This wound up being an unusual week. There are no typical weeks, but this one had some definite aberrations.
One — we had much more limited childcare than usual, due to some unexpected events, and this happened to coincide with my husband being gone a big chunk of the week.
So I managed several days start to finish. I’m happy to report that everyone got where they needed to go – we only canceled one thing, and that wasn’t because of the driving logistics. All those rained out baseball games are getting rescheduled during the week, so a trombone lesson needed to be postponed. But yeah, a lot of driving. On Tuesday, I got my 6-year-old at school, got the 17-year-old from practice, drove the 11-year-old to his baseball game, drove home and got the 15-year-old and took her to church where she works as a tutor, then got the 6-year-old and took him with me to watch the remainder of the 11-year-old’s game. Meanwhile, the 17-year-old picked the 15-year-old up when she was done. On Thursday I wound up hiring the older kids for more driving and babysitting while I was at choir. The 17-year-old drove his 11-year-old brother to parkour and hung out there reading/working/scrolling and took him home, The 15-year-old took care of the 6-year-old and got him ready for bed though he was not asleep when I got back. I guess he never is!
I also learned that I could get out to my parents’ place in NJ and back inside the school day. They are moving into a retirement community and downsizing some stuff, so I went to pick up a load. Among the things: some records I listened to when I was a little kid. I haven’t heard one of those albums in probably 40 years, but when I saw the cover a lot of the songs came back instantly. Music is funny that way.
Another unusual thing: I bought a car! Longtime readers know that I have been driving my 2011 Acura since, well, 2011. It’s been a good car (we are keeping it to be another teen driver car). It is also just…old. I decided on a Lexus SUV. I had actually put a deposit on this particular car back in July, as there is a several month-long waiting list. Our local dealer got one in that met my specifications, so they called me this week and I went and got it. Definitely fancier than the one I’ve been driving. I doubt I will use most of the tech but wow, tech has come a long way since 2011.
The world is really changing colors right now. The photo on this post is from an autumnal walk on a nearby trail. Everything is just so pretty out my window, and it’s getting even brighter by the day. Kind of sad that in a month it will mostly be gone but for now I’m enjoying these lovely few weeks of the year.
Content — over at Before Breakfast, my interview this week is with Christian Poensgen, the co-author of Ultraproductive. I thought this book had some interesting insights on aiming for 90-minute stretches of productivity, along with 90-minutes of deep sleep and such. Christian is also a new dad, and had some thoughts on how to get sleep when you have little ones — basically he and his wife alternate getting sleep on various nights. Please check the interview out!
In the short episodes, I talked about “Know how to take back the day,” how to “Take control of your alerts,” and “Make your planning time pay off” with a hat tip to Ben Meer, a previous guest.
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I wrote about how to “Feed your mind” — it’s good to aim for quality, even during your leisure time. I suggested we “Do it or be done with it” — sometimes a personal ultimatum is helpful. I also suggested that we “Make connection automatic.” Recurring get-togethers create less mental work!
Behind the paywall I wrote about “11 things you can do now to get a jump start on the holidays.” I also wrote that “You can still play the game.” Even if life is challenging, the world still needs your ideas.
Finally, over at the Best of Both Worlds Patreon community page, we’ve been having a great time getting ready for our “Superficial Things” meet-up next Wednesday at noon, eastern. We had a thread on hair, make-up, jeans, and nails… I’m excited to get some product recommendations next week. Membership is $9/month. Thanks for supporting me and my work.
