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I've been more productive at night, I've been a little less grumpy and I'm not late in the morning (I had no idea how much time I wasted when first waking up every morning). We'll see how the next two weeks go, but I think I'm going to stick to staying off my phone in the morning, and limiting FB to just short stretches instead of long browsing sessions.
My closet is slow going. There was the suggestion to hire a professional organizer, which I have considered, but right now I'm going to do it on my own. I did read some articles by professional organizers after that suggestion which has helped me think about where to put things and how to arrange them: putting things you use frequently in places that are easy to get to, and storing things in ways that make it easy to keep them organized. Simple, right? It would be faster to hire someone, and it would probably give me better results to have professional help, but I don't want to take a huge chunk of time away from the kids to get it done. So slowly but surely, I'm making progress. Amazingly, after that, the only thing left is the garage, and it's just to darn hot to do that anytime soon.
In the meantime, it's less than a month before Finn starts kindergarten. We have a few really fun plans for the remainder of the summer, but my number one goal is to start approaching our time together in the evening as time together, and not just a rush to get to bed. I'm not sure where our evenings went wrong, but I've realized that I try so hard to protect my time with the boys, but then wasted all that effort by turning our evenings into a rushed and unpleasant mess. Unfortunately, my attempt at an attitude adjustment was met with resistance tonight. Not because the boys enjoy the rush, but because they've grown accustomed to the rush, they anticipate the power struggles and they're used to grumpiness.
Time to remember that I'm the grown up and it's up to me to set the mood for the family. If I keep at it, they'll figure it out.
In case you were wondering what my Finn story was:
Today Finnegan informed me that there was no longer a need for a presidential campaign, as he and his friend Cooper have just been elected as the new Presidents of the United States.He even brought home the letter they had written to President Obama, telling him "thanks for all the hard work, but we've got it now."
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Great job. I'm going to do the same. I've got to try to connect a bit more around dinner. We get home. I throw dinner together. She eats. Sometimes I let her watch some screen (kipper) because she's exhausted and will eat this way and then not get hungry at 1am. But this isn't the connection I want. Time for some picnics at the park I think.
ReplyDeleteI'll vote for Finn!
ReplyDeleteI feel you about the evenings being a rushed, unpleasant mess. A few weeks ago I was having a horrible time with the kids and decided I needed an attitude adjustment as they were clearly picking it up from me. Not saying it's gone perfectly, but overall, it's helped.
ReplyDeleteMom sets the mood - so true. Our evenings are rushed too!!
ReplyDeleteI have trouble with making that evening time together count, too. I'm always in a rush to get them into bed, and they, well, Calliope balks. And now I've been home for a month and I'm still BARELY spending any time truly WITH her. I take her places. And she plays. But I almost never sit down and play WITH her. Or at least, BE with her, without another adult or child to distract us. I really want to do better. It's just hard. So many competing priorities. Lots of other things are more urgent but none more important than nourishing that relationship.
ReplyDelete