new math.

Somedays just sing.  I drop the kids at school, go for a run, volunteer in the kindergarten class for an hour, and manage to get dinner in the oven before my (third) school pick up of the day.

Other times, it feels like I'm juggling incompatible needs and failing miserably.

For example:

You have one introverted 8 year-old who desperately wants time alone with her mama and a little sister who desperately needs a nap do you
a.  let little sister nap, ruining the chance for a sweet early bed time and alone time for the big sister
or
b.  keep little sister awake, even though the thought of this makes you want to stab yourself in the eye, knowing that she will go to bed at 6:30 and you and big sister can blissfully paint your nails alone.

Another, also from today:

If you have promised a playdate to your sporty-spice son, do you let him have his friend over even though it means
a.  introverted big sister is going to freak out
b.  wild woman little sister is going to be a menace
c.  mom may want to stab herself in the eye
d.  all of the above

And finally,

Your dear friend who constantly watches your kid asks if she can drop her daughter off during basketball practice tonight during the planned "nail painting portion" of big sister's alone time with her mama.  Do you
a.  say, "sure, the more the merrier!"
b.  say, "no, big sister needs alone time."
c.  stab yourself in the eye.

a birthday story.

I married a good man, who is nothing like me.  One of Nate’s more annoying quirks is that he hates his birthday.  He’s fine with other people’s birthdays but is more than a little “meh” about his own.  This makes no sense to me.  I love a birthday.  I even love other people’s birthdays.  My kids will always and forever have theme-d out birthday parties with specific cake flavor requests and over the top decorations that I won't photograph because I forgot to charge the battery on my camera.

80's Double theme- Annie& Chuck E. Cheese!

Nate’s birthday is 2 weeks before mine and for his request was to do nothing.  This drove me insane.  I let him sleep in and then proceeded to pester him to do something.  Which, I guess would be frustrating when he wanted to do nothing.

I made him a cake.  He took the day off of work to read a book about Lewis and Clark and fixed our 80-year old neighbor’s mailbox.

Two weeks later, he who hates his own birthday planned a wonderful surprise for me.  And he didn’t even attend.  The surprise involved phone stealing, favorite friends-calling and lunch at the French bistro that was opened just for us.  Wow. 

He loves me well.

Next year, Nater, I promise, no fuss.  No balloons, no pestering wife, just all of us together.  I know it is your favorite.  And you are mine.

mini-habits, 10 days in.

It may be a bit early to declare the mini-habits a massive success but I'm an optimistic believer.  During the first week of January, I kept up with my bible study, ran 9 miles and managed to write my minimum number of words per night.  Thankfully, the nine miles weren't run entirely around the shop, though at least a couple of nights I raced a child or two around the shop and they found this hilarious.

So goals number one and two are totally working.  The writing, though, is hard.  On more than one occasion, I have dragged myself out of bed at 11 PM to pound out fifty words and crawled back into bed as quickly as possible.

Some theories that I have about my inability to write more than the minimum:
1.  I am way out of practice.
2.  I would rather read something someone else wrote or (better yet!) look at pictures someone else took.
3.  My other two goals tend to take place in the mornings where I put the writing part off until the last minute and the result is pretty lack luster.

I still love January. Hope you are loving it too.