Here I sit on my glorious Saturday afternoon just completely happy to be sitting at home and still in my yoga pants and t shirt. The first week of the new year is officially in the books and it has been the craziest one I've had in such a long time. I'm mentally and physically drained at this point. Do you get to those points in your week where you just want to curl up in a ball and sleep for 14 hours? Yea. That was me by Monday evening.
A Great Start .....
January 3rd is my husband and I's wedding anniversary. With the stress and chaos of the holidays and his lay off from work I was really hoping we were going to actually be able to celebrate in some type of fashion. So ... using a lovely gift card we decided we wanted to see a movie together. In a theater. Yes. Not in our home on the couch, but in this glorious building they show movies in where all kinds of people go. I remember these buildings from our past .... before the busy work weeks, the kids and everything in between.
We decided to try the Fork & Screen option that AMC Theaters has, where you can eat, drink and have everything brought to you while you watch your movie. It seemed like a dream come true. I hoped online, bought our tickets and reserved our seats - then begged, pleaded and bribed my 13 year old son to please watch the 5 year old for us for 3 hours. He gave in. I literally jumped for joy.
An anniversary is the celebration of your relationship .... so, being in a giving spirit I let my husband pick the movie and his desire was the final Hobbit movie. I have to say ... it was a really fun experience. We ordered our food and a tall cold beer each and sat back to enjoy. It was fabulous. We watched new movie previews. We laughed. We ate. We drank. All without kids. Watching a movie without having to pause it or even get up for a refill on our drinks, (you push a button!) I felt like a Queen for a day.
Being in this state of euphoria I did the only thing that a crazy, happy, geeky woman does: I took a bathroom selfie. That, my friends, is a look of pure happiness on my face. It wasn't a fancy anniversary, but the whole point was to be together and enjoy US. Even if it was only for 3 hours.
Enter the Weekdays.....
This was a big week beginning for us. I'd had some time off for the holidays from my work and now it was time to go back to the regular work weeks. School didn't start until Tuesday for the kids, but my husband finally, (yes - FINALLY!!!) started his new job Monday night. Little did I know this would prove to be the busiest week I'd had in a long time.
I work in accounting .... still ending year end financials and beginning a new year of financials is time-consuming. And I was down a staff member. And I had the beginning of the month reports to complete. And year end performance reviews to do. And a long, laundry list of other tasks. Monday started off rough.
As I walked in the house from work, I made my husband's lunch for the night and he was officially out the door. I was ready to have a good evening though. I had set up my Scentsy team meetings and did an online Google Hangout after I put the little one to bed and then got things ready for the next night and headed off to dreamland in hopes of a good rest of the week.
The Winter Vortex. Whatever fancy name you use ... I'll still opt for the simplest one. Cold. It has just been plain COLD. Tuesday didn't yield more promising results, only more workload for me at work and my husband getting acclimated to getting home from work as I was walking out the door to go to work. He got our little one back to school and then slept until I woke him up at 530pm.
My husband has worked the nightshift for long enough now that I have the evenings down to a fine science during the week. Surprisingly enough I can get more done without him home. I think as a Mom you slowly develop this skill.
MultiTasking ....
So the week continued .... me barely making it through the workday and still having my sanity, off to pick up the youngest from school, hit the grocery store and then home in enough time to make the husband's lunch and get him out the door. Throughout the week Madison has 'homework' which is basically the equivalent of me continuing to review what she has done during the day at school. This week for her it was all about fables and one of her tasks was to watch The Little Red Hen. I wasn't too familiar with this fable until we pulled it up to watch while I was making lunches and starting dinner. As we listened to the story I was feel very connected to the Hen. It's your basic fable of how you reap what you sow. When she asks her farm friends to help her no one wants to ... but when she makes the cake on her own - everyone wants to eat it! Shocking. But alas the Red Hen sticks to her guns and eats the cake on her own. (You go, Red Hen!) I think her lessons this week spoke to me more than they should have.
Weeknight dinners change up a bit, as you can see I had Date Night: Party of One while working on organizing myself for my upcoming college classes. I lead a very envious life, I know. My goal each night of the week is to do a little housework so that way come the weekend I'm not completely overwhelmed with all of it. I highly suggest this as it works fabulously for me. I split it all up, laundry one night, dusting another, vacuuming and sweeping another, trash, bathroom, etc. It makes it so much more manageable that way and I at least feel like I'm accomplishing something in the midst of the chaos.
The Magic of it All ...
Some days you are the bug ... other days you are the windshield. This quote is one my favorites because it's just so true. I felt like the bug all week. Always behind in work, with more piling on each day and getting back into the routine of doing all the housework and nightly chores on my own.
My philosophy is a simple one: find things that make you happy ... and then enjoy them. I don't know the actual name of this magical machine ... but in my office breakroom it is my happy spot. With the touch of a button you can have cold, filtered water, hot filtered water, (for my Chai Tea obviously) and there is even a button for boiled filtered water, you know, in case you only have time for Cup 'O Noodles for lunch? Either way ... this machine is my happy spot. It allows me an excuse to get away from my desk and then I can create a perfect cup of my favorite tea in seconds. If you ever see this contraption for sale on QVC or Amazon, please comment message me. I will buy it in a heartbeat!
Making it through the week was hard. Even though I did my best to keep a positive attitude, I still struggled. I did try though. I ended the week drained. I can say, however, by plotting out my housework during the week, I'm able to sit here on a Saturday afternoon and only have minimal housework to do. So ... maybe I did end on a high note.
Weekend Love ...
Despite the rough week in my household, the weekend love is still strong. My husband and I do a weekly Date Night on Saturday nights. Normally at home of course, so I'm looking forward to sitting down to a nice homemade dinner, quality time with my family and either a game night or movie night for us once the little one is snuggled in her bed.
Adjusting to a new schedule is tough. How do you find the silver lining in yours? Mine are the little things. The ability to multitask my week so I'm not doing housework all weekend long, the time spent in the kitchen each evening with my 5 year old discussing important world topics such as which play dough color is the best, and in my world, thankful my husband is back to work and we can relieve some of our financial stress.
I'm working on focusing on the GOOD each week while I keep my head above water on all the rest.
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