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.

Stealing Moments

Life is busy. Life is crazy. Life is crazy busy.

Recently I've found myself longing for the world to stop spinning, just for a day. Heck, I'd even settle for a calm hour. If I'm honest I will admit I've been waiting for that to occur for as long as I can remember.

"When life calms down I'll....."
"When I have a free night/weekend/day I'll....."
"Next week I will..."

Turns out life never calms down and the days I long for don't show up. Instead the days pass by with me unable to truly control it. My "baby" boy is now five. My "newborn" daughter is approaching a year an a half. I feel like I've allowed so many moments to pass me by simply because I'm waiting for the perfect moment. That perfect moment rarely occurs.

In the attempt to simply accept my crazy life I've spent the week looking to create almost perfect moments. I so often want to hang out with my son and just have fun. It's tough when two nights a week there's soccer practice and work commitments have kept me there beyond my usual exit time. Tonight, with dear daughter sleeping, my son happily playing his Nintendo DS and DH grabbing a cat nap on the couch I started clean up the kitchen. I threw out a desperate "Hey, LJ, want to help me with the dishwasher?" "No thank you, Mom." At least he's polite. I began to clear the dishwasher of the load of clean dishes when little man came in. "I can help you before the start of the next race." Bingo. Moment created.

We weren't at Disneyland or at the beach but the ten minutes we spent unloading and reloading the dishwasher was great. We spoke of the day's events and looked ahead to this weekend's USC game. I allowed him to figure out where to place each plate and bowl, he accepted that challenge and did a darn good job.

The moment wasn't perfect but it was ours. My life feels a bit more balanced because I stole a moment.

A Fall Classic

Despite what the thermometer and its 80 degree reading says, fall is in the air. I’m sure they are enjoying beautiful fall colors up and down the East Coast. Here in So Cal? No fall colors to speak of, leaves are either green or dead, but we know it’s fall thanks to the Santa Ana winds that have been driving us crazy for the last few weeks. J-MO has a closet full of adorable “cool weather” outfits that she’s yet to wear. Instead I’ve been squeezing her size 24 month buns into size 18 month shorts in order to dress her appropriately for the weather. Don’t worry, the marks from the elastic go away, eventually.

In addition to bizarre temperature shifts there’s one thing I know I can count on each fall: the annual showing of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. It aired on Tuesday at 8:00. Tuesday is soccer practice night for LJ and 8:00 is too late for our boy to start a show so, thanks to the wonder that is our DVR, it, minus the first three minutes because I nearly forgot it, was recorded so we could view it at whenever our hearts desired.

Our hearts so desired last night. The oddly short World Series deciding game was over, I was lying on our bed just resting, LJ was wandering around looking for something to entertain him. I came to his rescue. I told him of the show I’d taped the previous night. It didn’t take much prompting for him to climb onto the bed with me. After explaining (and apologizing) to my five year old why I’d skipped the first few minutes, we settled in to watch the Peanuts gang. LJ and I lay side by side holding hands. My boy, the sweetheart that he can be, commented sadly every time poor Charlie received a rock, “they aren’t very nice to him, I’d give him candy!” Indeed, little man, we share with everyone, right? Such teaching moments this 40 year cartoon provided.

It was nice to hang out with my little guy. He’s so busy these days doing things that 5 year old boys do like playing soccer or riding his scooter or crashing monster trucks, it’s rare that I really, really, get to have a few quite moments with him. He’s seemed so much more grown up lately, I can’t seem to fully grasp the fact that he turned five last week. All that said my boy did give me a few glimpses at my “little” LJ. He, to this day, inaccurately refers to Snoopy as “SnooFy”. When he first said it last night I nearly corrected him. I may have even opened my mouth to do so but I stopped the words before they came out. For one more year that little beagle can be Snoofy. Yes, there’s a hint of my baby LJ still trapped in there. It’s rare I get to see glimpses of the baby I once knew but when I do it’s a golden moment.

I’ll let “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” stay on the DVR for a few weeks. Then, in a sad moment I’ll delete it. Like the Santa Ana winds it’s a fall classic. One to be enjoyed only when the conditions are perfect.