The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy with Brandon working in-patient (read: works long days and most weekends and takes pages 24 hours a day for his admitted patients). This morning, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, since Brandon is working all day again. But I decided to make the most of this beautiful day.....and we sort of knocked it out of the park this morning.
After breakfast, I washed a sinkful of dishes and folded some clean laundry. The kids were great and well behaved during trips to the grocery store, the bank, and Sam's Club. Cora took a solid hour and a half nap. And I even made it to the Y for a workout. All before lunch! (It's amazing what you can accomplish when the day starts at 5:45 :)
The morning went so well, I decided to treat myself to Chipotle for lunch, because.......mealtime has recently become not my favorite part of the day. Mostly because Cora is so picky - we basically try to eat meat, veggies and fruit in our house, and Cora eats.....some kinds of fruit - and Jonah has really been turning on the whine every time we sit down at the table. If we're having fish, he wants eggs; if we're having eggs, he wants fish. The food is too hot. He wanted it "big" (uncut). He wants a blue cup. It's always something. And with Brandon's crazy hours, I've been doing 80-90% of meals on my own recently.
It's exhausting. I thought maybe the change of scenery would make a difference. However, as soon as we sat down, Jonah started right in. I warned him that he needed to speak to me respectfully and change his attitude, or we would leave. He started screaming, we were disturbing other customers, so I made the decision to take our food "to-go". So much for a special outing.
So I was driving home, sulking about how poorly our attempted "lunch date" had gone, when suddenly the line of cars in front of me stopped moving. I slammed on my brakes, but almost immediately realized I was not going to be able to stop in time. Glancing at my mirrors, I quickly swerved into the other lane where, thankfully, there were no other cars. It was at that moment, however, that my burrito bowl (which I had set on top of the van when I was loading kids into car seats), slid off the top of the van, down the front of my windshield, and came to rest (completely unscathed!) on my windshield wipers. I was able to make it to a gas station without incident and rescue my burrito bowl from the windshield. Talk about a close call.
Now the kids are napping, and I'm enjoying a little quiet. And looking forward to the evening, because, even though Brandon has to work all day, we have a babysitter coming over tonight so that we can go out on a DATE! We're going to see a musical, most of which Brandon will probably sleep through :)
Just a typical Saturday in this crazy season of life.
After breakfast, I washed a sinkful of dishes and folded some clean laundry. The kids were great and well behaved during trips to the grocery store, the bank, and Sam's Club. Cora took a solid hour and a half nap. And I even made it to the Y for a workout. All before lunch! (It's amazing what you can accomplish when the day starts at 5:45 :)
The morning went so well, I decided to treat myself to Chipotle for lunch, because.......mealtime has recently become not my favorite part of the day. Mostly because Cora is so picky - we basically try to eat meat, veggies and fruit in our house, and Cora eats.....some kinds of fruit - and Jonah has really been turning on the whine every time we sit down at the table. If we're having fish, he wants eggs; if we're having eggs, he wants fish. The food is too hot. He wanted it "big" (uncut). He wants a blue cup. It's always something. And with Brandon's crazy hours, I've been doing 80-90% of meals on my own recently.
It's exhausting. I thought maybe the change of scenery would make a difference. However, as soon as we sat down, Jonah started right in. I warned him that he needed to speak to me respectfully and change his attitude, or we would leave. He started screaming, we were disturbing other customers, so I made the decision to take our food "to-go". So much for a special outing.
So I was driving home, sulking about how poorly our attempted "lunch date" had gone, when suddenly the line of cars in front of me stopped moving. I slammed on my brakes, but almost immediately realized I was not going to be able to stop in time. Glancing at my mirrors, I quickly swerved into the other lane where, thankfully, there were no other cars. It was at that moment, however, that my burrito bowl (which I had set on top of the van when I was loading kids into car seats), slid off the top of the van, down the front of my windshield, and came to rest (completely unscathed!) on my windshield wipers. I was able to make it to a gas station without incident and rescue my burrito bowl from the windshield. Talk about a close call.
Now the kids are napping, and I'm enjoying a little quiet. And looking forward to the evening, because, even though Brandon has to work all day, we have a babysitter coming over tonight so that we can go out on a DATE! We're going to see a musical, most of which Brandon will probably sleep through :)
Just a typical Saturday in this crazy season of life.
4 comments:
Well, I'm glad your day turned out okay!!
FYI... I think of you daily, Becca. Every time it's 11am and I"m thinking, "I can't WAIT for Jonathon to come home for lunch.. I'm so done with these kids!" Yep, every time I feel sorry for myself for having to deal with kids for just 3 hours at a time, I think of you!! You're an awesome Mama!!
Hi Becca! I sometimes struggle with the kids' lunches too... just keep trying different things! Neither of my kids are really picky eaters, which I feel really lucky about. One thing you might try is letting Jonah help pick his lunch (sometimes I give Carsten a choice and if he is dissatisfied, I remind him that I chose this lunch and that typically works). Also, sometimes I arrange his food in 'faces' which he loves. One other resource that I find helpful for lunch ideas is '100 days of real food' that has some great healthy choices. One thing that works for my boys is if they want something, I usually have them take 1-3 bites of something that they don't want before they can have it. Just some thoughts, and I feel for you; doing lunches alone isn't always a lot of fun.
Wow, Go you! What a day!
What musical did you see? So glad you got a date! =)
Thanks for the encouraging words, everyone! I don't mean for this blog to be a place for me to whine about how hard my life is....because it's not! I love my kids, even in the challenging moments. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to be home with them during this season :)
Cheri - I don't think it's even a comparison between having two kids and FOUR. I'm glad you have a little bit of back-up during the day :)
Natalie - great suggestions! One thing I have learned in my short time as a mom....this too shall pass! I know that each challenge is only temporary, and eventually we will move through this.
Joia - we saw WSU's production of "Into the Woods" and it was AWESOME! And Brandon stayed awake through the whole thing! He thought the show was was a little weird, but he enjoys plays/musicals generally. I would recommend WSU's productions - they do a great job, and the tickets are decently priced. (I don't think they have any more productions this year, but something to look for next fall).
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