Sunday, August 28, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Me Time
We got a surprise this week. My mom came to watch the kids on Tuesday when the Dancing Queen couldn't go to school because of her fever the night before and at the end of the night, she took the kids home for the week. (Their cousins are in town from out of state and she wanted them all to spend time together. And she always dreamed of being a full time baby sitter for her grandkids, just as my paternal grandma did for us.)
Anyway, I found myself sans kids for several days. The Mad Scientist and I think it is probably the longest we have ever been away from the Dancing Queen. (She has been knocked unconscious for much longer periods of time, but we were still by her side.)
It was nice. I was able to sleep in later in the morning and get to work earlier. And the only thing keeping me awake at night was myself. There was no crying, no nightmares, no worrying that the kids are too cold and wondering if I should check on them. It was very freeing.
The best part of it all was getting up in the morning and having the house all to myself. I made coffee and sat at my computer, reading what I wanted without interruption. It was so very wonderful.
Of course, I have been going through kid withdrawl and I am beyond excited that my kids will be home tomorrow evening. I miss them so much, especially when so many heart kids are going through very rough times. I just want to go to their room right now and hug them like I do every night, but they are not there.
Still, this time away from my sweet babies made me realize that while I have been very good about getting myself out of the funk I was in earlier this year, I still have a long way to go in making time for just me. I've been better. This blog is good for that. I take time to write posts when I need to get my thoughts out there. But, I still don't have enough time set aside for me to be me. I don't normally have time to sit back and enjoy my coffee. I'm either guzzling it on the way out the door, leaving it untouched on the counter, or drinking at my desk at work.
The biggest difference that I noticed with the kids gone is that I feel less guilt. If I take the time to check my email or read the news in the mornings, I usually feel guilty because I should be spending that time with the kids or I should be making their breakfast so we get out the door quicker, so I get to work quicker, so I get home quicker and actually manage to see the kids before they go to bed. But this week, I didn't feel guilty because the only thing I had to do was get myself to work and back. I still saw the Mad Scientist. We had some nice dinners together.
The moral of the story is that that I am tired of the guilt. And tired of no me time.
So, when the kids come back, I intend to change my attitude about myself. I am worth more. And being a working mom doesn't mean that I have to put myself last on the priority list. If I prioritize myself and know I have time set aside for just me, then I think the rest will fall into place.
If I schedule "me time", just like I schedule everything else, I should be able to make it happen. If I know there will be me time, I won't try to continuously sneak in a minute here or there to be me. I can enjoy my time with my kids because that is kid time. I can work when at work because it is work time. I can fully be with my husband when I'm with my husband because it his time. And when it is my time with just me, everyone else can fend for themselves. I think that sounds fair. I am worth it!
What do you do to not lose yourself as a mom?
Anyway, I found myself sans kids for several days. The Mad Scientist and I think it is probably the longest we have ever been away from the Dancing Queen. (She has been knocked unconscious for much longer periods of time, but we were still by her side.)
It was nice. I was able to sleep in later in the morning and get to work earlier. And the only thing keeping me awake at night was myself. There was no crying, no nightmares, no worrying that the kids are too cold and wondering if I should check on them. It was very freeing.
The best part of it all was getting up in the morning and having the house all to myself. I made coffee and sat at my computer, reading what I wanted without interruption. It was so very wonderful.
Of course, I have been going through kid withdrawl and I am beyond excited that my kids will be home tomorrow evening. I miss them so much, especially when so many heart kids are going through very rough times. I just want to go to their room right now and hug them like I do every night, but they are not there.
Still, this time away from my sweet babies made me realize that while I have been very good about getting myself out of the funk I was in earlier this year, I still have a long way to go in making time for just me. I've been better. This blog is good for that. I take time to write posts when I need to get my thoughts out there. But, I still don't have enough time set aside for me to be me. I don't normally have time to sit back and enjoy my coffee. I'm either guzzling it on the way out the door, leaving it untouched on the counter, or drinking at my desk at work.
The biggest difference that I noticed with the kids gone is that I feel less guilt. If I take the time to check my email or read the news in the mornings, I usually feel guilty because I should be spending that time with the kids or I should be making their breakfast so we get out the door quicker, so I get to work quicker, so I get home quicker and actually manage to see the kids before they go to bed. But this week, I didn't feel guilty because the only thing I had to do was get myself to work and back. I still saw the Mad Scientist. We had some nice dinners together.
The moral of the story is that that I am tired of the guilt. And tired of no me time.
So, when the kids come back, I intend to change my attitude about myself. I am worth more. And being a working mom doesn't mean that I have to put myself last on the priority list. If I prioritize myself and know I have time set aside for just me, then I think the rest will fall into place.
If I schedule "me time", just like I schedule everything else, I should be able to make it happen. If I know there will be me time, I won't try to continuously sneak in a minute here or there to be me. I can enjoy my time with my kids because that is kid time. I can work when at work because it is work time. I can fully be with my husband when I'm with my husband because it his time. And when it is my time with just me, everyone else can fend for themselves. I think that sounds fair. I am worth it!
What do you do to not lose yourself as a mom?
Please, Help Me!
I started this blog as my place to let it out. To yell at the world since there were no blogs that I could find with other heart moms who work full time as a lawyer. Nobody else was trying to balance with all of the extra stuff that I have going on. I had no intention of getting followers or any such stuff. This blog was purely my outlet.
All of that remains true. I have no intention of trying to take my blog to the next level, of putting in the enormous energies required to build a huge following or of marketing myself. But, I have learned that there are a lot of moms out there that I connect with, even if they are not heart moms or they don't have a job or they are not even moms at all. I really enjoy meeting people in the blogosphere and social media.
I really enjoy blogging too, but I want to connect more because that is what is exciting. I created a Facebook page so that I could more fully interact with people outside of comments to the blog (which are not all that interactive--need to work on better comment functionality when I find time). Facebook is working very well for the purpose I intended. However, there is one big, huge problem with the Facebook page: I am compulsive.
What does that have to do with Facebook, you ask. Well, it is simple. In order to have a proper Facebook name for my page, I need to have at least 25 people like me. I only have 20. And the compulsive side of me is driven crazy that there are a bunch of crazy numbers at the end of my Facebook page. I mean look at how ugly this link is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Funambulism-for-Beginners/178233102225008. I really just want to name it something easy to remember and not quite so random. So, can you please help me out and like my facebook page if you haven't already? And if you have already liked the page, ask a friend to like it for me. If you don't want to see my posts, I won't be offended if you hide me. My compulsive side just can't handle looking at those crazy numbers any more! And once I am able to change the name, I'm sure Facebook can't take it away, so you can unlike the page and I'll be fine with that too. The numbers have been driving me batty for over 4 months.
(And now I will lose some of my followers because they realize I am a wee bit crazy and I'm okay with that cause I am a wee bit crazy.)
Anywho, since you all know I'm crazy now. I also joined twitter because a lot more conversations take place on twitter than on Facebook. The Twitter address is lovely: http://twitter.com/MomOnALine and even better is the simple @MomOnALine. See, no silly numbers to muck the whole thing up, but I still have problems there as well. The problem with Twitter is that I don't have a ton of time and always feel like I'm jumping into somebody else's conversations and don't know what to do or how to do it. Can any experienced tweeps help me out and tell me what I should do? Would lists help? I'm not certain of their particular purpose. Are they to help others find like-minded individuals or are they for something else? And how do I stop people from posting to me with sales junk? (I've been blocking them.)
I know if I dedicated a good amount of time to tweeting, I could get it. But, I don't really have the time to dedicate. Perhaps that means I shouldn't tweet? I don't know. Can you help me?
Evidently, I'm a social media dweeb and I need help!
All of that remains true. I have no intention of trying to take my blog to the next level, of putting in the enormous energies required to build a huge following or of marketing myself. But, I have learned that there are a lot of moms out there that I connect with, even if they are not heart moms or they don't have a job or they are not even moms at all. I really enjoy meeting people in the blogosphere and social media.
I really enjoy blogging too, but I want to connect more because that is what is exciting. I created a Facebook page so that I could more fully interact with people outside of comments to the blog (which are not all that interactive--need to work on better comment functionality when I find time). Facebook is working very well for the purpose I intended. However, there is one big, huge problem with the Facebook page: I am compulsive.
What does that have to do with Facebook, you ask. Well, it is simple. In order to have a proper Facebook name for my page, I need to have at least 25 people like me. I only have 20. And the compulsive side of me is driven crazy that there are a bunch of crazy numbers at the end of my Facebook page. I mean look at how ugly this link is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Funambulism-for-Beginners/178233102225008. I really just want to name it something easy to remember and not quite so random. So, can you please help me out and like my facebook page if you haven't already? And if you have already liked the page, ask a friend to like it for me. If you don't want to see my posts, I won't be offended if you hide me. My compulsive side just can't handle looking at those crazy numbers any more! And once I am able to change the name, I'm sure Facebook can't take it away, so you can unlike the page and I'll be fine with that too. The numbers have been driving me batty for over 4 months.(And now I will lose some of my followers because they realize I am a wee bit crazy and I'm okay with that cause I am a wee bit crazy.)
Anywho, since you all know I'm crazy now. I also joined twitter because a lot more conversations take place on twitter than on Facebook. The Twitter address is lovely: http://twitter.com/MomOnALine and even better is the simple @MomOnALine. See, no silly numbers to muck the whole thing up, but I still have problems there as well. The problem with Twitter is that I don't have a ton of time and always feel like I'm jumping into somebody else's conversations and don't know what to do or how to do it. Can any experienced tweeps help me out and tell me what I should do? Would lists help? I'm not certain of their particular purpose. Are they to help others find like-minded individuals or are they for something else? And how do I stop people from posting to me with sales junk? (I've been blocking them.)I know if I dedicated a good amount of time to tweeting, I could get it. But, I don't really have the time to dedicate. Perhaps that means I shouldn't tweet? I don't know. Can you help me?
Evidently, I'm a social media dweeb and I need help!
Please like my Facebook page by following the link below:
And if you are on twitter and want to tweet me advice, I can be found at the link below or @MomOnALine:
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Wordless Wednesday: Polar Bear Beach Party
Here is the answer to last week's quiz. I know it stumped you all because I only got two answers (-;
On Saturday, we celebrated TRex's 5th birthday at the beach with a polar bear beach party!
On Saturday, we celebrated TRex's 5th birthday at the beach with a polar bear beach party!
 |
| Sand toys for all of the kids! |
 |
| Amazing polar bear cake made by my sister, the Editor! (I made the swimming polar bears.) |
 |
| A sword! TRex got 3, so everybody could be a pirate! |
 |
| We couldn't get the candle to light. |
 |
| Aftermath. |
 |
| Playing with the gift he wanted his "entire life". |
 |
| DQ the pirate! |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
