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Nora doing some book deconstruction |
This week went fast. It started with my traditional January brutal general illness, which went straight to my head and necessitated a sick day on Monday. On Friday I had my first RACHEL FRIDAY of my new 5 day a week childcare situation. It was a 100% Rachel day - Gym with my gym buddy, breakfast with a friend, haircut, manicure, quick beer with Andy and home by kid pick up. (This is not a forever thing, this is just a January thing. I do have to work fulltime to afford childcare fulltime)
Reading
I know I'm the last person to read The Measure but I am really enjoying it.
I failed to listen to my audiobook of Uptime
I think I would have enjoyed it, but oh well, back to the TBR. One of the insights I did gain from the first 5 minutes of the audiobook was that when you ask someone "When were you most productive? When did you have insight into your work?" The answer is basically never "oh when I was checking my email or doing 100 messages on teams" and yet I seem to spend my whole day doing both those terrible habits.I then downloaded an audio copy of Super Communicators:
I haven't started listening to this but I listened to an interview with Charles Duhigg on Before Breakfast and thought it was super interesting and also I am not great at communicating with people so this would be a good book to read. Or listen to. I haven't really found a good audiobook listening time, I don't have long walks, I don't have time to prep food (or I'm usually listening to kids while cooking), I'm usually chatting with Andy when we are cleaning up the house after dinner. Maybe I should do audio books in the mornings while hanging out with babies? Usually my head doesn't work then because I am so tired, and also it's so much baby. Something to consider.
Sports
- Monday
- 10 Minute Meditation
- Tuesday
- 30 Minute Full Body Strength
- 10 Minute Stretch
- 90 Minutes Bouldering @ climbing gym with a friend
- Wednesday
- 30 Minute Pop Ride
- Thursday
- 20 Minute Lower Body Strength
- 10 Minute Core Strength
- 5 Minute Stretch
- 20 Minute "Lane Break" ride
- 5 Minute Cooldown
- 10 Minute Focus Flow - Back
- 10 Minute Meditation
- Friday
- 90 Minute Gym workout with Gym Buddy ("Lower Body")
- Saturday
- 30 Minute HIIT and Hills with Robin Arzon
- 10 Minute Cool Down & Stretch
- Sunday
- 15 Minute Stretch & Foam Roll
Sleep
I've averaged 7.5 hours of sleep a night, however this includes 8.5 hours on Monday, and then a 6 and a 6.5 hour night later in the week. Yesterday the babies slept till 5:45am and I was shocked to wake up without babies crying at 5:40 (they were up 5 minutes later, but it's so nice to wake up to silence)
I am looking forward to someday when the 5:30 time is my own. While I am a morning person I am *not* a morning person when those mornings can be snatched by waking up childrens.
Meal Plan
We are carrying on with our four days a week set menu.
Monday: Soup (tomato for the kids, slow cooker tortilla soup for us)
Tuesday: Pasta (and slow cooker meatballs)
Wednesday: Fish Fingers & Chips
Thursday: Gnocchi and vegetable tray bake
It's working... fine. It's a bit boring.
Misc Good things (Gratitude since I've been a bit grumpy):
- The days are somewhat noticeably longer - it's not pitch black by 5pm.
- I'm still doing my Peloton Streak, which is kind of fun, but included some not very good meditation on Friday.
- I went out to dinner with a group of mums who had first babies the same time I did and we did a prenatal class together. The class was rubbish, the friendship is A+
- Andy bought a new bin for the kitchen. I can't find the post, but a long time ago he said we needed a new bin and I said "go for it!" and now a long time later we have a new bin and I didn't have to order it or think about it.
- We bought a new toaster this week because a two slice toaster isn't cutting it for our family of 6
- We bought a new second-hand kids high chair this week so we now have 3/4 of the high chairs we need for our family
- I ordered myself a Shark hair drier as part of birthday week and I am excited to see how it dries my hair tomorrow!
- I had a great long gym session with my gym buddy
- Audrey is so close to walking
- Nora says "thank you" and it is cute
- I took Lilah to a play date without any other kids
- I went climbing with a friend one evening
Although those are all great things from this week I have had a pretty mixed week, so I am not trying to sugar coat anything here. But it's Sunday night, the kids are asleep, and I am about to go to some stretching and then go to sleep myself, so it's pretty easy to feel positive.
There is a reason I don't write these posts at 5:30am.
What's your highlight of the week?
Well it sounds like things are coming together a bit for the moment! I must have missed the post about the 5 day a week childcare, but YAY! That is good and even though you will not always have time off, it is nice to have that dialed in.
ReplyDeleteRe audiobooks, what do you do on your commute to work? That could be an option right? If I recall, it cost you something like $40 to communte, so I am guessing you have a little time there? Are you still working part time, or does part of the 5 day a week childcare also come with 5 day a week work? Also, what do you listen to when you Peloton? Maybe you could have one earbud in with a book and turn the music/voice down on the Peloton?
The highlight of my week was hanging out with some friends in Lyon. They have left now, but we had a good time wandering and eating!
Yes 5 days a week childcare is great. We haven't had our first invoice yet, but I'm sure it will be fine haha.
DeleteAnd yes - the commute would be a great time for audio books! I could get a book read every two trips probably. Right now I'm not going to the office enough to not have my loan time out, but if/when I go in more this will definitely be my listening time.
I listen to the peloton music or the instructors because I am a cliche who likes people telling me I'm great on a screen :-). When I start running outdoors in the spring I bet I can increase my audio booking then too... although I really do like running to music.
I have always wanted to visit Lyon! your good thing sounds amazing!
Oh my goodness, Nora is TOO cute.
ReplyDeleteYay for not waking up to having kiddos awake. I am just getting to that stage again. I mean, my kids have been old enough to manage their own mornings for a while, but I could never (EVER) leave my bedroom and not have someone pitter patter out to see me until the last few months. It is so amazing.
Highlight of the week? Hmmm. Maybe yesterday. I was sick and so ended up clearing the decks of all my commitments and just rested. I did some housework (laundry, dishes), worked on some blog posts, savoured two cups of coffee. Sometimes a sick day is a really good thing!
I love my morning time. I love having an adult child. I miss the fun times when she was little, but I do not miss waking up to a crying baby. I'm glad you had a few minutes of quiet!
ReplyDeleteI love that your husband bought the new bin and you didn't have to deal with it. One thing I have found is that if I let things go, other people around here will do them. They may not do them as quickly as I would do them, they may do them differently, but I don't have to do them. Also, I suspect that other people sometimes let things go, and I then do them, not as quickly, not the same, but they get done.
Rotating menus does sound boring. But also, the worst part of dinner if trying to figure out WHAT the hell to make, so this sounds like a really good idea to me.