Achieving Balance. One Day at a Time

Today I made a move to attempt to regain a bit of balance in my life, if only for a day. The last few weeks work has been stressful. I’m talking, meetings, deadlines, new employees, all piled on top of day to day expectations, stressful. I’ve not been getting out of the office at the hour deserved of my early check in time. Work has been eating away at my all too precious family time. Today I changed that. There were plenty of “To Do” tasks to keep me in my chair for a few more hours (days?) but I stood up and walked out of the door at 3:49. Only 49 minutes after I intended to leave. Not bad.

I pulled into the driveway just as DH was unloading the kidlets. Joy was visible on LJ’s face and he took great pleasure in attacking me with paper raccoon, an animal that fills me with quite an unreasonable amount of fear. J-Mo too was all smiles. Already my decision to leave financial statements for tomorrow was paying off.

As if I’d planned the evening’s agenda with DH ahead of time we both dove right into tasks that would benefit the family. DH headed to the kitchen to start dinner and I, with LJ’s help, started some laundry and folded up a load that had seemingly taken up permanent residency in our dryer. LJ was all smiles as I walked him through folding his own shirts. He did quite a good job. Then the kids and I made our way to J-Mo’s room. Poor dear’s room has become quite the museum of little girl clothes. I’m not kidding when I say every piece of clothing we’ve ever purchased (or been gifted) for her during her entire 16 month existence is still housed in her tiny bedroom. Also in the room is a stack of maternity clothes I just can’t seem to part with. Long story short, the girl’s room was a disaster. Making matters worse my little pincher grasp phenom has taken to picking at the border hung around the middle of the room thus forcing us to move the crib to the middle of the already cramped quarters. LJ and I laughed at the number of wooden blocks we found scattered around her room. LJ also had fun, per my instructions, stuffing the current season’s wardrobe into the appropriate drawers. Properly folding them will have to come at another time. I managed to throw a fair amount of stained items away, tossed some torn up shoes that once belonged to DH and I and even bagged up the maternity clothes for future donation. It was a productive time. Much work remains to be done but for now we’ve made enough room for us to walk into and J-Mo may even be able to play in there. Victory. Work complete and the three of us had a blast hanging out together.

By the time LJ and I finished up her room J-Mo was done inhaling her dinner. She’s quite the fan of DH’s chicken, it seems. Bath time! My little one adores the water. She happily lay on the ground in the bathroom allowing me to strip her down. I had only gotten the shampoo on her when LJ declared that he wanted to take a bath with her. I hesitated as I was only planning on quick bath for her but then conceded, why not? LJ stripped down and joined his sister in the bath. I rinsed off the girl and got to work on soaping up the boy. LJ took pride in the fact that he need only shake his wet head before his sister was laughing from head to toe. Pure joy rang across her face as her brother entertained her. Bubble beards, pouring water from a cup just in front of her, shaking his head like a wet dog, it made no difference what he did, she ate it all up. I stood back and watched. It almost felt as if I was intruding on their play time. The smiles on both of their, now clean, faces is something that’s now etched in my memory.

Today I achieved a bit of balance. I answered countless emails, reported on the state of our Accounts Receivable, discussed staffing issues and yet all that I accomplished was eclipsed by the ten minute exchange in our grimy little bath tub. That was exactly why I walked out of the office today at 3:49.