Today was pretty low-key, mostly by design. I have learned, over the years, that I need to build slack into my life in order to absorb the “known unknowns” that can otherwise derail a schedule.
I do this by aiming to schedule very little on Fridays. I also aim to be done with whatever must be done for the week by end of day Thursday. It doesn’t always work (next Friday is a doozy), but in general the extra space keeps me sane. At various points I’ve had the brilliant thought “hey, since I don’t schedule much on Friday I don’t need childcare on Fridays!” But then I’m immediately behind since whatever doesn’t get done M-T-W-Th needs to find a space somewhere.
Anyway, the night was not great. The baby’s two wake-ups — 12:45 and 3:30 — were relatively short (I had him back down in 10 minutes after letting him try crying for 15 or so…it doesn’t work well). Still, that meant I never got a consecutive three hours of sleep. I got up at 6:45 with the baby, fed him, made coffee, showered and dressed at 7:30, had breakfast, picked up the house a bit, and then started work.
I kept working until 11:30, at which point the cleaning service showed up. We all retreat to the back room of the basement while they’re here so that they aren’t exposed to us or vice versa. The big kids did some reading/playing/asynchronous work down there while I did today’s Many Happy Miles run on the treadmill. This was an interval workout of 2 minutes easy, 2 minutes moderate, 2 minutes easy, and 2 minutes hard. I did this twice with speed, and then once with hills, before cranking the treadmill up for a final sprint.
We stayed down for a while, and then after the house had been empty for a bit came up for a late lunch. I did some more work — mostly recording — texted back and forth with my husband who was trying to figure out why the new house suddenly dropped to 50 degrees (the whole heating system needs to be replaced), fed the baby and got groceries. It is possible that I ate a frozen Kind bar while sitting in my car in the grocery store parking lot. G left at 5, I played with the baby (and chatted with my daughter) for an hour, and then the kids did make your own pizza night (husband and I had a Costco pre-made meal with extra mushrooms and kale on top).
At this point I took the baby up for a bath. As I was getting him undressed, he reacted to the sudden cold air by…peeing all over me. I mean a full soaking. This hasn’t happened since the newborn days so I was surprised and not particularly happy about it. Good thing he’s cute, as you can see from the photo illustrating this post. I got him down (while reading Shasta Nelson’s Frientimacy on my Kindle app) and now am typing this with a glass of wine. My husband and daughter are making the dough for homemade cinnamon rolls — so whether I sleep well or not, and even if I had to change out of pee-soaked clothes, at least breakfast will be good.
If you’re tracking time with me, congratulations on making it through the work week. While it might be tempting to declare yourself done, I highly recommend tracking the weekend too. There are 60 hours between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday (when my time log stops). This is a fair chunk of the 168 hour week. Knowing where this time goes, and what time might be available, can help us really figure out how to spend time well. I hope you have something this weekend that you are looking forward to!
… I have to wonder, have you not read any news at all this week? I’m surprised that the Capitol events seem to have had no effect on your week… they’ve certainly affected mine down here in TX.
@Hannah – we read about them and talk about them of course – and have spent a lot of time doing that – but that shows up more in dinner conversations being about one topic rather than another, conversations during Legos being about that rather than something else, or reading headlines about that instead of looking at other things on social media or reading.
Just wondering: Are you working part-time currently with the baby?
@Maggie – I haven’t added up my work hours recently but my guess is that I am no where near 40 at the moment. Partly it’s the baby, though since he has full time care, it’s also the big kids’ virtual schooling – and their activities (I’m doing most of the driving right now) and then the house renovation is a pretty serious project management job in terms of a time commitment at the moment.