I've learned a thing or two about stretching a dollar. It started when my son was two, my housekeeper wanted to quit and help her daughter with her first grandchild, and my career imploded and my business began to disappear. Full time motherhood of 3 kids under 8 doesn't exactly bode well for being a chic, talented New York City commercial photographer. Ever since then, we have had some ups and downs- but certainly I got prepared for this last year. Since my husband, James, lost his job a year ago we have both been marginally unemployed ever since. I have been mastering the art of squeezing dimes, grateful for our healthy home equity line at 3%, relatives who have helped us give the kids the extras that Westchester county children so desperately require. Nora got her minimal retainer with the help of our dental insurance and my eldest can never say her mother didn't insure that she would have a lovely set of teeth (especially when she smiles wide) . Motherhood is a balancing act of many sets of expectations, your own, your kids, and everyone else's. (My husband's expectations rate very high also, most of the time). Keeping them in jeans whose fit they like- always bought with some kind of discount, trying to have candlelit dinners most nights and all else in between.
Optimism needs nurturing also, to stay alive.
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