stages of a woman's life

I found this quote from James E. Faust on a friend's blog and liked it...... "You cannot be a 100% wife, a 100% mother, a 100% church worker, a 100% career person, and a 100% public-service worker at the same time. How can all of these roles be coordinated? Says Sarah Davidson: 'The only answer I come up with is that you can have it sequentially. At one stage you may emphasize career, and at another marriage and nurturing young children, and at any point you will be aware of what is missing. If you are lucky, you will be able to fit everything in.'

Doing things sequentially, filling roles one at a time at different times is not always possible, as we know, but it gives a woman the opportunity to do each thing well in its time and to fill a variety of roles in her life. A woman does not necessarily have to track a career like a man does. She may fit more than one career into the various seasons of life. She need not try to sing all of the verses of her song at the same time." (A Message to My Granddaughters: Becoming Great Women. Ensign, Sept. 1986, 16.)

Since Eden has joined our family, there have been activities taken off our agenda. Things I can't do simply because of the phases of our life. Things as simple as holding hands with my husband as we walk, a conversation uninterrupted. Or larger activities like going to see President Monson at a fireside and other activities were children aren't invited or make it too difficult to participate. Let it be perfectly clear that I don't regret Eden being in my life nor postponing these activities. Regret connotes a feeling of sadness. The feeling is more of an inclination or realization. It is a new phase of life for all of us; one that I feel we've transitioned to fairly well. And I think I will slowly figure out how to put different aspects back together for maybe a 70/20/10 balance. Until then, I have a blast crawling on the ground most of the day spending my world in the mind of a 1-yr-old!

Let me give this it's two bits: At the same time, being in a phase of parent also allows for trick-or-treating, buying fruit snacks, and talking 'baby babble' in public that you can't get away with in any other phase of life!