so i knew that adding a baby to the family would drastically alter my schedule, but a few things that have dropped out of the frequent rotation that have surprised me a bit include:
exercise (although i did manage a bike ride AND a run with the jogging stroller this week, so maybe there’s hope?)
petting my kitties. poor kitties.
eating vegan (i just don’t have the time to plan a full day’s meals that are meat and dairy free anymore)
blogging (maybe if uploading photos didn’t take so long…. seriously. there are SO many unwritten blog posts floating around in my head…)
getting pictures and videos off of my cameras, sorting through them and putting interesting ones online.
cleaning the house–especially vacuuming. i mean, i don’t want to do it when he’s awake and in the same room as me for fear of startling him or it just being so loud for his ears and I don’t want to do it when he’s asleep for fear of waking him up. sigh.
taking pictures of random beauty (it’s hard to tote my “big black camera” when I’m also hauling a baby and a diaper bag around. Even harder to actually take photos while holding the baby.)
keeping up with certain things on my Google Reader that I used to love. Like the Fresh Modern Quilts Flickr pool. And Pioneer Woman’s food blog. And pretty much all of my photography blogs.
sewing, lately (I think I’ve got a bit of a mental block going on with this. like I feel like I need to clean the house or do something else virtuous in order to “earn” time in the sewing room, but by the time I’ve finished said virtuous task, the baby is awake again and needing my attention.)
giving myself personal challenges or resolutions (like “I’m going to blog once a day for a month!” or “I’m going to eat vegan once a week for a year!” or “I’m going to do at least 10 minutes of yoga a day”). I’ve been trying to decide if giving up these types of quantity goals for awhile and just giving myself a break would be a good idea (less guilt when I don’t do ANYTHING on a particularly regular basis) or if I’d just become lazy. Maybe my current challenge could be “I’m going to not beat myself up over dropped balls at least until after Baby Dude’s first birthday.” HA. I love my optimism that even considers that life might get EASIER with a one-year old! Maybe 5th birthday would be a better deadline?
and yet, there are also some things that I HAVE managed to do that completely surprise me like:
picking raspberries at a friend’s house and making (somewhat seedless) raspberry freezer jam AND apricot freezer jam
reading the book “The Creative Family” by Amanda Blake Soule (I’m 3/4 of the way through. with a non-fiction title. about activity ideas I can do with my child in about 3 years or so. ever so useful now. But it’s compelling and a surprisingly quick read. and it’s right beside my breakfast cereal bowl. perhaps that last bit is the key.)
bake tomato and corn pie for dinner for myself when J was out of town in Chicago last week. I love this dish and J’s pretty lukewarm about it and the baby was in a good mood (at least he was when I started. by the end of the pie-making he was getting a bit impatient and I’d resorted to singing operatically at the top of my voice to distract him while my hands were covered in flour and pie dough and I just wanted to finish the darn thing and get it in the oven so I could give him my full attention.) and it did make for some excellent leftovers. (I like to add a layer of thinly sliced zucchini to this pie too. And don’t cheat and use a pre-made crust because this dough is so biscuity and crusty and delicious that you really shouldn’t miss out.)
make some changes to my Facebook account to make it less daunting so that maybe I’ll actually start checking it again and manage to keep up with my friends.
I don’t think it’s JUST about my real priorities coming to the forefront. Some of it has to do with the fact that Baby Dude seems to enjoy hanging out with me in the kitchen but not so much in the sewing room. Some of it has to do with the fact that most of my recreational activities are now squeezed into the last 2-3 hours of the day when the baby is asleep and before I fall asleep too. But yeah, some of it is probably my “real priorities.” It feels like I’m choosing the “comfort food” versions of my daily activities instead of balancing them out with the “healthy food” bits of activities. Sometimes it catches up with me and I realize that I HAVE to exercise soon or I will just burst with anxiety, but too much of the time, I find myself lured in to one brightly lit screen or another for most of an evening.
I think I’ll try to have a (mostly) screen-free day tomorrow. Or maybe I won’t.
6 comments ↓
This is inline with probably about every other parent on the planet so…don’t beat yourself up about it.
TIME is the most highly valued thing in my mind at this point. Priorities shift and so does how time is spent.
It becomes extremely difficult in my opinion to meet all the high expectations about how we live/work/play and not beat myself up about not being able to meet those expectations. When the kiddies are sleeping is prime time. Problem is, that’s when YOU need to sleep too! Last couple weeks we’ve been staying up until 12am every night it seems, we’re going to crash at some point.
Last couple weeks I took days off just so I could get stuff done in the daylight that needed to be done.
{I’m trying to empathize and not depress you, but I think I’m sucking at it}
The flip side is all the craziness that comes with these little maniacs running around. When things are going well and the kiddies are playing great, it makes it worth it. Hearing stories about Nate remarking on something he learned because he saw me doing it is neat to hear.
“Living the example” you want them to be is the real trick in my mind.
What a great mommy you are.
Okay, I don’t have kids and still feel the need to ‘earn’ time to craft, which is ridiculous…
The trick is to NOT compare yourself to others (and, perhaps, yourself) and enjoy what you’ve got.
And if if makes you feel better, the PW is hard to try to keep up with. She posts at least twice a week!
love this post. reminds me of how i think about calling you probably 3-4 times a day and don’t call you because i’m either working or doing something with/for my kids and then all of a sudden it’s crazy late at night and i still haven’t called :-(. i won’t be too hard on myself if you’re not too hard on yourself :-). love you. i am going to try the tomato corn pie sometime (Ed is out of town next week!)
I recently learned about a camera memory card that detects your chosen wireless network and automatically uploads your photos for you! It’s called Eye Fi and sadly, is not made for Sony cameras, so I can’t have one. I think they’re only about $50, which seems like a justifiable new-mom expense. I swear I’m not employed by them; I just wish I could have one.
i love when you sing operatically.
as for the rest, you fit some in, most you don’t. DO make it your mantra to not beat yourself up about it until baby dude is at least 7.
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