Monday was my first day being a stay-at-home mom again. I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep the night before. At least that’s what my family thinks it was. I think so too. I lay wide awake for hours thinking about how I would do everything I wanted to do. Even after writing it all down, I couldn’t sleep thinking about my day…
I’d get up at 5:00 a.m. to write (I got up at 4:30 a.m.), write until 7:30 a.m. while taking a break in between to prepare my husband’s and son’s lunches, make my bed, and throw in a load of laundry (check), wake my youngest son up for school and prepare our breakfast while he gets ready so we can eat our egg whites and orange slices together (he was cold and went and wrapped himself in his blanket while his clothes dried; also, he’s a teenager. But, my daughter and I ate together, and it was nice), and then drop him off at school on time but not as early as I had to when I was working (we were late because the clothes didn’t dry soon enough; he had to go to school with semi-damp jeans).
After dropping my son off at school, I’d go for a half-hour walk, putting me at the 9:00 a.m. mark (my walk ended at 9:30 a.m. because we were late leaving the house in the morning) to go to Skechers and exchange a few pairs of shoes before heading to the grocery story (Skechers was not open, so I went to Lowe’s–a 20-minute trip that was supposed to be 10 minutes or less–before heading to the grocery store). After the grocery store, I’d go straight home to start cleaning (check, after battling with myself to stay out of Barnes and Noble next door). My cleaning day would consist of picking up outside, making my sons’ beds, a task I have been wanting to do for them for a long time, dusting, and mopping, which I calculated would take about two hours total (check, but behind schedule because of our morning mishap). After cleaning, I would shower (nope, it was late and I was hungry), eat (later than I thought, but check), and make my hair rinse because I’ve been making my own skin and hair care products (it was late, I wasn’t sure I was going to finish on time to pick my son up from school, so I went on to the next task), do admin work, such as bills, emails, and calls (check, except for the emails because I completely forgot).
Things went sideways after that. I started preparing dinner, which I wasn’t going to start until 4:30 p.m., and put away the clothes and threw in more loads of laundry before leaving to pick up my son from school. We did sit down to watch a couple of episodes of Modern Family as planned (watching sitcoms together has been our tradition since he was five) while he ate the quesadillas and a side of carrots I prepared for him. After our episodes were over, I announced an oncoming nap, and he went to his room to rest as well. I got up within five minutes, not my planned fifteen, to continue with dinner. It was 5:00 p.m. by then, the usual time I used to start dinner when I was on my 9-to-5, go figure! But I was done in less than half an hour because of what I had started prepping before. I finished cooking, and my husband and son weren’t home yet, so I went ahead and started working on my kids’ Nopal y Cempasúchil con Avena y Tea Tree (cactus and marigold with oatmeal and tea tree) face wash. Overcalculating my remaining energy, I decided to make several grams of colloidal oatmeal to have ready for future use. Because I grind by hand after putting it through the blender, so I can get it as powdery as possible, it tired me out. I didn’t have time to finish because my husband and my son got home, and we ate dinner–chicken bowls that were yummy!
After dinner, I continued working on the face wash while also making more chicken and chopping more vegetables for my husband’s and children’s lunch the next day. In the meantime, my husband and my kids helped pick up in the kitchen. Sometime around 9:30 p.m., I was cleaning up my things. I went to my room, planning to take a shower, but it was late, and I was so tired and sleepy from working so hard after a three-hour sleep the night before that I went to bed without showering. Yes, I did.
Several things were left undone. I have to keep reminding myself that there’s always tomorrow, and the day after, and after, God willing.
These first few days have felt like catch-up, while also trying to get ahead a little before we leave for Mexico next week to spend Christmas there with family. For the first time, my kids will be taking their respective boyfriends/girlfriends. I’m a little nervous about that, for some reason, so I remind myself that they are older and both my kids feel comfortable in Mexico and will be there to help their boyfriend and girlfriend feel safe and comfortable.
Anyway, this means a lot of prepping, which adds to the things I need to do. I’m grateful that my husband has been taking care of most of the planning for that part of our lives because, between trying to catch up with home stuff, admin stuff (6-inch tall stack of mail, weeks of emails, calls, appointments), and packing, I’ve got enough on my plate.
Despite the busyness of this week, I’ve enjoyed it and look forward to returning from Mexico to continue tending to our home and making homemade skincare.
I’m going to write a post about this book. It’s been life-changing, really!
