A Day in the Life (not of Ivan Denisovich)

Hey, look at that, I decided to do one of these actually early in the morning instead of trying to remember the morning when I decide at 2pm! This is an average day (as far as I know while starting this), a Tuesday with no baseball and no specific plans.

5:25am I set my FitBit alarm so that I would get out of bed to take a shower because I didn’t feel like it last night. I had no intention of getting up at 5:30 in the morning, but being woken once makes it easier to actually get up with my alarm when it goes off instead of hitting the snooze four times (which is the norm; okay so this isn’t an average day! Ha!)

6:00am alarm sounds, I actually get up and turn it off and stay up, something that doesn’t often happen. I’m terrible at mornings. Shower, makeup, clothes.

6:35am Making breakfast and lunch – I’m trying to be better about my eating habits and I just finished a round of 21 Day Fix and start another one tomorrow. Today I’m eating the same things though; it’s just easier.

The kids are starting to emerge from bedrooms, so I give Henry a snuggle in my bed and talk to Spencer about the Minecraft book he’s reading. I rarely do any of the morning things for the kids – I used to make S’s lunch but my husband has even taken that over.

6:42am Leaving for work! Even a few minutes early!

6:44am back in, left my car key in the kitchen

6:45am Hey, leaving right on time!

There’s pretty bad fog but traffic isn’t bad.

7:05am Roll into work. For some reason there are four of us that really like these two specific parking spaces (I don’t know, don’t look at me like that). But! I got one of them! Only had to be 10 minutes early to get it.

7:15am start work, although I probably started a few minutes early but whatever. Answer emails, get through a couple things right away. I’m being actually quickly productive.

7:50am coffee! Coffee? I need coffee. Yes, I wait this long. No, I don’t actually NEED coffee. I like the taste. I drink it black.

 8:15am I take a minute or five to thinking about the casting for one of my favorite books, if it were ever to be made into a movie. No one fits. I talk to my favorite group of girls about some goings on and read up on blogs.

8:30am breakfast and back to work, all at the same time! (breakfast: two hardboiled eggs w/ 21DF all-purpose seasoning and a handful of raspberries)

10:00am I worked pretty steadily until meeting time. Sad I didn’t have any coffee left for it.

11:10am Back at my desk, I usually go to lunch about now but for some reason I wasn’t hungry so I got sidetracked with more work. I did fill up my water cup though, and gave a small sigh because I’m not sitting poolside in San Antonio with my gals and a pile of tortillas.

12:45p I’ve been working pretty much non-stop and I’m still really not hungry so I’ve decided to take my lunch to step away from my desk and go for a stroll at a nearby walking trail. I downloaded an audiobook for the occasion.

1:30pm I’m oddly STILL not hungry (does not happen very often) but if I don’t eat now I won’t eat until I get home and then I will scavenge for everything in the house. So. Lunch.

1:45pm no, really, lunch. (I got distracted. Far too busy today for not actually having anything on my to-do list).

Still working while I eat since I took my lunch to walk.

4:00 out of work! It was busier than I expected and the day actually flew by, which feels lovely. But I'm out and peace, yo. Audiobook back on while I drive to get the kids.

4:35pm traffic not as bad as usual, I make good time to pick up the boys from daycare. Spencer has gotten in trouble at school again, but it was a minor offense and we talk about it for a minute.

4:45pm home, Spencer starts crying because Henry opened the door on "his day". Henry starts crying because I won't immediately let him play WiiU. I have seen the future and it includes wine.

5:15pm I retreat from tantrums and to do laundry (and have a glass of wine) and the kids give up the hysteria to play out back, as it is gorgeous outside. Neighbor boy has gotten in trouble at school today which would normally mean he wasn't allowed to play but they have found a way around it- the throw a ball over the fence at each other.  Between rain and baseball this is the first time in a very long time they’ve had the chance to play outside and it’s magical.

5:45pm peel and chop turnips and throw them in the toaster oven to roast, return to the laundry.

6:15pm put sausages on the grill, heat up corn for the children, mosquito spray children, back to laundry.

 

6:45pm dinner is ready! C barks at the kids to put away the 1,871 toys they got out and we eat. Spinach and feta chicken sausages, roasted turnips, and corn for the children. Tonight Spencer actually likes the turnips, Henry cries over eating them, Henry loves the corn and sausage (and gets for another half a sausage from daddy's plate), Spencer wants catsup to make the sausage bearable and eats the corn under coercion. Not such a bad night. Minimal crying. It's not such a pretty meal. But I liked it. And no, that's not my first glass of wine.

7:15pm Spencer in the shower

7:30pm Henry in the shower, Spencer dressing and we play with an aging app that I have to delete immediately. No, you can't see my picture. He reads until teeth time.

 

7:40pm Henry out, his aging picture taken. Teeth are brushed and mild arguments had over what Spencer can or can't do with his time before bed - he wants to play Minecraft on his kindle and I said he could watch his show or read.

7:50pm they pick a tv show (Larva) and settle in. That's my teddy bear. I take this time to start a new book in the living room.

8:15pm kiddo bedtime! C does this. So much quicker.

8:25pm Henry up about something wrong with the nightlight, so I go in to fix the lights and music again. I'm pretty sure Spencer's already asleep. He doesn't last long in bed.

8:45pm Henry says he has a tummy ache. C handles this one; the getting up really gets to me. He then goes to play his video game so he can keep an eye on anyone emerging from the boys' room. I'm fading so I quit reading and head to bed. Because doing this has made me feel accountable for my actions I take the time to stop and wash my face and remember my anxiety medication. I should probably do this every day.

9:00pm usually I'd read or watch Bones or just talk to my girls online, but tonight C wants to catch up on some of our shows so we watch a little current tv. So I tuck in and try not to fall asleep while we watch Big Bang Theory which I love but man, exhausted.

9:30pm I had geared up for a second episode but I just couldn’t do it. Sleep, sweet sweet sleep.

A weekend

I don't know if this type of blog post is interesting to anyone but me, but I post it because it does help me remember that things can be and are good.

This weekend was supposed to have a lot of (you guessed it) baseball, but a rainy Saturday kept the fields puddly and left us with 48 hours of family time. C had to work on Saturday which mostly didn’t keep him busy but did keep him strapped to his computer for the day and unable to go anywhere. I am not good at keeping the kids home and not worrying about noise etc, so we ran a couple small errands (okay, we just went to Target) and then we visited the new ChuckECheese-alike place up the street. It was HUGE (mini-golf, rock climbing, bumper cars, bowling (not real bowling but a smaller facsimile), arcade, a mid-air ropes course, laser tag … it’s in an old grocery store and it takes up the entire place. 

 

It was fun – we all played a round of mini golf, Spencer bowled, the kids played a couple games of air hockey and Henry and I played some arcade games. Money goes fast in those places though, so we filled up the rest of the day with console video games at home and Spencer finished building his AT-AT.

 

Sunday was beautiful – the forecast kept threatening rain, but it never came. We spent the day at the Magic Kingdom and we did way more than usual – rode more rides, watched more shows, had great fun. 

 

A couple behavior problems if I’m being honest, but what day doesn’t have random crises? We powered through.

This weekend was magic.

Books I read: February

I didn’t get any better about reading in February; if possible, I got a little worse. Should I mention again how all-consuming baseball has been? Plus there was more watching Bones (I’m in the 7^th season) and I tried to work out some, really, that’s all I had time for. All over, the end. March feels like it’s picking up though (yes, I know it’s early but I’ve been reading! For a change!)

Anyhow, this was what I read in February.

8. The Girl You Left Behind - Jojo Moyes Well now, I just started picking up Moyes books without knowing what they are about and this was not what I was expecting. Excellent, just excellent, but not what I was expecting. I’m not usually much for reading period novels but I did love this.

9. Too Hot To Touch - Louisa Edwards Off Stephany’s January list, this was fun and cute and light and romantic.

10. The Beginning of Everything - Robyn Schneider Another winner – I know I’m behind on reading some of these but I’m glad I waited and didn’t have as much expectation. Also, I really liked the ending, more realistic and yet satisfying even though I totally expected most of it.

11. Silver Bay - Jojo Moyes Again, not what I was expecting. I needed an audiobook and this was available. It was much slower than the others and with many more cliché phrases but still good. I think I would have liked it better if I was reading, but that’s really most books.

Smile

I’m not Catholic. I’m only really on the fringe of Christianity, truth be told. I have very specific beliefs that do not line up with traditional churches and I’m as square in my beliefs as you are in yours, so I’m good with how I believe and think.

I do, however, observe the age ol’ tradition of “giving up” something for Lent, I always have. In high school it’s giving up chocolate, in college it’s giving up alcohol (and chocolate), As an adult it’s giving up cursing (and alcohol, and chocolate).

This year, much like the new thought to how New Year’s resolutions should be made to enhance your life, I thought I’d do things differently. I like my life, I don’t curse much, I don’t drink much, I’m already working on my candy intake. Do I really need to remove something from my life as a “sacrifice”? What would really make my life better?

I think I’ve mentioned my stress level here, my anxiety, my short fuse. All of these things – that’s what I need to remove from my life. So for Lent, this is my decision:

I am going to make a solid effort to smile more, to laugh more, to let go of bad feelings, to snark less and to believe the best in people.

The past couple months have been rough for me, socially. I really would rather not get into it much here, but I have felt badly about a lot of interactions, and often very hurt. I’m going to work on letting those feelings go.

Remember that Disney day where I told Spencer that he had to smile any time I asked him to? I have asked the boys to do the same for me. Anytime I am not smiling, I want to be reminded to smile. I hope to feel like I did that day, as often as possible.

Seven. SEVEN. Holy crud, seven.

SO. Spencer is now seven. What do I say about that? I feel like this has been a challenging year, but also a learning experience for all of us. Parenting is hard, yo. And being a kid is hard too. I’m really trying to recognize that, although I’m sure I seldom show it. He’s my first born, my love, my sweet boy.

Because of baseball, I didn’t know what to set up for his birthday. Last year we took the weekend and stayed in a Disney resort and lived it up, but I assumed there was practice and no one was sure when it was (the scheduling of baseball leaves something to be desired) so I was limited in what I could schedule. Finally mid-week we found out when Saturday practice was and decided to invite a couple boys over for a sleepover. Just two boys, which doubled the children in my house, and we had pizza and ice cream cake and movies and it was a pretty good time. There was some arguing over the WiiU at the beginning which made me seriously question my sanity for setting this up, but ultimately everyone had a good time. There was, of course, very little sleep which made Sunday morning and early afternoon difficult, but we persevered.

A photo posted by @aprilbapryll on Feb 7, 2015 at 5:26pm PST

A video posted by @aprilbapryll on Feb 8, 2015 at 5:16pm PST

A photo posted by @aprilbapryll on Feb 8, 2015 at 4:57pm PST

For Sunday, Spencer’s actual birthday, we got tickets to the Lightning game and took the boys to their first hockey game, which they LOVED. We were a little concerned because the tickets were more than expected and they had so little sleep we thought it would end up being a waste but it was a super good time.

And that was that! I love you, kid.

In a Nutshell

I opened up this browser many a time last week to write something, anything, but then time would pass and I wouldn’t get anything down on virtual paper and so I would close it up. Spencer’s birthday was last week; I should probably dedicate a separate post to that.

Otherwise, time passes. We are good, things are (mostly) good. I was on the outs with my meds and that did not put me in a very good head space. My anxiety was blessedly doing okay which is why I was waffling on getting back on them, but the anger was rising. My fuse shortened, I wasn’t laughing or smiling much, so this weekend I put myself back on them. It’s not that I care if I’m on meds for all of my life, I actually don’t. I just sometimes forget to take them, and then I forget again the next day, and then I stop thinking I need them and they aren’t a habit anymore. So. Back on the meds.

 Baseball is all consuming, have I said this before? It currently takes all out money and all our time, but S loves it and that’s really all that matters. We’ve been taking two cars there a lot so H doesn’t have to spend his life there too, but we also bring him books and his soccer ball and he’s not resenting it yet, so I think we’re okay. S’s position is right field, which makes sense since he’s new and can’t throw as well as some of the other kids. Some of those other kids are GOOD. The first game is Saturday, and we’ll be there with bells on, supporting those kids. 

I’m on week 2 of the 21-day fix. I think I’m doing okay; there have been many moments of weakness where I’ve had candy but mostly I’m making good decisions. Packing my lunch and dinner for work every day has helped. The first week I made myself strict full day plans of meals – Monday would be this for breakfast, this for lunch, this for dinner, etc etc etc. This week I’ve made a looser plan that I think will work a little better. I did my meal plan for dinner and made sure I had everything I need for other meals, and I’m otherwise winging it. Tonight I’m making steak stir fry and I had leftover sausage and veggie lentils for lunch, so I made sure I brought fruit and cottage cheese for breakfast for balance.

I am going out for dinner twice this week though, and I’m poring over the menus to see what the best decision is; ideally I’ll find a few options and then pick what makes me happy when I’m there. I’m not being super militant though; I still think it’s about reminding yourself of the smarter, healthier options, but if something else will make you happy, moderation is okay too. This probably will mean I’m not as successful at the Fix, but I’m also thinking more long term. My biggest need is to cut cravings, which I’m still bad at. Candy. This week I’m working harder at that. Portion control is my second need, and I’m doing pretty well with that. Henry has been doing my workouts with me; he actually gets really upset if I start without him or do it while he’s not there. He skips his show to work out with me or help count down or check my form. He was super helpful at yoga because he laid on my back and helped my stretch farther.

A video posted by @aprilbapryll on Feb 16, 2015 at 3:09pm PST

(Henry does burpies)

My life is not mine.

Every time I sit down to update this blog, I think about what I could write about ME. What is going on in MY life?

And the truth is, right now there’s nothing. I don’t do anything for me; I get up, I work, I go home. I’ve been watching Bones back from the beginning – I was in a conversation with a friend about the some of the characters who have died or left the show and how we miss them, and so now I’m watching the series again. I thought about starting a new series (Alias, Pretty Little Liars, Parenthood, ad nauseum)  but I just don’t have the brain power to dedicate to new shows. So now that I’ve finished Gilmore Girls, it’s on to Bones. Again.

So right now my life is completely full of my kids. Baseball is consuming – C took Spencer to practice last night and they didn’t get home until after bedtime, but then he was hungry so he still didn’t get to bed for 45 minutes. I stayed home with Henry but we had errands to get done and video games to play. S lost a tooth last night and there was a moment where the tooth fairy nearly forgot to show up again because she was stuffed up with a post-nasal drip sore throat and had taken some Nyquil, but she got there. Thankfully.

Today is the day they are celebrating 101 days at school, and they are supposed to wear a white shirt with black spots and black pants. Last night while Spencer was at baseball I made him a very nice black spotted shirt, but this morning he cried for a solid 45 minutes about wearing said shirt. It was insane. I probably should have backed down but I was just so irritated that I made him wear the darn shirt. It wasn’t pretty. I hope he dealt with it.

Today is also kindergarten Round-up, so I’m taking Henry to the elementary school. He’s also not going to be happy, but I figure with his severe shyness and issues with change we need to go to anything related to kindergarten at all so he can get used to the idea for the next six months.

So there you have it. Things are okay right now. Not over the moon, but not down and out either. I’m getting there. I just need to find something of my own and I’ll be set.