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For instance, I am reading how others spend their weekends and I am green with envy. Though I do know that my weekend is much milder than many mothers, it is still a very busy pocket of time.
And so I stop and I ask myself, is this two days and three(ish) nights a time to rest? Or is it a time to catch up? To clean? To play? To party? To be with the family?
How to spend the sacred weekend?
Well, let's see.
I guess one must prioritize.
Maybe create a list.
And then start to trim the list (lest one needs a weekend to recover from the weekend, and Lord Knows, we DO NOT get that!)...
Here was my original list:
1. P.D. session Friday.
2. Get home and go to parent's for dinner.
3. Spend 'quality' *ahem time with j.b.
4. Sleep.
5. Catch up on my blog. *yay!
6. Vacuum house.
7. Dust house.
8. Do six loads of laundrey.
9. Grocery shop.
10. Spend birthday money on jeans and shoes. *yippee!
11. Tea with neighbours.
12. Spend LOADS of time with e: go to park, go to Chapters, play in yard, play in house. Could have done way better here.
13. Three birthday parties. (only made it to one)
14. Have Beth from Thinking of Thinking over for dinner.
15. Cook a nice (show off-y) dinner for Beth.
16. Mass.
17. Catch up on blogs.
18. Mark Math tests.
19. Read novel - or pick new novel -
20. Go to library.
21. Get food ready for week.
22. Create menu for week's dinners.
23. Pick out e's clothes for week.
24. Pick out my clothes for week.
25. Call brother.
26. Watch a good movie.
27. Catch up on television shows.
28. Get all clothes put away!!! *I am usually HORRIBLE at finishing this task!
28. Get all clothes put away!!! *I am usually HORRIBLE at finishing this task!
Now to go back and abridge list to something more do-able and that considers the fact the hubby has had the flu and e has still been miserable with illness/virus/teething...
Well - accomplishing 17/27 ain't so bad.
Feng Shui I say! Simplify!!!
Though I did feel badly about botching the dinner. Um I may have simplified a bit too much here. I trimmed to the point I forgot three very KEY ingredients! Blah spaghetti. There is almost nothing worse than boring spaghetti. It is meant to be a comfort food! Something to enjoy - to savour. Not something over which one must wonder, now where did the flavour go??? Oh, it was forgotten, er, left out...simplified...ah...woops!
Maybe the chef was (well certainly in fact) over-tired? Does this excuse work at least a little? Can she be forgiven?
Sleep has been a long lost friend this week.
Oh how I remember when I could go to bed early or stay up late and it was no matter - it was up to me! And I could sleep in or get up and go to the gym - no matter - it was up to me!
Now my bed-time and wake time (as is the case with most of you) is dictated by child.
Last night, when I was lying in bed all pumped at the prospect of finally catching up on some reading, after a great night with Beth, I felt a little bit free: to bed early finally! After a week of e being up several times crying in the night, I was FINALLY going to get a good night's rest.
Maybe this was going to turn out to be a weekend for catching up on zzzz's after all! Well, no.
e was up crying from about the time I became excited at the prospect of the glorious night of sleep ahead until 12:30 a.m. And then she was up again at I am not sure what time - I was half asleep. And then she was up again at six something...
So my weekends have certainly not been a time to catch up on my much needed sleep.
Boo.
Now I ask, what IS my weekend for? How do I make it what I want it to be? Especially without offending others.
Family is paramount. Immediate, then parents, then extended family.
SLEEP catch-up (as if I have a choice in this department)!
Hubby 'quality time'.
Then groceries.
Then friends.
Then house-work.
THEN shopping and fun stuff like that for me *yay!
hm. Maybe I should stop bringing school-work home...
A thought.
I just don't want my weekends to be something that I have to chase after. I don't want to be exhausted from over-extending myself during this time - that is how my week is spent, thank you very much.
I want to get off the wheel - I have to get off the wheel! To stop running, and coast at least a little at some point during the weekend!
How I sometimes lament the days when I could just do NOTHING all weekend.
sigh...
But how full my life is and how thankful I am, really...
Now, I ask YOU - what is YOUR weekend for?
Now, I ask YOU - what is YOUR weekend for?
The spaghetti was NOT blah!! It was very good, and the salad and pre-dinner cheese were pretty awesome. Not to mention the wine. Yummy.
ReplyDeleteI think I make the same type of lists that you do and then rarely complete it all. After our conversation I am really going to try and make a schedule to do a little housework every night...starting today! Monday in laundry day from now (ish) on!!
That is one HUGE hit list.. I would say you've done amazing to accomplish what you did! In a typical stay-at-home mom day I usually have a goal of like 3 things! Generally they include things like, make muffins, go for a walk, bathe the baby (and other preemie baby stuff e.g. change oxygen prongs), laundry, clean fridge, etc.. I try to have at least three outings a week with baby too. But, life is busy and being a working mom means you gotta go with the flow. You seem to have this down to a fine art. You are definitely working mom extraordinaire! You guys should treat yourselves to a take out (mmm.. swiss chalet.. thai.. indian.. mmm).. You know what I miss?? Watching a movie in it's entirety (spelling?!), now it takes us 2-3 days to finish a film!!
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