Celebrated the last Friday the 13th of this year with a cute surprise and a hearty lunch. I am happy that Cris is sweet enough to now include Bella in our little tradition. She was really surprised and giddy with her own tiny bouquet.

We enjoyed our lunch in between meetings and emails. Before this, I would get too anxious about work that we’d end up not enjoying celebrations like this or worse, not celebrating at all. I’m trying to be deliberate now with spending more quality time with family because it feels like for the past year, I’ve missed out on a lot. I was physically present, but I wasn’t mentally and emotionally present most times.

I still love my work and I enjoy it a lot but striking the balance between motherhood, wifehood, and my career is quite complex. It’s hard to be 50-50. There will be days when I would have to step out and drop everything at the office to take my baby/babies to the clinic. There will be times when I would have to take a non-critical call remotely, sometimes with poor reception, because I chose to extend my lunchtime a little bit more with my husband.

And I don’t want to apologize about any of these anymore. I would like to start taking the guilt out of mom guilt!

Geez… this is becoming introspective and ranty.

Ah basta! We got to celebrate Friday the 13th and for that I am thankful.