I just got back into the office a few weeks ago after 3 long luxurious months of maternity leave. Turns out, as great as living in yoga pants is, it’s not such a glamorous lifestyle. About 10 ½ weeks in, I caught a look at myself in the mirror, and realized that I was not exactly office ready.
First, the only pants that fit me were yoga, sweat or maternity. I started working out as soon as I got medical clearance, to try to at least get back into my pants, but I didn’t quite make that goal. I had some dresses, but they were the same dresses I wore through most of my pregnancy, when I put them on now they remind me of month 5. My baby acne had just cleared up, leaving some nice acne marks around my chin. But those were okay, since they were about the same color as the circles under my eyes. My hair was newly thick from the pregnancy and vitamins, but a bit misshapen from the shedding and breakage that happens after deliver.
I did not want to go back to work looking and feeling a wreck. I have never been the type of person that is okay with using my kids as an excuse for not doing my best professionally. Because let’s face it, I work so that I can support them. The better my effort at work is, the better I can support them.
I happen to know this about myself, when I look good, I feel better.
So I put a little money aside, and made a list of the equipment I needed to pull it together enough to feel okay about dropping my baby off and heading into work.
- 3 tummy camouflaging tops
- A simple black dress
- Black flats
- Comfortable black heels
- Nude low heel
- Haircut
- Lipstick
Most everything I bought is black or brown, since I no longer have time to figure out what matches in the mornings. The haircut made it faster to fix my hair, the time I save there, can go into 5 minutes of makeup. I have started getting good at packing everything up at night that I need to walk out the door with in the morning, so I don’t spend much time pulling things together.
I still am pretty tired, and life with three kids is crazy, but at least when I get to work I sorta look like I have it all together. Yeah I’m faking it, but one day soon, once the baby can put on her own pants, I will no longer be a tired mess, I will be rested and organized and wearing pants that button.
Joel 3:10 Beat your plow-shares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
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