This weekend was hectic, there's an understatement. One of the things our family is not and sometimes I wish it were is a family where only one person works. This seems easier to me especially at times like this weekend. In retrospect it was totally the fault of Gary and I and the fact that we simply did not communicate enough about our schedules and consult the calender and planner. Damn those calender and planners, must they rule our lives. Apparently they must because when they do not then things like this weekend occur.
So here's how it happened:
I worked my regular half day on Tues and long day on Wed, saw 18 clients in that time frame and hunkered in on Wed night looking forward to the weekend. That is what I usually do on Wed, look forward to the weekend. I always work the Thurs on call overnight from midnight until 8am and occasionally work the overnight on Friday too, although I am trying to do this less as it is really taxing on me.
So as I hunkered in on Wed talking with Gary about the upcoming weekend I notice on the almighty calender than in fact this weekend is one where I am working both Thurs and Fri. As I am growling about this Gary tells me that he decided to do a double bill on Sat in Vt which would mean him being gone from Sat morning at 9 until well, it turned out until 6am on Sunday.
Wow, this sucks.
So, Friday after sleeping for four hours I am a nut case. Totally exhausted with no patience at all for anyone including my children, you know those nice people that reside with me and spend time with me like all day.
Friday night I am out all night and so yesterday I was with the kids all day on two hours of sleep.
So, this is the cool part, this is how I handled it:
I made a ridiculous amount of money over the course of those days, most of which we really needed but not all. So I took us all out of the house where we went nuts at AC Moore and bought all sorts of cool things to make valentines with. Then we went out to Friendly s which is like the most unhealthy you can get and I secretly despise it but this is where they wanted to go and oh what they hell, so did I deep down in my belly:)
We came home and made cards and hung out. We watched Toy Story. I love Toy Story. We laughed and before I knew it we were hunkering down for bed.
Today we all got up for Church. I gave them a bath and read a funny story to them all. I sat in church while my kids went to their various classes and prayed.
I would say I am not a religious homeschooler. I am really close to God in various different forms, sometimes holding a child, sometimes meditating, sometimes driving in the car or holding a friend in grief. Today I was close to God and for the first time in a long time I was in sadness over John's illness and Colleen's autism and I was still close to God, I wasn't so angry anymore. I don't know why.
The kids and I finished the book The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars yesterday in the car in the middle of our driving around. If you haven't read it, you should. It is a magical book about a young girl coming of age in a complicated family. I like the complicated family part the most. I also liked the way it made me feel to listen to this book in the car for the last couple of days with my children. As a child of 7 or 8 I had read this book probably a hundred times. It made me feel young, hearing it this way again so many years later. It made me feel young and full of wonder.
I am not going to work on Fridays anymore. It is not worth the money to feel that tired. And truth be told I enjoy my professional identity and would not love being home all the time. Gary does such a wonderful job being with our children and in our family it is important that we have these roles.
We are going to a super bowl party soon and I am looking forward to finally spending some time with my whole family. I am also looking forward to watching the Pats kick some Giant butt:)
No comments:
Post a Comment