Five years old = 43,800 hours.

Five. 5. Five years. 5 years. Five years old. It’s been five years. 260 weeks. 1,825 days. 43,800 hours. (Is my math right?) Kinda feels like five minutes. The days are long but the years are short. There’s a reason cliches are true. Because they’re true.

My first baby – the wee one who inspired the beginning of this blog back in 2010 – just turned 5. FIVE. I started writing a mushy post about how her bust into my selfish world changed me in a most surprising way… how I am so happy that she ‘found’ me when she did… how I thank God every day that she’s my girl… how [as her mother] I wish I could stop worrying about the course of her life in this crazy world. But then I stopped.

Instead, I changed gears and literally just googled “what takes 5 years to do” just for kicks. The first article that came up: What Would You Do With 5 Years? The second title that came up: Why It Takes 5 Years to Become an Entrepreneur. I laughed. And then I got weird and weepy and started searching my computer for all the images from the past you see posted right here.

I laughed as I went down family photo memory lane. I also laughed because those aforementioned articles that came up in my search were right on. SO right on. So correct. So true. So apropos for who I’ve become, how I’ve evolved and why I’ve changed some things in my life I thought I’d never change before I actually became a mother. Because we all change after we become mothers. Because this blog is about what happens to your focus after babies (f-a-b).

Because all you moms know what I mean.

Five years is a long time. Five years is a short time. Five years is an important chunk of time that must be prioritized for reasons that are real and important not-all-about-us-anymore and sometimes loud and wackadoodle (if your kid is like mine). Priority changes perspective, goals and life. And a lot can change in five years.

So let’s answer the issues posed in those top two articles that came up in Google search… Question #1: What Would You Do With 5 Years? (Meaning, if you knew you had five years left… how would you concentrate your time and energy?) Answer #1: I’d concentrate on something really, really important – on a personal, human level – that has potential to make the world a better place after my time here is up. Ok, next. Issue #2: Why It Takes 5 Years to Become an Entrepreneur. Answer #2… taken straight from the article itself (excuse the cut-and-paste, it’s just so good I had to): Becoming an entrepreneur takes most people about 5 years because entrepreneurship isn’t about any particular idea or product – it is a career change. But unlike most career changes the real lessons are from what we learn about ourselves.

Sounds a lot like motherhood to me.

Five. 5. Five years. 5 years. It’s been five years. 260 weeks. 1,825 days….

So thank you my little surprise… for teaching me how to grow up, be more confident, find refreshed creativity, quicker-thinking, faster-moving, career-inventing, problem-solving, priority-wielding, a-little-more-grounded and all around happier in the humongous picture of what living a full life truly means these past five years. You’re beautiful, kind, sweet, goofy and funny… which keeps things movin’ and groovin.’ And life is about movin’ and groovin’ in ways that take you off guard. That’s what keeps it interesting.

Because if I’m going to spend 43,800 hours on something, it’d better be WORTH IT for all parties involved.

I love love love love love you LadyP (5 times!)… you are WORTH IT. (Mushy enough for the rest of ya?)