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?