In the last 2 days I've achieved something that I thought was literally impossible to do -- I learned how to put together my very first WordPress website.
Weeks earlier, with the aid of a prepaid template, I created a website as part of a project for my first graduate school class and I was very happy with the overall design. I received some great feedback from my peers and professor and was prepared to make a few minor tweaks in order to get the website finalized and reviewed by my professor for a final grade. My project was ahead of deadline and life was great.
Several days passed and while I was working on my next assignment, I realize that I had overlooked a critical project requirement related to a blog which needed to be integrated into the website. An external link to a blog would not be sufficient. I spent a couple of hours spinning my wheels trying to figure out the design tools on the template I had purchased, and no luck.
The following day, I participated in a live "twitter" chat with my peers and professor hoping someone might help steer me in the right direction to finding a solution. My professor was kind enough to forward me some WordPress links and I felt like I'd be able to fix the problem in a short amount of time. In my mind, I was still way ahead of schedule so I decided to create a separate working document to type up some blog entries figuring that it would take just a little time to learn how to insert a blog plug-in into my website. The date was February 15th and my project was due in a little over a week. No problemo.
I take great pride in being a member of the rock star moms club!
We are the women with a "let's figure this out" kind of attitude, and we get shit done! We can help bring home the bacon, fry it up, and we're the ones cleaning up after everyone else in the family too. Laundry at 11pm while everyone else is asleep. No problem. Averaging about 5 of sleep a night. No problem. One kid has gymnastics at 5.30pm and the other kid needs to be picked up at 6pm. Oh, and the distance between those 2 points is 20 minutes in good traffic. No problemo.
Day in and day out, we give 110%. We're the ones professionally dressed by 7am ready to conquer our day filled with multiple tasks in pursuit of being the modern day power woman. And in our day to day lives, literally EVERY MINUTE counts.
I recall my husband looking a little surprised when I announced that I was going to start graduate school this year. He had this look on his face that I read to mean do what you want and I was a little perturbed about his reaction. I'm a horrible poker player, I wear my emotions on both sleeves. So he explained to me that it wasn't because he didn't think I could do it, but he wondered how I would find the time to do it.
"I told you so" were the words that kept hammering into my head like a migraine while I laid next to my daughter who had come down with the stomach flu.
So guess who's the rock star this weekend?
My husband has jumped right in to help me get the kids fed and has assumed the responsibility of taking care of them over the weekend while I've hidden in my office with the door locked for blocks of time during the day and in the middle of the night while trying to figure out how to put together a WordPress website basically from scratch.
Its taken a couple of hours of YouTube videos, calls to 24/7 customer service, and LOTS and LOTS of coffee. Oh, and I'll admit I had a short crying session because the new website I was creating was looking like crap. Guess what? I pressed on and did it. Learning is my passion. And, I am NOT a quitter.
Right now as I'm typing this blog post, my eyes burn and I've got a headache. Oh, and I didn't shower yesterday, but like Hall and Oates, I'm still standing. And I'm proud to feel like I still belong to the rock star moms club.
Late Night Grit - Learning the Hard Way
Many of us are part of the Gen-X demographic who grew up listening to cassette tapes while learning how to do letter press and paste up on scrapbooks. We're trying to keep up with the younger generation who can listen to music on Spotify while sending out tweets to their virtual friends and posting flawless selfies on Instagram while making quick updates to their WordPress websites. And that's OK, because the ladies of the Gen-X demographic still know how to ride the Go Go's rock star wave.
We've still got the beat and the grit!