What the heck am I doing all day?

It's amazing how busy I seem to be now that I am not working. How could I possibly have time for a job? During the day I busily putter around the house making beds, wiping counters, doing laundry, or any other mundane tasks that catch my attention. On Fridays when the kids are home from school and on newly free weekends (since I get all the chores and errands done during the week), we do outings. This month we have gone to the beach, Travel Town, The Museum of Natural History, Noah's Ark at the Skirball Museum, and the Strawberry Festival. Not to mention, spent lots of time with family and friends.

I've nearly cleared the back patio of the mountain of boxes that remained unpacked over the last year. That has definitely been slow going as I need to find a specific place for everything, and can only continue until the sneezing starts. For any of you who don't know this, I HATE sneezing. It is as if my body has decided to interrupt whatever I am doing without the courtesy of even saying "excuse me." Really, I can't talk when I'm sneezing so all conversation needs to stop. I can't listen when I'm sneezing. I can't unpack boxes, put things away, drive safely, or sleep while I am sneezing. You can only imagine the sailor language in our bedroom when this insomniac is woken up sneezing!! So, emptying all the dusty boxes is quite the challenging mission since my allergies seem to be in full assault mode these days. The fun thing about unpacking things after a year is getting to see them again. Oh! I was wondering where those platters have been. Ooh! Look at all these picture albums. Wow! All my childhood schoolwork! Each box is like a little present and I need to stop (and sneeze) to look at each thing before finding the perfect spot for it. So, you can see how this would take some time.

Another project I completed is not as simple as it might seem. For some time I've wanted to decorate the boys' room and make it more personalized. I had bought unfinished wood letters to paint, but never took the time. Recently, it came to me that a couple bulletin boards for their art and school work would be perfect in there. My initial thought was cork boards, but pushpins would only turn into weapons in that room. When I saw magnetic boards and colorful magnets at IKEA, I realized that was perfect. So after painting the letters, I broke out the nails (several sizes), hammer, level, nail gun and air compressor, hooked that stuff all up myself, and voila!! Check out their room now! The valance and wall hanging are from their nursery bedding set, but I just love them anyway. Take a good look at the carpet, because anyone who comes to my house knows, it isn't often visible for all the toys!

So, as you can tell, I have been quite busy. Although I am actively job hunting, I am also enjoying this disguised blessing of being at home for a bit.

Simply Life

Often, I find it so hard to balance all the moving parts of my life. Some days it's harder than others. This week I've had several evening commitments, which is very unusual. I rarely make plans that take place before the kids go to bed. If I do, they are generally with me. The one exception is my monthly Book Club. Even then, I get there a little late so I don't miss much of the kids' evening. Monday, I got to work to find out we had a business dinner that evening. No time to go home between work and dinner. Fillip had no issue, but I felt so bad not seeing them! It's rare, so not a big deal, and overall I had a great time at one of the best restaurants in Los Angeles. Tuesday, I had Book Club, so I spent time with the kids and got there really late. Didn't help that Logan had lost a sneaker so I had to stop at Target to get a new pair. (Despite thorough searching by both of us, that sneaker was nowhere to be found yesterday morning.Of course, it just turned up tonight!)

Although work isn't busy right now, I had several slightly stressful moments. One was having my car stall out on a very busy boulevard. It started right up, but I need to get it checked. It didn't want to start when I left work and felt like it was running pretty rough all the way home. Then, the zipper to my purse broke. Given that the lining is already ripped, it's time to let it go. Yes, I realize that is trivial, but it did not help my day!

Tonight, I had another business dinner, although this one was just our department as a farewell dinner for the summer intern. Not crucial, but I do think it helps to spend time with each other to keep a repoire going. I told them I'd be late, but that I'd be there. I left work a little early so I could spend time with the kids. Because my car wasn't running well, I stopped home to get a different one. When I got to the preschool, Hayden's teacher said he was really tired and not playing. Within 10 minutes he had spiked a fever of 103. Although I always feel bad when they get sick, I felt especially bad that he would be missing his very last day with his friends at that school. However, there wasn't much I could do about that. We spent some extra time there and headed home. I spoke with my boss to say I wouldn't make it to dinner.

When we got home, Hayden went to lie down, and Fillip and I went in search of a thermometer. The ones we have are still in boxes in the garage. While we were searching, we heard a blood curdling scream from Logan. He had done a faceplant in the driveway from his little truck. There was lots of blood. I scooped him up and brought him in for cleanup. Fortunately, he had only a little scraping around his mouth. The blood was from his tongue, which he bit....again. That little guy is going to have the funkiest looking tongue around! It stopped bleeding shortly, and didn't seem to bother him too much.

At this point I told Fillip I was going out for a thermometer and some Motrin for Hayden, who was still feverish on his bed. When I got back, they were eating pizza. Hayden devoured a huge dinner, especially for him. Logan too, letting me know his tongue is fine. However, Logan must have been exhausted. He completely melted down, throwing a classic toddler tantrum. I finally had a sandwich after 8:30pm once they went to bed. I only had to get up once to tend to them, then all was quiet.

Some days leave me completely wrung out.

Overwhelmed

I am feeling rather overwhelmed. No, this isn't unusual, but I'm hoping by writing it down, I can wrap my mind around it. There are the usual things- making sure I take care of my family, do my job well, keep in touch with my friends, and find some time for me.

In addition, we have the added stress of Fillip's grandmother being gravely ill. This could be a whole other post, but I'll just simply say that although her situation is not demanding of our time right now, it is emotionally draining. Being that she isn't expected to make it through the weekend, next week promises to be busy with a funeral and nightly shiva services. In the meantime, we feel like we are emotionally "on call," ready to run to various family homes if necessary, with alternate plans for the kids at all times.

Thursday also happens to be Hayden's birthday, which we will want to ensure is a special day for him. I'll want to bring a treat to his class, requiring more time away from the office. Next Sunday is Hayden's party at our house. We really need to get the house in order as being uber-busy, that is usually at the bottom of our priority list, if it even makes it on the list. Sometimes, we are just too freakin' busy to care. So, we decided to hire someone to clean the place, except it takes time to interview and hire people, and with so little time, it might just be more prudent to clean it ourselves, or at least stash away the extraneous junk so nobody sees it unless they open a closet they shouldn't. Then we can shift the focus to their lack of consideration in poking around in our closets, rather than the fact that we live like slobs. Over the weekend, we also need to shop for the party, meaning we really need to nail down what we need. The day before the party we will need to set everything up, get the food, make and decorate the cake (which, anyone who knows me will tell you is no small task), and somewhere in there get a little bit of sleep. All this in the next seven days.

You'd think if I could get through this week, it would be free sailing for awhile, but that's not actually the case. Sometime "soon" I am supposed to be taking on a new position here at work. It promises to be very challenging, time consuming, and hopefully lucrative. It will require me to be nearly perfect in execution, and learn things that currently seem alien to my non-financial brain.

The first half of this year is jam packed with events, and there are still things I think we will need to pass on,like a weekend trip to the mountains. Fillip is talking about another motorhome trip in June, but fortunately, he will do the majority of planning for that adventure. As of now I am either planning, or helping organize the following things:

April 1- girlfriend's bridal shower
April 3- hosting Passover seder
April 27-29- girlfriend's bachelorette party
May 11- girlfriend's rehearsal dinner
May 12- girlfriend's wedding- she planned it, I'm in it
May 12- Revlon Run/Walk for Women- I'm team captain for my office again this year
May 20- niece's bridal shower
June 2?- niece's bachelorette party
June 7-10- group camping trip
June 22- niece's rehearsal dinner
June 24- niece's wedding- again- she did the planning, I'm the Matron (cringe) of Honor

There- that's a manageable list, right?