I love what I do for a living. If you know me and you follow me, you know that my work is my passion. I’m very blessed to love what I do and that I wake up every single morning excited to dive in head first. I know it’s not that way for everyone, so I truly embrace the fact that it is that way for me. Usually throughout the day I’m head down working from the time the kids leave for school till the time they get home. That’s about 6 hours of uninterrupted work time. Those 6 hours are precious for me because I know I need to get about 10 hours of work done in 6… as every working parent knows, when the kids are home – not much is getting done. Or – better yet – fully embraced work is not getting done because there’s always one ear or one eye looking and listening for any needs and/or wants from the kids. With my sons – it’s a bit easier because they’re 10, 11, 12 and 13… they fully understand that mom needs to work and get stuff done. With my 4 year old daughter? Yeah. Not so much.

Victoria’s preschool ended on June 1st. I was set to enroll her in summer camp at her preschool for the next 3 weeks. I was all signed up and ready for her to rock it, but I canceled it the day before it started. I felt bad doing it because I knew she was excited to go, but I just felt that I needed to spend some one on one time with her. When my sons were her age I was pretty much a stay at home mom. I was building this “little” blog at the time and really trying to understand and embrace social media. I would spend all day with the kids and it was wonderful. That time was time I will never, ever forget. I know I can’t give that to Victoria, but I knew I could try and carve something out that would be special to the 2 of us.

The reality is for me that I need to work. I’m the breadwinner right now. A lot falls on my shoulders. As much as I wish I could be more present at school for the kids and on field trips and in volunteering opportunities, it’s just not in the cards right now. Work consumes me during the day and it’s important for me to grow my business. I’m very passionate about building something that my kids will be proud of someday… and my husband is doing the same thing.

But… I became an entrepreneur so I could carve out my own schedule. My mom told me not too long ago, “You will never wish you worked those extra hours, but you will wish you spent that extra time with your kids. It goes by so fast.”

That really hit home to me, so I created CAMP MOM. Victoria really wanted to go to camp, so I needed to be a little creative and come up with a “catchy name!”

CAMP MOM kicked off on June 2nd and went through June 21st! If you follow me on social media you know that I documented most of it through my IG stories and even on YouTube, too! I had so much fun coming up with stuff for us to do together that we normally don’t get to do!

We went to the zoo.
We went out to a “fancy” lunch.
We went to an indoor playground.
We went to an outdoor playground.
We went to the library.
We went on a scavenger hunt.
We walked to our town center.
We picked flowers.
We went swimming.
We went to the beach.

Every single day for 1-2 hours, I STOPPED WORKING. I stopped answering emails. I didn’t answer calls. I was off the grid completely and the only thing that mattered was my girl.

I can’t tell you how much it meant to me and to her.

Every single morning Victoria woke up and asked, “What are we doing today!?”

There was excitement! It was just Mommy and Daughter time. We laughed and we talked and we just got to be together without any distractions. It was the most precious time of all.

I’m going to be honest here with you, I was worried about actually doing this! I was worried about “checking out” for a couple of hours. Looking back it’s laughable that I felt that way! Work is work, but my family… that is my life. I had 2 occasions when I needed to be away for work throughout the last 3 weeks and my mom stepped in for me, which was fun for Victoria, too!

The best part was seeing how many moms followed along and started doing the same thing, too! Everyday I was getting a text or message from someone saying, “This is what we did today for Camp Mom!” Even some of my friends who work full time as teachers or in offices were sharing with me that they were fitting it in during the late afternoons. It was amazing to see other moms embracing the present moment and making some time for something important.

CAMP MOM was a big success for us.

Being able to STOP work and be with Victoria every single day was the best thing in the world. It was the best thing I ever did.

Our last day of Camp Mom was probably the cutest! I told her we were relaxing and getting pampered, so we went for Mommy and Daughter PEDICURES!!

It was…. well, AMAZING!!!