As a stay-at-home-mom, I don't have a work schedule like the guys in the movie "Office Space". No 15 minute coffee break twice a day. No slow commute to and from work by myself. No getting off work at 5pm and leaving it all behind in the office. That's not the reality of a mom.
My commute time is spent driving while playing "cash cab" to enrich our homeschool lessons, refereeing the "stop repeating me" feud and the "he's looking at me" situation and trying so hard not to lose my mind from the constant kicking of the back of my seat. No worries though, I still remember to stop for red lights and not cuss out loud at the idiots who don't.
My average day starts later than it used to, I'm peeling myself out of my bed at 6:30 or 7:00 if I'm lucky. And only because the kids are demanding that I get up and feed them, and greet the sun. There are no naps. They go to bed at 9pm and there are usually only one or two middle of the night requests for attention. It's not an eight to five job, but the hours have improved.
What's lacking is a little break. I would love to get a 15 minute break every single day! Two? Sure! But, one doesn't even sound realistic, two breaks would be a crazy little dream. Sometimes I can get someone to cover for me and I can get a little break. And once in a while, I can get a long enough break to do some sewing, but let's face it, I have to pay someone for that kind of relief.
Yesterday I got eight minutes. It was awesome! Nobody watched the kids, they were just behaving on their own and allowing me to have some time to myself. I think they smelled me and knew a break for me would be in everyone's best interests. I took a shower.
How fast can you shower? From fully clothed to fully clothed again? I beat'cha!
I didn't just jump into a cold shower (it takes way too long for our hot water to get from the tank to the shower) and do a five second rinse off; I actually took a shower. I used soap, shampoo and conditioner! I even slid the razor over my calves! Yeah, in eight minutes! I didn't waste time shutting the doors or any of that nonsense.
How nice! I got in and out of the shower and actually got clean! I could tell because I smelled much better. Most of the time I rush through so fast, the water doesn't even hit me. But today, wow! I got cleaned up! Sweet! Wish I could get an eight minute break a few more times a week.
The kids were fine. I normally hover over them like a very annoying helicopter. For eight minutes, I let them be and they didn't even notice. They usually can't last 8 seconds without intervention being necessary. I'm proud of them!
It's not a big long 15 minute break like a cashier gets, but the job isn't that glorious. I'm kind of proud of myself too. I took a full shower in 8 minutes. There was a time when shower-prep took five times that long!
Showing posts with label me-time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label me-time. Show all posts
Friday, November 15, 2013
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Mama's Night Out
I went out last night!
First thing was first, I had to pick out something to wear. Ugh, it looks like my closet is where out of style fat clothes go to die. After weighing my options (heh heh) I passed over the comfy look for an attempt at housewife-glamorous. I donned a brown beaded summer dress which showed off my farmer's tan and frumpy mom arms. Sweet!
I drove down to San Marcos and met up with some of my classmates in a restaurant near the university. We all graduated with our Literature and Writing degrees.
I went alone. It's always weird to be in the van without any passengers. Everyone was home. I asked Fenna to come along with me a couple of times, but she didn't exactly respond so I figured she was waiting for a better offer. She's a teenager, I'm sure she didn't want to hang out with my old friends and listen to us talk about stuff she doesn't know about. I don't enjoy that type of conversation when I'm with Keith and his teacher friends neither. I encouraged her to go to the school dance, but she discovered that it was attended mainly by Freshmen, and they are disrespected. She is sure catching on to this American High School experience quickly! Since she didn't seem to have anything better to do, I told her when I'd be leaving and I announced when I went to my room to get ready. When I was ready to go, she didn't look interested and I didn't want to push it but I felt kind of awkward leaving without her when I wasn't 100% sure if she wanted to come along or not. I think I gave her ample opportunity to hop aboard though. I realize I am out of touch with having a teenager around.
Speaking of being out of touch... I heard the radio announcers saying that they were sick of the only topic of conversation these days - the upcoming Kim Kardashian wedding. I thought to myself, "Kim Kardashian is getting married?". News to me!
I got to San Marcos just fine and drove down the street where I thought the restaurant was. I looked it up on the map before I left, now if I could just remember... I drove up and down the street a couple of times and didn't find the place. Great. The restaurant is lost (as opposed to me!). I pulled into a parking lot and called Keith. He again looked it up on the computer and gave me directions. See? I don't need to learn how to use my GPS! That crazy thing is just fine stuffed away under the seat. I got back out on the street and headed in the right direction, according to Keith I had to drive west about a mile. I sat at the red light looking around and what did I see? A big sign that said "Acupolco". That's it! How embarrassing.
We ate mediocre Mexican food and were serenaded by a nearly toothless Mariachi band. It was great! I was starving, so I didn't care that the food wasn't the best ever. It was still pretty darn good and I wolfed it down. I hang out with small children every day; I have no manners.
There were six of us at dinner. We all got reacquainted and tried to remember which classes we had with each other. I think all of them were in one or another of my classes. One guy I really had trouble placing but maybe he was in one of my 300 level classes. I really do not know.
Nobody has a job using their degrees! One guy bags groceries, one gal is a clerk at JC Penny, another gal works in a Sr Citizen home, one guy runs a few paid parking lots (which is what he did prior to going to school), and the other guy wasn't working. I don't have a job neither, so I fit right in. I was afraid I'd suffer by comparison in a professional way, but that wasn't the case. None of them had gone on to the master's program or to the teaching credential program. I'm feeling better about my choices now that I know these very intelligent people made the same choices that I did, although all of our choices were narrowed by circumstance.
We visited about our lives now; we reminisced about our college classmates. We also took a few minutes to remember a deceased classmate. I went to her funeral service last summer and still had the program in my van (one would think I'd have cleaned it out by now) so I went out and got it. Everyone passed it around and they seemed genuinely appreciative that I brought it along.
After dinner, we promised each other to get together again since it was so nice to see each other. I do hope that happens. I got into my van, pulled out of the parking lot and drove across the intersection and went half a block where all lanes were merged into one and directed through cones into a parking lot. This was one intense DUI checkpoint! I couldn't believe how many officers were lined up along the cones. The vehicles were checked in groups, the first car drove up to the end of the cone lane to a stop sign and then everyone stopped in line behind; there was an officer for each vehicle to check the driver. The policeman who stepped up to me asked me for my drivers license. I handed it to him. He said "Have you been drinking?" I said, "No, not a drop." That was that. It was an amazing site to see, they had a lot of police officers, plenty of police cars lined one after another, a trailer with lit up tables and chairs just in front of it which I assume was a temporary booking station, and a line of tow trucks. It appears that they were expecting quite a haul tonight!
I made it back onto the street and found my way home just fine. I enjoyed the drive home listening to the radio rather than the Disney princess collection of songs that was in my cd player.
I got home at 9:15. Keith was sawing logs in the lazy boy in the living room and the lights were out in Fenna's room too. Really? What a couple of Friday night party animals those two are! Both of them sound asleep so early! Charlie, such a good little sleeper, was in bed but the kids were wide awake and Lexie was home. It was time for me to get into comfy pajamas and start typing a blog post! What a great way to end a busy week. :)
First thing was first, I had to pick out something to wear. Ugh, it looks like my closet is where out of style fat clothes go to die. After weighing my options (heh heh) I passed over the comfy look for an attempt at housewife-glamorous. I donned a brown beaded summer dress which showed off my farmer's tan and frumpy mom arms. Sweet!
I drove down to San Marcos and met up with some of my classmates in a restaurant near the university. We all graduated with our Literature and Writing degrees.
I went alone. It's always weird to be in the van without any passengers. Everyone was home. I asked Fenna to come along with me a couple of times, but she didn't exactly respond so I figured she was waiting for a better offer. She's a teenager, I'm sure she didn't want to hang out with my old friends and listen to us talk about stuff she doesn't know about. I don't enjoy that type of conversation when I'm with Keith and his teacher friends neither. I encouraged her to go to the school dance, but she discovered that it was attended mainly by Freshmen, and they are disrespected. She is sure catching on to this American High School experience quickly! Since she didn't seem to have anything better to do, I told her when I'd be leaving and I announced when I went to my room to get ready. When I was ready to go, she didn't look interested and I didn't want to push it but I felt kind of awkward leaving without her when I wasn't 100% sure if she wanted to come along or not. I think I gave her ample opportunity to hop aboard though. I realize I am out of touch with having a teenager around.
Speaking of being out of touch... I heard the radio announcers saying that they were sick of the only topic of conversation these days - the upcoming Kim Kardashian wedding. I thought to myself, "Kim Kardashian is getting married?". News to me!
I got to San Marcos just fine and drove down the street where I thought the restaurant was. I looked it up on the map before I left, now if I could just remember... I drove up and down the street a couple of times and didn't find the place. Great. The restaurant is lost (as opposed to me!). I pulled into a parking lot and called Keith. He again looked it up on the computer and gave me directions. See? I don't need to learn how to use my GPS! That crazy thing is just fine stuffed away under the seat. I got back out on the street and headed in the right direction, according to Keith I had to drive west about a mile. I sat at the red light looking around and what did I see? A big sign that said "Acupolco". That's it! How embarrassing.
We ate mediocre Mexican food and were serenaded by a nearly toothless Mariachi band. It was great! I was starving, so I didn't care that the food wasn't the best ever. It was still pretty darn good and I wolfed it down. I hang out with small children every day; I have no manners.
There were six of us at dinner. We all got reacquainted and tried to remember which classes we had with each other. I think all of them were in one or another of my classes. One guy I really had trouble placing but maybe he was in one of my 300 level classes. I really do not know.
Nobody has a job using their degrees! One guy bags groceries, one gal is a clerk at JC Penny, another gal works in a Sr Citizen home, one guy runs a few paid parking lots (which is what he did prior to going to school), and the other guy wasn't working. I don't have a job neither, so I fit right in. I was afraid I'd suffer by comparison in a professional way, but that wasn't the case. None of them had gone on to the master's program or to the teaching credential program. I'm feeling better about my choices now that I know these very intelligent people made the same choices that I did, although all of our choices were narrowed by circumstance.
We visited about our lives now; we reminisced about our college classmates. We also took a few minutes to remember a deceased classmate. I went to her funeral service last summer and still had the program in my van (one would think I'd have cleaned it out by now) so I went out and got it. Everyone passed it around and they seemed genuinely appreciative that I brought it along.
After dinner, we promised each other to get together again since it was so nice to see each other. I do hope that happens. I got into my van, pulled out of the parking lot and drove across the intersection and went half a block where all lanes were merged into one and directed through cones into a parking lot. This was one intense DUI checkpoint! I couldn't believe how many officers were lined up along the cones. The vehicles were checked in groups, the first car drove up to the end of the cone lane to a stop sign and then everyone stopped in line behind; there was an officer for each vehicle to check the driver. The policeman who stepped up to me asked me for my drivers license. I handed it to him. He said "Have you been drinking?" I said, "No, not a drop." That was that. It was an amazing site to see, they had a lot of police officers, plenty of police cars lined one after another, a trailer with lit up tables and chairs just in front of it which I assume was a temporary booking station, and a line of tow trucks. It appears that they were expecting quite a haul tonight!
I made it back onto the street and found my way home just fine. I enjoyed the drive home listening to the radio rather than the Disney princess collection of songs that was in my cd player.
I got home at 9:15. Keith was sawing logs in the lazy boy in the living room and the lights were out in Fenna's room too. Really? What a couple of Friday night party animals those two are! Both of them sound asleep so early! Charlie, such a good little sleeper, was in bed but the kids were wide awake and Lexie was home. It was time for me to get into comfy pajamas and start typing a blog post! What a great way to end a busy week. :)
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