Motherhood, it changes you.

While there’s a whole list that involves sagging and wrinkled, exhausted and emotional that can be wrapped in there, for many women becoming a Mom takes life to a whole other level.

It brings out our genuine loves, forces them into places creatively and personally that reveal talents and ingenuity unrealized until that point.

It inspires.

Moms see a need and create the solution.

So, with this monthly series we celebrate the genius of Comox Valley women who turn the lessons of parenthood into a resource for the community.

We celebrate local mom entrepreneurs.

Name: Kathryn Chung
Age: 31, one husband, a son and a daughter
Business: Editor/Publisher of Currently Cumberland
Town: Cumberland
Tell us a bit about your work: Currently Cumberland is a free community newsletter that is mailed monthly to every address in Cumberland and hand-distributed beyond the village boundaries. My focus is to highlight the amazingly diverse events, businesses and services available to people living and recreating in Cumberland.

Someone else! Two friends in particular who knew that my talent for nosiness, and extraordinary organizational skills could be put to use for the betterment of Cumberland. After pushing my pregnant self and then a baby in a buggy all around Cumberland for two years, and then repeating that cycle one more time I was usually up-to-date with the Village’s upcoming events.

Still I would miss an event because the big guys didn’t publish it, or the poster was rain soaked and illegible. Out of frustration (I don’t like to miss out on fun) and my need for a schedule-of-events organizer in a refrigerator door + magnet format my little publication was born.

To be honest the challenges are the same as when it was a home/home balance. Amplified and a little distorted but ultimately: what to make for dinner? where to stack another pile of laundry? where did child #1 or #2 put my keys?

My role as a Mum remains more important than any meeting or deadline. I may be running late, and my socks might not match. I will choose to stay at kindergarten till my daughter feels safe and I might reschedule a meeting altogether if my son can’t bear to see me go.

As a mother in business I have a different sort of patience and with that comes a confident peace, and an elevated level of productivity and dexterity that since reentering the work force has allowed me to tackle life’s/work’s challenges with a little less stress and a lot more pizzazz!

How does this happen so rarely and why doesn’t it bother me more? Depending on the season, dig up my garden or even someone else’s, actually fall asleep at the beach, snowboard or mountain bike till my legs ache and the moon comes up.

This opportunity being nominated as OBE’s Mompreneur has been my greatest “tool” so far. I have so much respect for the honesty and emotional vulnerability that the contributors devote to every piece submitted and the positivity that ensues is so heartwarming.

In print marketing and advertising sales especially, the “pick me, pick me” pushiness that is expected is not my style. I am not a sales person. I am an ambassador for good news and great service and the businesses I look to work with are a reflection of all the good we have here in the Valley. I am honoured to be a part of this inspiring group.

Toughest lesson, To say no. To truly value my time and work so that others will too. To admit that I have a skill set that is well matched to my position and that the service I provide is worth every penny.

The biggest success has been having my community support my project from the very start. A senior happy to learn about line dancing stopped me on the street to say thank you for mailing her a copy of Currently Cumberland every month. This conversation was so invigorating. And yes, there is line dancing in Cumberland; and so much more.

My peers. Other women and mothers in business. My Mum. Women I had witnessed take the leap before me. Cumberland has a very strong group of women in businesses operating in the downtown core and they have encouraged and supported me from the start and I am grateful…very grateful.

I am still working on this one. Sometimes I just have to admit defeat and realize that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Something has to give. I have learned that the ball that gets dropped won’t be the one I am tossing back and forth with my hubby and kids.

Zero interest in world-domination. Get the laundry caught up first. Reinvent romance with husband second. Then expand Currently Cumberland enough to include more positive community based editorial content.

Don’t worry about not knowing what will happen next. You will be amazed at how well your mothering skills will aid you in this next adventure. Ask for help. Be honest with yourself and others.

Acknowledge what activities mothering your children are most important to you and find ways to continue doing them. With nearly a year of my business under my belt I have yet to place my babes in organized childcare.

My business hours are erratic and my sleep pattern too but this was always my choice. It is important that I finish what I started and I couldn’t be happier.

I have been amazed by the resources available. Amazed and appreciative. A co-op preschool/daycare in Cumberland would be wonderful. Any-takers?

I like Digg because I get to update on the random and usually good “news”; often strange and humorous tid-bits that link me back to the world outside. A break from thinking thoughts centered around work or children. It’s important as a mum to never lose touch with the woman who once was a woman and not also a mum.