I have been quiet on here for awhile for a number of reasons. The first being that I thoroughly enjoyed my vacation. I enjoyed vacation the way a prisoner might enjoy his first taste of freedom. Or a starving person, bread. It had been so long and so needed since I got a break like that, every moment was like an eternity in the ecstasy of leisure time. Is that enough descriptive hyperbole for you? I savored it!
Since coming back to reality, I have gratefully been able to (mostly) carry that sense of calm and relaxation with me, which has been really lovely. Dare I say…novel? How, you might ask? I’m not sure, but some of it may have to do with the increasing ability to shrug and ignore. Crumbs on the floor? Shrug and ignore. Dirt on the stairs? Shrug and ignore. Salt from boots in the pseudo-mudroom? (The Hub calls it the mud-hallway.) Shrug and ignore. I’m getting better at it! It takes practice for a Type-A Neat Freak. This technique will surely fail miserably the next time we have company over, but then I plan on calling a cleaning service. Even though they broke my grandmother’s brass lamp last time they were here. (I got it fixed, and they paid me back.)
The second reason for my hiatus: I started sleeping in! For two whole weeks, I was waking up when other “normal” people do, between 6 and 7! It was WEIRD. I had a lot of people say to me, “Oh, it must be nice to be sleeping better,” or “I’m glad you’re getting more sleep.” This is a common misperception. No, no, no, people. My hours had just SHIFTED. I was still getting the same number of hours. I was just on “normal people hours.” Instead of going to bed around 8/8:30 (like a child) and waking up at 3:30/4 (like a geriatric), I was going to bed around 11/11:30 (like a college student) and waking up at 6/6:30 (like someone who doesn’t have to leave the house at 7:10 to catch the train). See? Same number of hours. All shifted 3 hours later in the day. Sounds good, right?
Sorta.
While it is nice to be awake when other people are, other people rather get in the way of my productive time. I am not productive been 8 and 11 at night. Sure, I might get the occasional load of laundry done. And my kitchen sink might actually get cleaned before the morning. But, otherwise, I’m not sure what I did with that free time. I did read quite a bit, which was nice. But I can read on my commute, so it’s not really crucial to my well-being. In the morning, I will clean the kitchen, do laundry, elliptical while watching CLE (continuing legal education), and blog. So, you see, that is why you have not heard from me: I had no morning time in which to do it.
Since switching back to my “normal” early wake up schedule in the past couple of weeks, I have had more time to blog, but you still haven’t heard from me, because I am also tackling a new project — one which will remain secret until it actually materializes. So, I’ve been using my two hours (that’s really all I get – 4 to 6; after 6, I have to start getting ready for work and help getting the kids ready for school) to slowly check an item or two a day off of my ever-faithful “to do” list. I am finding this new potential endeavor enlivening. But I have missed having the time to blog.
That said, I haven’t been sure what to blog about, either, because it’s hard to blog about being a Mom on 11, when you have recently felt your internal Mom-o-meter taking it down about 4 notches. C’est la vie. Shrug and ignore. Make the kids do the laundry. (I have.)
And now…I need to clean the kitchen sink.
Econ-mom: Law-mom, I’m so glad you enjoyed your vacation, and welcome to the zen that is being a slob! 😛 By the way, I’ve probably said this before, but I’ll say it again – I wish I was a morning person like Law-mom. I have found it interesting (and perhaps a little sad) that even after years of my children waking me up at the crack of dawn, I never was able to shift to being a morning person. I did get in the habit of going to bed quite early, but only because my kids were such bad sleepers – I would often be “in bed” for 9+ hours, and yet hardly get any actual sleep! Anyway, I am now firmly convinced that being a morning or night person is 100% genetic, and there is absolutely nothing one can do to change it. Weirdly, for almost the first time ever, I actually woke up almost an hour before my kids yesterday (since I was still on east coast time), so I got up and started folding laundry and enjoyed feeling as productive as Law-mom for a brief moment. (Because guess what I came home to after being gone for 5 days? My loving family, an empty fridge, and MOUNTAINS of laundry!)