A Secret to Success This New Year: Become Committed and Resilient

Mom and son celebrating the new year in the Bahamas in 2025! "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." – Confucius Greetings from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ! Things have been busy. I am still a working mom of three , working full time who is trying to make a difference. I do a lot of things and try to be present so that I can learn from them. I share them on this blog so that we can learn together. Below are some thoughts, hacks, and/or lessons that I have learned from navigating my world. 2025 was intense. I faced a convergence of pressures: the stress of navigating life as a single mom while paying considerable  alimony ,  an intensifying family situation since we lost my beloved aunt, my dad, and my cousin’s mom—work related stress—learning a new job after an imposed job change, all while navigating the rapid pace of raising my kids and trying to maintain a standard of living for them with fewer resources. Together, these factor...

Working Mom Tip: Many Problems Can Be Solved With Cash and CVS

Everybody gets busy. However, when working moms get busy often others pay the price, often our kids. Last week, our daughter's school had a Halloween party for "Family Night". Like it is every month, the Family Night was held on the same night at the PTO meeting.  So, I had to leave work and go immediately to the school for the PTO meeting and the girl who watches our daughter brought her from ballet to the school for the party.

I realized while I was at work that the Halloween party was a costume party. I know that might seem obvious. However, we get so many communications from the school that it was not at all clear to me that a costume was required until I was at work. Since I had no time to go home to get one of the number of costumes that she has (we have friends who have given her lots of Disney Princess costumes) I improvised. 

I have learned that many of life's problems can be solved with a credit card and a trip to CVS. 

After a meeting, I stopped by CVS and went directly to the seasonal aisle in search for an age appropriate costume that was reasonably priced. The price point actually mattered a lot because my daughter already has two, yes two, costumes for Halloween this year. (One is a relic of the costume she wore for her birthday last month. The birthday costume wasn't required. However, she's the kind of girl who likes to go all in when there's a theme!) My point is, I wasn't about to buy her yet a third costume. Still, I knew she'd be disappointed if she didn't have one for the event. So, I bought her a spider head band from CVS. Had her strip down to her leotard and tights and voila, we had a costume! As luck would have it the school had face painting. So, her costume was full blown. The photo tells the story. I think we nailed it. What do you think?!









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