I spent probably ~35 minutes last night doing a modified version of my weekly review. Namely, updating my planner and entering events into Google Calendar (so they will show up on the Family Calendar on the fridge). I had gotten a little behind on this and had a bunch of changes/edits/additions to get on there.
I have been realizing lately that there is no such thing as a normal week. This probably isn’t really a big newsflash to most human beings, but I guess it’s been more front of mind lately for me. Sometimes I struggle with this, because I like my routines, and I generally like consistency. I am someone who spends a fair amount of time considering how I prefer to spend my time, too. It is also possible that I am just a stick-in-the-mud. Ha.
I think my ideal workweek/ life works pretty well when there are no “bumps in the road”. But obviously, this is rarely the case.
Glancing at my planner, on the week of 5/3, I had that flooring guy appt, a work meeting, a piano tuning appt., the muffins thing at school, and a dermatologist appt.
The next week, 5/10, I had another unusual work meeting, my sister came to visit midweek (not normal occurrence), Ethan had a random midweek soccer game, my coworker shadowed me for several hours and the boys had a dentist appt.
This is all pretty “normal life” stuff…not like I had an unexpected trip to Mars pop up. But my nicely curated days with schedules, work hours, exercise, family time, leisure time, etc. get “thrown off” when these things come up. I don’t really know how to plan for them, exactly, either. I can sort of anticipate some of them, but not always, really. And even if I know about them for a long time in advance (dentist appts.), it still forces me to shift my day away from an “ideal” day.
All this to say….I guess there IS no normal. Or, maybe more accurately- this IS normal. It’s like that saying, “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” 🙂
I just need to work on flowing with it a little better, maybe. Sometimes I get this antsy, out of sorts feeling when a week has too many things that I consider to be out of the norm (oil change. hair. dentist. school. vaccines. maintenance guy. etc. Seems like it’s always something!).
But maybe a better plan is to figure out how to just embrace the semi-messiness of this stage of life, realize there is simply no such thing as a “normal week” and call it good enough! (If anyone has any tips though on dealing with all the random appointments that life seems to involve, I’m all ears.)
Pictures from a hike this weekend. Ahhh. So beautiful.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for big, tall, magnificent trees.
GRATEFUL KAE 
I think Laura Vanderkam talks about this a bit too.
I find the same, and also don’t always accept it as graciously as I should.
These last few weeks have involved medical appointments, interviewing and hiring (and now training) a new starter at work, someone came out to mend the sink, today the builder is coming to look at some snagging issues from the kitchen, Wednesday is speech therapy call, Thursday I pick up my new glasses, etc.
Life is relentless!
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Totally, totally hear you on this one. I love routine – as I’ve written about before – and I love predictability. Mess with my routine and *I’m* a mess! Today’s unpredictable event was waiting to hear about my car and when it would be read for pick up (I had a blowout on Saturday, fun!) so now even though I know they’re going to do it this morning, I still don’t know when I can go get it. It’s always something!
Also, where is that hike that you did? (You know I did one on Saturday, too… yours looks just as lovely, if not more!)
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I immediately thought of Laura Vanderkam when I read this because she talks about no normal week when it comes to time tracking! I very very very rarely have anything spontaneously come up these days since our life is so planned out so I don’t deal with this as much right now, but there were periods of life when I did and I didn’t love that feeling of things popping up. I’m not a very flexible person… something I need to work on and that having kids has sort of forced me to work on at times. I’ve had to let go of an ‘ideal’ schedule at times – like next weekend Phil’s HS friend is having people over. But going places with a 5m old that doesn’t nap on the go/in my arms anymore is tough. But it makes sense for this couple to host as they live on a lake and have a huge house with a huge patio/patio table. So I had to give myself a “talking to” and tell myself that it’s ok if Will’s naps get messed up and he gets to bed later or falls asleep on the car ride home (it’s a good 40 minute drive away). Of course Phil isn’t going through the mental gymnastics of thinking about all of this stuff but that’s mom life, I guess!
Those pictures from the weekend are beautiful! It was such a nice weekend! We were outside so much which felt soooo good!
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I also love routine and normality of life but as you say, life is more than that, it always has unexpected things we didn’t plan for. the pandemic is the biggest lesson and it forced us to adapt and find the silverlining of things to become more resilient to changes.
it has been 3 weeks since we arrive DC and finally we find a routine and I’m waking up at my usual times. Yet, i didn’t feel overshwelmed during the adjustment process but to embrace everyday and be grateful for what it offers. Being open minded and “adventurous” helps a lot, just like when we travel to other places, we are more flexible and excited for the newness than we are at home. So maybe bring a new perspective to normal life, it could make it even more fun. 🙂
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