Yesterday I remembered that we were going to a family dinner at the Synagogue tonight. I had not put it in the calendar. I had planned to cook dinner, but that diner involved defrosting salmon, and I also hadn't remembered to defrost the salmon. Win-Win.
The invited noted games at 4:30 and Dinner at 5:30. This all seemed doable. Here's how the afternoon and evening went:
3:30 I picked up the kids from school
3:45 home, snack for all and clothing change
4:25 In the car, ready to go, aware that we will only be 10 minutes or so late
4:32 Realize we forgot the nappy bag, turn around and drive home
4:42 Pick up nappy bag and head back out
5:01 Arrive for dinner and games
5:50 Dinner starts, we set up the high chairs
6:30 Dinner is moving somewhat slower than anticipated. Babies eat a lot of bread, Nora starts to melt down with tired. Normally they go to sleep at 6:30
6:45 Main course is served but we have to go because both babies are in the blinky owl stage of tired
6:55 I remember our grocery delivery was scheduled between 7 and 8 (though I usually get a text before they arrive)
7:00 everyone is in the car. My phone rings and the grocery man is outside our house. Thankfully he says he will wait
7:15 We arrived home with two sleeping babies, a grocery van parked outside, and two kids who are already past their normal 7pm bedtime
7:18 The grocery delivery driver says that our card payment was declined. I ask him to double check this because I'm pretty sure it was all fine (I have an email receipt)
7:20 I get the kids upstairs to read, then put the babies to bed while Andy and the grocery delivery person unload groceries. I'm fairly sure the delivery driver actually helped him unpack in the kitchen. I guess the card payment wasn't declined
7:25 I start big kids bedtime. They are tired
7:30 Andy leaves to meet a friend - this has been planned since before I forgot about dinner or groceries
7:40 I say goodnight to big kids
7:45 Empty the dishwasher, start sorting clothes. Realize my brain is a swimming sea of chaos, sit down to write a blog.
3:45 home, snack for all and clothing change
4:25 In the car, ready to go, aware that we will only be 10 minutes or so late
4:32 Realize we forgot the nappy bag, turn around and drive home
4:42 Pick up nappy bag and head back out
5:01 Arrive for dinner and games
5:50 Dinner starts, we set up the high chairs
6:30 Dinner is moving somewhat slower than anticipated. Babies eat a lot of bread, Nora starts to melt down with tired. Normally they go to sleep at 6:30
6:45 Main course is served but we have to go because both babies are in the blinky owl stage of tired
6:55 I remember our grocery delivery was scheduled between 7 and 8 (though I usually get a text before they arrive)
7:00 everyone is in the car. My phone rings and the grocery man is outside our house. Thankfully he says he will wait
7:15 We arrived home with two sleeping babies, a grocery van parked outside, and two kids who are already past their normal 7pm bedtime
7:18 The grocery delivery driver says that our card payment was declined. I ask him to double check this because I'm pretty sure it was all fine (I have an email receipt)
7:20 I get the kids upstairs to read, then put the babies to bed while Andy and the grocery delivery person unload groceries. I'm fairly sure the delivery driver actually helped him unpack in the kitchen. I guess the card payment wasn't declined
7:25 I start big kids bedtime. They are tired
7:30 Andy leaves to meet a friend - this has been planned since before I forgot about dinner or groceries
7:40 I say goodnight to big kids
7:45 Empty the dishwasher, start sorting clothes. Realize my brain is a swimming sea of chaos, sit down to write a blog.
While no major balls were dropped, that was all on the rather chaos side. I also feel bad that I left dinner without saying goodbye to anyone, including people I like, but we loaded two babies up and then Andy went to get the big kids and I couldn't leave babies in the car so that's how the evening ended.
I'm not usually one to forget to write things in the calendar. Andy asked me today how I keep track of things and I told him that I put them in the calendar and then ruminate constantly of what I have to do. This is not a great system.
Also, my grocery ordering skills are lacking recently as well. I don't know why I ordered two boxes of 180 tea bags. I just feel borderline chaos about many things most of the time.
Anyways, it's 8:30 again! Things I would like to do with the next hourTidy the house a bit. It is major chaos
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This isn't too bad, but every room looks like this |
Open up the waffle maker that arrived today and if it's not broken like the last one I can make some waffle batter for tomorrow!
Keep going on photo albums project - I finished Audrey and Nora through December so I just have the two kids and the family album left
Peloton! I would love to do a ride and a yoga class
Update my Line a day journal
Read in bed with my hot water bottle.
Clearly I won't do all of those things. Clearly I could have done photo albums with the time it took me to write this blog. But, it is only 8:30. I can probably do albums, tidy (while listening to a podcast because I am not going to finish an audiobook) and reply to the texts about this weekend. Or at least about one text for this weekend.
Do you go through chaos times? Are you in a chaos time? If you could plan your 8:30-9:30 hour three times what would you do?
I feel like I lived in chaos for years, kinda. Things have settled down a lot lately because my kids are older and I dropped one of my work commitments. I still feel like there aren't enough hours in the day, though.
ReplyDeleteThe house always defaults back to chaos so quickly it's depressing. Oh well. I putter away at it and I've also gotten a lot better about...just leaving the mess. This morning I got up and did dishes that I didn't have the energy to do last night and the earth kept spinning.
You are in the middle of extremely busy years, but it's important to still do those "normal" things - like meeting up with friends. It just tends to look very different from pre-kid or can-wipe-their-own-butt-and-feed-themselves stage.
Also...you note how you could have done things in the time it took to write the blog post, but I think writing is so helpful because:
a) you get to process things
b) you get to sit down
c) it's something you enjoy doing
And you literally didn't really get a chance to stop and catch your breath for hours and hours!
I hope you get a good night of sleep. Happy Weekending <3
Thank you Elisabeth! I am trying to do a bit more blogging because I'm hoping thinking about things helps make my head a bit less chaos, even if it doesn't make my life less chaos. Thank you!
DeleteSomeday I want to be a better blogger who comments on other blogs and enjoys the internet like you do. I have not been able to comment on any posts for ages and it makes me sad because I like your blog so much! Especially watching you enjoy bigger kids - wow. It looks fun.
Thanks for the weekending wishes - happy weekend to you too!
Do you go through chaos times? OF COURSE! Especially when T is away on business and I solo parent. Those weeks I run a tight ship and still -still - there are chaotic evenings and mornings.
ReplyDeleteAre you in a chaos time? January was somewhat chaotic... And felt long.
If you could plan your 8:30-9:30 hour three times what would you do?
I am asleep by that time and probably having anxiety dreams of renting a sail boat in Croatia, sailing the Adriatic, boat is now flooding, and all of a sudden we are in Serbia which is a landlocked country. Jaysus, the subconscious mind can be so weird.
you are asleep by 8:30? AMazing! Also, your solo parenting is incredible as well.
DeleteIt would be very scary to end up in a landlocked country on a boat. That is quite the dream! You are right - subconscious minds are so weird.