On Connection and Being Seen

I had the most ridiculously amazing revelation a few mornings ago.

As I was standing in the bathroom, brushing my teeth, I looked over at Zachary, who had just caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.  He grinned at himself, and then started making all sorts of ridiculous faces at himself, not for anyone's entertainment but his own.

"Holy shit," I thought to myself.  "He's his own little person."

And that's when it hit me.  I have been so busy trying to raise him well that I forgot that the core principle of all gentle parenting techniques is connection. And in order to connect, I have to recognize that each of my children are indeed unique individuals - beyond the superficial stuff, and into the deep stuff that their souls are made up of.

I remember so many details about the rich inner world I had in my head when I was 4, 5 and 6...it's just never occurred to me that the same is true for my children.  I've been reacting to many situations as a problem to solve and not a problem to understand - and it's no wonder some of my efforts at empathy have fallen short.

I suspect this is obvious to most of the world - or at least to those who try to model their parenting techniques after those that emphasize connection - but it's a life changing realization for me.  Especially when I look back at my childhood and realize that while I always felt deeply loved, I never felt truly seen by my parents. As I've come to learn, being truly seen is the only way to truly believe that you are loved for who you are, and therefore worthy of love in general.

It's been a few days since I had this paradigm shift in my family view, and I've spent a lot of time mulling over it, and have noticed that it's already affecting how I act towards my kids...and how they act in response to me.

No one ever told me that parenting would challenge me to grow as a person in order to become the parent I want to be.

Getting My Shit Together (for real this time)

I have decided that 2017 is going to be officially know as the Year I Get My Shit Together (for reals).

There are several areas I'm going to be focusing on - a big one is finally seeing a therapist.  We had our first session on Friday and I didn't expect to get much out of our first visit.  And yet I have. Totally worth every penny.  (And a subject of another post, I'm sure.)

My neglected blog is another area.  I read through old entries a few months ago, and miss having memories documented in the last year or so.  Even if no one ever reads them but me, it's worth it.  But there is the bonus of those few out there who still read blogs on a regular basis reaching out and saying hi when I post.  So while I'll likely never get back to the posting frequency I had back when I first started, I am going to try to post at least once a week.

My main focus for the next month is getting back on track with my health.  I need to lose about 25 pounds, but more importantly, I need to get healthy again.  So rather than focus on my weight, I'm going to focus on health.  Starting tomorrow, I'm going to aim for 3-6 servings of vegetables a day, 1 fruit, and 30 minutes of aerobic activity every single day (and more when I can). I'm also going to cut out processed sugars completely.  I know this is not something I can or want to continue, but after the excesses of the past few months, I absolutely have to do this to get back on track.  I cannot give up caffeine completely, but I'm going to go back to 2 Diet Cokes a day and water the rest of the day.

I know I will feel so much better.  Getting 7 hours of sleep most nights has helped, but I'm still more tired than I should be, and I know it's all lifestyle.  So January 2017 is all about fixing that.

There are a few other goals that I'm going to focus on over the next year that will spread out across the year (like blogging more), but I'm also going to go with a monthly goal or challenge, too.  It turns out, that sort of thing works really well for me.

This picture is my life in a nutshell.

Our Tomorrows

A little less than a month ago, Oberon at "B is for Baby" wrote a post about how she realized she and her daughter Elsie needed to reconnect, and so she rented a car and they spent the day together in the woods.  Just a few weeks later, Oberon unexpectedly died in her sleep.

I have known Oberon (Bethany in real life) only online, both here and on FB.  But when I read the news a few days before Thanksgiving, I felt as though I had been punched in the gut.  She was an amazing person, a wonderful mom and a great friend, and the thought of her Elsie growing up without her was almost impossible to bear.

And then, of course, my thoughts turned to my own children, and my own life.  Practical thoughts, like would they remember what I'd taught them to do if something happened to me?  Do my friends here have my family's contact information? Does my sister still have the copy of my will that I gave her?

And then.

If I were to die tomorrow, what would my children remember of me?

Would they remember the tired and cranky mom who lost her temper way too often?  Or would they remember the mom that is my true self, but doesn't make an appearance all that much these days - the mom who is funny, fun, silly and who shows them every single day that they are loved with my whole heart and soul, unconditionally and without abandon?

I'm afraid it would be the former.  Oh, they'd know I'd loved them, but it wouldn't be imprinted on their hearts the way it is on mine.  I am not the mom I want to be.

But.

I have been given* an amazing opportunity.  In one week I will be reducing my work hours from full time to 75%.  In about 2 months, I will be moving my office to a location that is 30 minutes closer to home.  These changes are going to give me 2 more extra hours every single day.  My paycheck will go down a little, but I've paid off a few big bills lately, and that will balance things out.

And most importantly, I'll have two more hours every day.  10 extra hours a week.  I am so hopeful that this extra time will allow me to get more rest, feel less stressed and have more quality time with my children every day.  I am also afraid that I am so stuck in my routine, irritation and frustration that not much will change.

It was Bethany's death that made me realize how vitally important it is that I do everything I can to take full advantage of this amazing opportunity, of this chance to very literally hit the reset button on my entire life.

I made the first step this past week and scheduled an appointment with a therapist for the week after Christmas.  I'm making lists of healthy meals/recipes to try, and will go back to weekly meal planning.  I will make sure I take advantage of some of that time to take care of myself with exercise, massage, quiet trips to the grocery store. And I will make sure I'm home early enough most days of the week to spend quality time with the boys so our time together during the week will no longer be a frantic rush from dinner to bedtime.

I have been blessed with a pretty amazing life with two wonderful boys. I owe it to myself, to my boys and to Bethany's memory to be to the best job at living this life as I possibly can. It's time for me to get the most out of every single today we have left together, as tomorrow is promised to no one.

Bethany will be missed by those of us who loved her for her posts about her life with Elsie, by her friends, by her family, and most of all by her daughter.  My heart aches for Elsie, and for Bethany who would have been so sad to know she wouldn't be there to watch Elsie grow up.

Hug your children a little tighter tonight, my friends.  Sending love to all of you.

 







*By given, I mean I asked for it, and eventually got it.  Turns out it's true - the only way to get what you want is to go after it.

A (mostly) Non Political Post About the Election

I took Finn with me to vote yesterday.  As we stood in line he told me about his day, told me he thought I should be president, asked who I voted for the last election and was generally silly.

When we got to the voting booth, I pointed out to him all the people we were voting for.  "Here we're voting for president."   "Here we're voting for Bella's daddy" (our neighbor who was running for Congress).  And then when I finished my selections, I turned to him and said, "If HRC wins the election today, she will be the first woman president, ever."

His eyes got really big.  "Ever?"

"Ever.  Before now, every president of this country has been a man."

"Oh, I hope she wins!"

Later, as he leaned out the window to talk to me while I filled the gas tank, he said, "So tell me more about the presidents.  Have they really only been boys?"

"Yes," I said.  "And before this president, President Obama, they had all been white men.  He's the first black man to be president."

He looked down at his skin.  "So every other president has been a boy, with skin the color of mine? And not brown like Aunt Uche or Aunt Lisa or Madison?"  He looked at me in disbelief.  "That's just weird."

***

This morning, I was so sad to break the news to him that our next president was not going to be a woman, that she did not win.  "The mean guy won? How did that happen???" he asked.  And then he said, "Mommy, when I get older, I promise I will only vote for nice people.  No, I promise I will only vote for whoever you think I should vote for!"

I thought about this for a few minutes, and remembered all the contentious political arguments I've had with my parents over the years.  "You know what?  You may change your mind as you get older. You might decide that you see the world differently than I do, that you don't agree with me on who to vote for.  So I'm going to make you a different promise.  I promise that no matter how much our opinions matter, I will always listen to you with respect.  I will allow you to share your thoughts and feelings with me, and ask only thoughtful questions in response.  I promise I will never make you feel bad because you and I don't agree on who to vote for."

Finn stuck out his hand, "That sounds like a great idea, Mom.  I promise, too."

And then I made him another promise - the promise that as a family we are going to do all we can to make the world a better place.  To show love and compassion to those who are different from us, for those who need help, for those who are suffering.  And we're also going to work to make sure that everyone who gets elected two years from now and 4 years from now feel the same way.

Kindergarten!

I absolutely cannot believe that I have a kindergartner.

Finn picked out his first day of school outfit

Finn's school has a staggered start, so last week he went to school Tuesday with only about 1/4 of his class, and then didn't go a again until Friday, when all of his class went.  It made for a weird week, but now that the emotional turmoil caused by the first few days is over (for him and for me!), I'm really ready to get into our routine.

School starts early here, so bedtime has been moved up by an hour.  This has been made worse by our recent transition from crib to toddler bed for Zachary.  About 2 weeks ago he figured out how to get out of his crib on his own, and bedtime and mornings have been difficult ever since.  I switched him to a toddler bed last week, which eventually will make things easier (since he can get back into his bed once he's gotten out), but right now hasn't helped at all.  Bedtimes are going to be rough for at least a few weeks.

Which leads me to Task #2 in my Life Reboot: Creating Routines.

A little background: growing up, my parents did not excel at teaching me be good student, to get projects and homework done on time, to have any kind of routine around my days.  I have vivid memories from elementary school (I'm talking 2nd and 3rd grade here) where I would be doing projects at the last minute, and my parents were so angry at me for waiting until the last minute.  But they were never proactive at helping me NOT wait to the last minute. From an adult perspective, I realize there is no way to expect the average 2nd grade child to know how to budget time - it was their responsibility to help me learn how to do this.

So starting tonight, we're going to have a routine, and we're going to do it every single school night. Finn decided if he wants to bring lunch or buy it.  He picked out his clothes for tomorrow and has them ready to go in the morning.  We went through his binder for school, I signed forms that needed to be signed and it's ready to go in his back pack.  When he wants to bring his lunch, I'll put everything together that I can the night before (we're doing either homemade version of lunchables or a sandwich with a fruit and some veggies).

Since bedtime is earlier, I'm going to have time to exercise most nights after the kids are asleep, and then after that I'll shower, and then have an hour or more to myself before I have to go to bed. (While I've lifted my Facebook ban, I'm spending a LOT less time there than I did before, so hopefully I can stick to that and avoid wasting that hour every night mindlessly scrolling.)

In the morning, I'll get up and get mostly ready before waking up Finn.  I'll help him get ready, and then we'll go downstairs for breakfast.  I really want to drive him to school, but he wants to ride the bus, so we'll then go to the bus stop, and then Zach and I will come home where I'll finish getting ready before the nanny comes.

Finn will get home from school a few hours before I get home from work.  He won't have homework in kindergarten, but I'm going to still make sure he has a routine.  He'll come home, have a snack, and then if the weather is good, he'll go outside to play until I get home.  As he starts to get older, he'll get only an hour to play and then he'll come in for homework. I'm not planning on micromanaging, but I do plan on knowing what homework he has, when it's due and what recurring projects or tests he has, so that I can help him stay on track and learn how to budget time and get things done.  He may still end up being a procrastinator, but I want to do all I can to give him a good solid foundation.

And that foundation starts now, with a routine that we can both count on.  This is so far out of my usual daily existence, but I'm really excited about it.  Fingers crossed I can pull it off!

Can't forget that this guy had his first day of school, too!
Only two half days a week, but still...preschool.

Mom Sets the Mood

Catching Pokemon

It's been two weeks that I've been trying to stay off Facebook.  I haven't been 100% successful - I log on to check something specific and get distracted by something I see there.  I posted a funny Finn story there yesterday because I just had to.  I've liked a few posts...but I've never spent more than 10 minutes there at one time (or really even in a day) in two weeks.

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."

The Future is No Place to Place Your Better Days

I've written here about how I've struggled with feeling overwhelmed, and how I've struggled to find the joy in every day.  I know a lot of it has to do with the stage of life I'm in right now, with two young children - but they are growing out of the age that is so horribly hard, and yet I'm still trying to find my balance.  I don't want to wake up in 15 years and have two kids getting ready to leave home and wonder why I didn't enjoy their childhood more.

A few months ago I listened to the audio version of Shonda Rhimes' memoir "The Year of Yes" and felt inspired by the renewal and joy she found from her year spent saying Yes to things that scared her.  Then this week I read "Loving My Actual Life" a memoir about the author's 9 month experiment to try to find more joy and meaning in her every day life.  Not as fabulous a read, but still interesting to follow her journey.

Naturally, I'm now thinking about my creating own challenge to help me get myself back on track - to reboot my life.  The thing is, I can't think of changes I'd like to make that fit into neat categories that I can tackle a month at a time.  Likewise, there's no one overarching theme (like saying yes to things that scare me) that I could use to tie it all together.  But there is the constant low level stress and aggravation from the clutter and utter lack of organization in my home - when I think of changes, this is all I can focus on. It's a project I've been working on for months and I've made a dent (including getting my entire downstairs redecorated last month) but there is still so much to do, and I've reached the point where it's going to take a lot more than an hour here and there to get it done.  And I just can't seem to get past the point of writing a list of all I need to do.

I've spent this past week, on my vacation in Florida visiting my parents, thinking about what's been standing in my way of actually putting my plans into action, and it embarrassingly comes down to one thing: Facebook.  I've used it for distraction for years, and since I recently became a member of a physician mommy group on there, it's even worse.  I'm certain I waste hours on it every week, maybe even every day.

Which means that step one in my life reboot is that I'm going to take a break from Facebook for the next month, starting Monday when I'm back to work.  (I will make a small exception for the Facebook group that has been created for the kindergarten families in my neighborhood, but I can set that up with email notifications to limit my time on FB.)

I'm going to use the time I'm off Facebook to devote focused energy at night to home organization and decluttering.  By the end of the month I should have a huge chunk that enormous project done - and I'm hoping once I'm nearing the end of it, I'll have a better idea of what's the next step to help me best enjoy the life I'm living now.

I've decided that I'm very specifically not giving up all social media - not Instagram and not blogs.  Instagram has become my favorite time capsule - I love being able to go back and see my favorite moments from the past few years just by scrolling through my own IG feed, and it only takes up a few minutes of my day to see what everyone I follow is up to. (If you're on IG and I don't follow you, share your user name here so I can add you!)  Plus there's the nice side effect of just feeling good from reading IG, while I've found that lately FB often leaves me angry or annoyed or disgusted with humanity.

I'm not sure if this is going to be a short project or a long term project, but as I mentioned in my last post, it's at least another year before I can cut my hours back at work, and at least two more years of staying in my current job.  I can't wait around for better days, I need to do something different now.

Bullet Update!

As usual, I've been meaning to post for ages, and then time gets away from me - - - which then makes it harder to post, because then I'm so far behind and I can't decide what I want to write about.  So here's a bullet post of all the things that have been going on lately.

• Finn graduated from preschool.  I cried.  His school principal cried. I love his little school so much! 

Cap and gown for preschool graduation! 

His handsome clothes (and blue mouth from the celebratory sno-cone)

• I turned 45.  Yikes. 
• Turns out I don't have some weird, chronic illness making me feel so bad.  It's just plain old sleep deprivation.  Luckily, there's a cure for that! If only there was more time in the day.
• I am a much better mom when I'm not sleep deprived. I have more patience, I'm funnier, my kids like me more and I like them more.  Crazy thing, sleep.
• We went on a family vacation to Lake Tahoe with my parents earlier this month.  It was wonderful - the mountains soothe my soul, and apparently Finn feels the same way, as he wants to move there.

• I still hate my job but love the people.  Often wonder if I'd hate my job if I worked somewhere else (probably, because being in healthcare just sucks these days).  Often wonder if I'd be happier if I lived somewhere I love (I like where I live fine, but I don't love it - I certainly wouldn't chose to live here again if given the chance).  But then I think I have such a great support system here, that perhaps I should just stay.  So I'm giving myself a few years to think about it.  No need to rush, I'll just ruminate on it a while.
• In the vein of loving where you live, I'm finally decorating my downstairs living area.  It's almost done - just waiting on things to be delivered!
• Project Declutter My House is moving along.  I've decided to do one project every couple of nights.  One night it was cleaning out a closet, another it was going through a drawer, another it was sorting kids toys, another emptying a box that was still full from my move.  I still have a long way to go (and I got side tracked with our vacation and haven't gotten back on track yet), but it feels good to be making progress.