Just slow down!

School called on Wed and sent Hana home with a little stomach bug at 9am, and she ended up having two sick days this week.  GREAT - My plans for getting things done during their school days just went out the window.  Too bad I wasted my one day alone this week and accomplished absolutely nothing, banking on the fact that I still had 2 days to get my project of the week done (which was to start painting the bookshelves).  And of course, she was acting normal (which means crazy).  Who are these kids that you see on Tylenol commercials who sleep all day and are slow moving?  Mine have never had a sick day like that.  But spending the days with Hana, and without Emi, made me realize how much I was missing the small things with my family. 

My interactions with the girls seemed to revolve around getting ready to go school/work, getting ready to eat, getting ready for bed, getting ready to go somewhere, etc.  I never really slowed down to enjoy just being with them with no distractions until now.  When we're pressed to be somewhere on time (yeah, that never happens) or I had work to finish, or anything else that meant "hurry up and just do XX", I found myself loosing patience with them and yelling.  I felt irritated a lot.  I felt rushed, and like I couldn't seem to get anything done the way I wanted. 

We didn't really have anywhere to go or anything to do until we had to pick up Emi from school.  So every time she said "Mommy, come play with me" I said ok.  I learned that her doll is named Teeny, that she's really good at doing the animal jigsaw puzzle set, and she's really bad at playing the matching game by the rules (she's a little cheater, we are going to have to keep an eye on this one).  At one point, she took all of her shirts out of her dresser which would have really pissed me off a few weeks ago because I'm sure we would have been trying to get dressed to go somewhere.  But today I just went with the flow, and watched her lay each of her shirts out on her floor and pretend that each was one of her friends from school.  She had them all get dressed in their bathing suits for water day (which the poor thing missed because they send her home sick) and had them line up to go outside.  She then brought then all back in when water day was over, and when I said it's time to go downstairs for lunch she folded all the shirts and put them in a pile to put back in the drawer.  See, she really does know how to fold and clean up, she's just been keeping that hidden from us all this time!

I learned that when I slow down to enjoy spending time with the kiddos, I have sooooo much more patience with them.  I have begun to see who I can be with them, and what I have been overlooking and taking for granted.

Bodies in motion...

It's been 3 full weeks now, and I am definitely still adjusting and figuring things out.  You know the saying "bodies in motion stay in motion", well I am absolutely that body they are talking about.  I have noticed that if I come home and sit down, even to check news while drinking coffee, I am most likely still sitting down trying to squeeze a last drop out of that coffee 15 hours later.  I get nothing done on those days!  If I come home and don't sit down, I may start 10 different projects and not finish a single one, but at least it feels like it was productive day.

I had a goal, that each week I would do 2 things: complete a project and try/cook one new recipe each week.  So, I should have 3 of each done by now, right?
Projects (doing good on this one): reupholstered the kitchen chairs, completed 5 PDUs for my PMP renewal due Dec 1 (only 55 more to go, woohoo), assess finances.  I started 2 more little ones, so as long as I don't sit down, I think this is achievable.
Cooking (not so good with this one): I think I have cooked about 3 meals total.  And that means I have defrosted dream dinners and Scott prepared at least 2 of them.  I hate cooking.  And new meals means I have to actually go to the store and get ingredients, and put them together, and follow more than 3 steps.  That is so time consuming! Plus, I think this was a goal during my maternity leave with Emi 5 years ago, with no new meals cooked during a 4 month period.  I'll give this a few more weeks and we may need to reassess this goal.

Overall, things are going well.  We had a friend in town last weekend, and I got more cleaning done in the 2 hours before she arrived than the 3 weeks I've been home!  We had a little get together for friends on 4th of July weekend, which was fun.  I think we are definitely enjoying the summer (and the pool) so far, so as long as I get up after writing this, I may complete my goal for this week, which is to organize my closet for the first time since moving in 1.5 years ago!

SAHM: week one

I decided to leave my job and career for a little bit, and try my hand at being a SAHM.  Originally, I was thinking it would just be for the summer, then thought that this might be permanent, then thought that this would just be until Hana goes to school full time, then that this might be permanent, then that this would just be for the summer...  I guess we'll see how things go, and base it on my sanity level and the budget (in that order, of course).

I am transitioning into being a SAHM, which feels a bit like cheating.  For the first 2 weeks, the girls are in daycare 4 days a week.  Then, they will go 3 days a week until Emi starts kindergarten mid August.  We may drop Hana down to 2 days a week around that time, but I am very concerned that she needs the socialization and that being at home with me everyday may make her stupid hamper her readiness for school.

I was super motivated on week 1!  I put Emi into a 3 day dance camp Mon-Wed, since she has been asking to take ballet for a while now.  So this was a good opportunity to try it out and see if she doesn't cry and actually let's me leave the room likes it.  My packed agenda on day 1 ultimately ended up with a fail...
7:30am - Take girls to school, drop off work laptop/badge at UPS and say goodbye to the last 10 years of my life
8:00am - Go buy tights for Emi's dance camp.  RANT OF THE DAY:  stores need to open earlier!  I thought Kohls would be open early, since this is the store that was open 24 hrs the month of Dec, nope.  So I walked to Walmart (got my excercise for the day in), but they didn't have what I was looking for.  I figured by the time I got back to Kohls they would be open, nope.  So walked to Marshall's and Ross, not open.  Back to Kohls, still not open.  I gave up and went home.  How am I supposed to run errands and save gas if stores are not open after dropping off kids at school?  It's not like I am dropping them off at 6:30am, geez.
9:00am-11:00am - cleanup office area and shower, the entire time thinking "I need to make sure I leave early enough to find tights"
11:00am - back to Kohls, success at the first store, no need to go to Target and all my backup places I had in mind.
11:30am - Wow, I've never been early to anything in years. What do I do?  I'll eat my lunch early and get a Whopper Jr. at BK.  It only takes 3 minutes to eat this.  Now what?  I'll just get Emi 15 minutes early, I'm sure they are done with lunch too.
11:45am - They haven't even started eating lunch!  Why is she pretending her lunch bag is a sword and dueling her friends?  They are supposed to be eating already!
12:00 - Get Emi dressed, eat lunch on the way to dance camp.
12:30-3:30 - Great time at dance camp, no tears.  She loved it.  Good, we can come back tomorrow!  Killing 3 hours of time is hard. I have no desire to do any more window shopping (did I really say that?) and ended up reading in the parking lot for an hour.
3:35-4:00 - Emi is asleep in the car on the ride home. Plan:  I'll let her nap in the van while I clean up the house a bit, then we'll go get Hana and make dinner before Scott comes home.
6:15 - Phone ringing, crap, it's daycare asking if I was going to pick up my child.  What actually happened: I cleaned up for about a half hour while Emi slept, the pool guy showed up to do wall repair, it wakes Emi up and I forgot to unlock the door so she's stuck in the van.  Scott texts to ask if the pool guy is there while Emi screams that she can't get out of the van. Try to get Emi to finish her nap, but she is being Emi stubborn, so offer to lay down with her and fell asleep until phone wakes me up (Emi never went back to sleep, btw).

Overall a good day, minus the $22 late fee and lifetime of guilt I will feel for being late to pick up #2 at daycare.  Day 1was not a success, but the week got better, and the alarm on my cell phone for every step of my day is my new best friend.  Day 5 (my first with the kids at home with me all day) was great, although I still did not cook dinner that night.  Baby steps, right?