Julie Ford
This book has been a dream, festering in my head for about 11 years, coming to fruition as a teleclass in 2007, as numerous and varied talks to groups, and being shelved and un-shelved dozens of times since. Today, Creating Time and Energy: A Foundational Workbook for Scattered Parents hit Amazon.
From the introduction:
You may be worn out with your bed head leaning on the table as you read this. Or, maybe you’ve been running so madly in circles that simply opening this book has taken months. Or perhaps you’re at neither of those ends and are just in need of a little encouragement. I must tell you before we begin that regardless of where you find yourself in this moment, you are important.
You’re a parent. You’re bringing up the next generation and your work is imperative to not only your little people, but to the world around us.
What spurred the writing of this workbook was an email forward I received when my children were all under the age of 3. It was called The Invisible Woman by Nicole Johnson. Ironically, it became “unsigned” as it was passed from person to person through email, so it took a while before I recognized poor Nicole as the author! Regardless, it impacted me. As a mother of little ones, I felt invisible.
In the piece, she tells the story of receiving a book from a world-traveling friend who gave her a coffee table book of famous cathedrals. She didn’t understand the meaning of the gift until she read the inscription. The book was given to her “with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.”
Most of the cathedral builders are unnamed. They dedicated their lives to building these beautiful monuments, works of art, and yet most never lived long enough to see the finished product.
I hear people call a woman “just a mom” or fellas who are taking on chief caregiver roles as “stay-at-home dads” (with undeserved eye rolls of judgement.) The same judgement targets those who choose to work outside their homes while parenting. It may come from co-workers, relatives or stay-at-home moms.
Sometimes, and this is the worst, it’s ourselves doing the name calling when we’re the only ones listening.
Knock it off.
Parenting is tough. Let’s support one another. The group is stronger than the whole! Together we can build great foundations for our kids. Together, we can build gorgeous cathedrals.
Regarding the 11-year delay. . .
While I could flippantly say, “life and parenting got in the way,” that’s simply not true. Life and parenting WAS the way and I see now that all happened as planned. I needed to be in those scattered moments as an active participant with active daily success and failure, practicing what I preached (and seeing what happened when I didn’t.)
I’m a recovering perfectionist. I sat on the book for a multitude of reasons, but that one, perfectionism, was the dumbest. If I’d waited for the book to be perfect, it would not be in print. I would have completely freaked out today when I found a typo in the Amazon description. Instead. . . Meh. It’s all fixable in minutes these days. And if I can’t fix it straight away… it shows my humanity. What a gift!
My 14 years of parenting have taught me that most daily parenting flubs are similar in that way. We have the chance to make it right. We can apologize, we can change it, mop it, glue it, bathe it, return it, bury it (don’t ask.) Do-overs are part of the day, the hour, the minute. Constant revision required. Forgiveness necessary. (Psst, that means you forgiving you, too.)
With much GRATITUDE – I thank you for taking a look, clicking through, and perhaps choosing to purchase a copy for yourself or a new parent. I’ve priced the printed book reasonably so that it can be in more hands. Within a week, it will be available even more reasonably on mobile devices. If that is still a deterrent, please write to me. I’ll be sure you get one.
Coming SOON – Within two weeks, I’ll be launching a Julz of Life Membership site with support for the Creating Time and Energy course, a private parenting forum to share insights and glean tips from others, access to dial-in days to receive one-on-one and group coaching, resource articles, and much more. If you want “in” as we’re gathering the tribe, like us on Facebook. Details will be shared there.
In the meantime,
