Magic

Lucas with his 2nd birthday cake - September 2009

This morning as I was driving home from dropping the boys off at preschool, I remembered that every childhood should be filled with magic. I was thinking about a three year old boy I know who is so bravely enduring chemotherapy for leukemia. I desperately want his mind soaring with thoughts of good guys fighting bad guys, pirates on adventures, superheroes and all of the other excitement that makes little boy eyes sparkle. I was digging deep thinking about ways to engage him in the fantastic when I remembered that I have that power in my own children's lives as well.

When I was growing up, we had a friend of the family named Tom, who was our Peter Pan. He was endlessly creative and must have had a punchcard at Kinkos for all of the personalized books and games he made for me and Josh. For example, he once produced a booklet for me that said that the President had declared it 'National Adrianne Galvin' day. Inside the booklet was the menu for an honorary dinner and a key taped to the page. I was to take the key to a bank building and unlock a prize vault. I'm sure it took some time for him to put it together, but it made me feel so special that day and created a lasting positive memory.

So, now as I brainstorm creative ways to distract our friend's little boy, I'm including my own children in my thoughts. Where can Charlie and I swoop in with an added dose of creativity and create magic they'll remember?

Performance review

I'm in my third week as a stay-at-home mom, and the thing I'm having the most trouble shaking is the constant tendency to check my progress. The trouble is, feeding this need can lead me down lots of time-wasting or insignificant paths. It's easy to list your accomplishments when your days are full of running errands and 'getting things done'. But I didn't leave my job to be queen of Costco or to get my junk drawer cleaned out (although, that would be nice!). When I was working at Coca-Cola, our division president always emphasized the need for us to know the 'core score' for our business. He defined our core score as the one metric that determined our success. It's a simple idea and one that should apply to personal life as well.

So if my objective is to increase the overall happiness and fulfillment of our family, what is my core score? Until I figure that out, I'm going to take it easy on myself and remember that I haven't slept more than 4 consecutive hours in months! I'd welcome any thoughts...

Why the scenic route?

I've gradually been taking myself out of the proverbial 'fast lane' for years. It didn't start deliberately. Each year, I've just found myself more passionate about travel planning, making gifts for babies being born, and nurturing fledgling family traditions.

Several years ago, when I was pregnant with Evan, some of my closest girlfriends from Kellogg came to visit me in Atlanta for a baby shower weekend. We were up late one night talking when one of my friends asked the group if we felt that our Kellogg experience was worth the investment. For me, that was an easy question. Business school was a steep investment in time, money and opportunity cost; however, I'd met Charlie there, and I was carrying our first child, so it was well spent!

What I didn't realize during that conversation was that I'd also picked up a valuable intangible at Kellogg, one that is helping me transition to stay-at-homedom. Ironically, in a hive swarming with type-A's, I learned that achievement wasn't the only, or even best, path to fulfillment. I spent a good portion of my time making social connections (some call it partying) and seeking new experiences, and I have absolutely no regret over earning my first C in my last quarter there!

So today, in my first week on Charlie's payroll, I'm reminding myself of the reasons I've decided to step out of corporate life.

• I want my family to be more connected to our community and to have time to spend making it a better place.
• I want to ensure that my children's behavior meets my expectations as they begin to assert more and more independence.
• I want our days to have a strolling, not a sprinting, pace.

Over the next several weeks, I'm going to be choosing how to fill the time I used to spend at my desk or in meetings. I'm challenging myself to keep the above reasons in mind as I do.