow closer to my babies, make crafts with them, go swimming, hang out at the zoo all day and just BE MOM. I know so many of you out there want to do the same thing and it sounds like many of you are!
So….this blog, over the Summer, may have photos of me at the park, some cool craft tutorials that I do with my girls, and quite possibly, the stress of hearing them fight with each other all day. But ya know what? I’m SO looking forward to it! You will still see lots of new goodies up in the shop and on the ZozoBugBaby Facebook page, but…they will be limited….mostly one-of-a-kind and ultra special. I would love to hear about anything new you are looking forward to doing over the Summer! Are you simplifying your life? Doing what you love? Maybe I should create a Flikr group of snapshots…”What I did today”?
See below. THis will be my Summer………savoring the little moments……every day…….:
Not perfect….but real.
So jealous that you will be spending your summer with your girls! Please enjoy it and I hope that I will be around someday when you post some goodies for sale! <3 xoxoBrenda
I am SO, SO proud of YOU JULIE!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SOOOO glad you DID share this!
“So…I thought…WHY can’t I just do what I love and create 2-3 one-of-a-kind pieces each day or just a few a week, throw them up on FAcebook, and then go bask in the sun? There is no reason! LET’S DO IT!”….
…THIS my sister, is IT!! AND, the *exact* thought I had almost 3 years ago. 1 1/2 years ago we sold our big house in a hussle and bussle area (not that you need to go sell you house! {{giggle}}…) and bought a small cottage on the lake, closer to the GA mountains about 30 miles from where we lived for YEARS. Sold/gave away 1/3 of our “stuff” and completely simplified. We are still simplifing. We slowwwwed down in a major way. We eat meals together on our back porch. We take walks together. We watch Netfilx “LOST” episodes together (we’re hooked), and we never used to do these things before. Me and my husband were “too busy”. We took steps to change our lives and the way we were attending them and God has blessed us for it. In ways that have no price tags. As you know, I also slowed my business down QUITE a bit. My babies were growing up before my eyes and I was missing so much of it because of my job. My oldest is now 18 (youngest 7) and he’s joining the Marines in LESS than a year. He’ll be gone. My second is 17, she wants to be a missionary with AIM (Adventures In Mission – World Race) and in LESS than a year. She’ll be gone. My two youngest will be “young” too quickly. I know this. I’ve learned this. I get it. Thank God I get it. I don’t want to miss a thing…..if I can help it.
Romans 15:13
“May the God of hope fill you with ALL JOY and PEACE as you TRUST in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Love and GREAT BIG HUGS to you and those BABES!!!!
Breath, sit, watch…enjoy!!!!
Laura
YES!!!!! THAT is what I want!!! I want to eat picnics in our back yard after making crafts in our jammies ALL DAY LONG and COOKING! I’m actually looking forward to COOKING!
EVERYONE I know that has simplified has reaped SO many rewards! LOVE your encouragement!!!!! 
YOU DO IT and you will NOT regret a moment.
SO proud of you!!!
Oh, and if you haven’t heard of this yet, check out “One Thousand Gifts” site. http://onethousandgifts.com/tag/1000-gifts
It goes along the lines of the flicker idea you have and her book is flying off the shelves. Myself and 14 other women read the book together this past winter. A totally different read than what I am used to or am typically drawn to, but life changing/thought provoking for sure.
OH!!!! Will go check it out after Zoe’s ballet class tonight!
<3
….and you’ll have time to read this summer too!! Nothing like a good book to “loose your mind” in
Well…if I’m living off of Ramen noodles in a few weeks..I’m blaming you! HAHAHAHAHA. kidding……..
I’ll send you some good recipies that have ramen noodles in them {{giggle}}
Glad to hear. When your business starts to slow down, it’s a good time to slow down too. When your business is booming, it’s impossible to slow down, so it’s a relief to hear that Zozo is in a slow time so you can take advantage of this moment with your girls. When my business was booming, there was NO way I could stop. No way. When it is on a “recess,” based on just the customers staying “quiet,” it’s a perfect time to relish in time with your family. Enjoy the down time, Julie! Wholesale must be slow or you’d be super busy right now!!
It’s not that business has slowed down, it’s that I”m re-prioritizing.
Now that I”m doing more wholesale and working on a completely different timetable for collections, it’s a bit easier! Wholesale is good actually! Spring has already delivered and Fall isn’t due to deliver til July, so…..in the wholesale world..this is the perfect time to lay low! 
If I used the “I’m too busy to slow down” thing as an excuse, I’d miss my girls’ entire childhood. 
One thing my friend, Kelly, told me is to “delegate, delegate, delegate”.
I was a working mom and single mother of two kids, running a retail store and worked all the time. I really missed a lot with my kids and especially missed the time to do what I love, creating. My kids are grown now and God has blessed me with three grandchildren, and a new marriage. I now work a part time job and and have my small online store. I make less money, but I am so happy being a wife and grandma. If I could do anything over it would be spend more time with my kids when they were young, time went by so fast. It takes a brave person to slow down and enjoy being a mom. Have a great summer!
Exactly Renee!!!!
Thank you!
We love the books my Mo Willems by the way! One of our favorites! I here what you are saying though. Let’s ban together be moms this summer and be happy! My youngest is five this summer and I just know from here on out each summer is going to be a last of something. I plan on soaking it all up too. Thanks for the push!
Oh you are SO right! It really hit me this year. Zoe learned to READ and has just been advancing SO much in her learning!
She ADORES the Mo Willems books!
I just don’t want to miss anything!
What a good plan fo the summer!!! enjoy your little girls because they grow very quickly.
A big kiss