Monday was…okay. Really not going to be a day to go down in the history books or even my memory bank beyond probably today. HA.
The thing is, if I enter the week with any sense of “chaos” in my head, I have the hardest time dialing in to focus and concentrate. And that was exactly what happened. My brain was everywhere but where it was supposed to be, which made for a frustrating workday.
I also felt like a blob by the end of the day. I didn’t have my Fitbit on, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t exceed like, 2,500 steps. Haha. I did get out for my brief walk in the morning:
I also did complete my Downbeat Strength workout (lower body from Morning Meltdown program) that I had planned to do over the weekend. I decided to shift my gym days this week and not even attempt making it over there on Monday. (Good call, Kaelyn. You are so smart. 😉 )
Besides those two activities, I feel like I literally sat on my butt the rest of the day.
Between work + a work meeting + some personal emails/ misc. admin stuff after work + a 7 p.m. Meet Committee meeting (virtual) for the swim team + then sitting and working on some more meet prep stuff after the meeting…. I did not move a lot. At all.
YUCK!
I hate that feeling!!
Ivan had a late work meeting/ presentation thing so he wasn’t home until late, and I did make the boys a pretty fancy gourmet dinner. (Turkey hot dogs in a bun, with Minute rice and some frozen corn. “Gourmet” is a relative term. 😁)
Priorities today:
- Gym
- Get my head in the game and have a less scatter-brained feeling work day
- Groceries? At least some essentials?
- Basketball meeting at school tonight
I have a long list of “holiday”/ upcoming items which keeps looking at me and kind of intimidating me, in a notes page in my planner. I’m planning to peruse that a bit and pick a few “action items” to start on this week, too.
(Many are sort of “vague”- my least favorite kind of to-do list. It’s not simple stuff, like “return library book”. They are things like “start figuring out gifts for Asher’s birthday” or “see if kids need any new holiday clothes”. Things that are not exactly clearly defined, sound kind of complicated and therefore make me want to ignore them and do something else. Hehe. I know, I know….break them down into small, actionable goal steps and it will be easier. I KNOW. 😉 )
I read on another blog post last week about another mom who has “almost completed all of her holiday shopping” (and has her Christmas cards ordered and on the way) and it kind of made me want to cry, because I have bought precisely one gift so far. EEK. Doesn’t help that I am not really full of great ideas this year…
Looking on the bright side- I think the boys at least have a few specific ideas! I told them to make a list.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for my heart. Literally- my actual heart. Do you ever think about that? It just hangs out in your chest beating away all day, every. single. day, keeping you alive. No breaks, no rest. (well, ideally- no breaks/ no rest. 😬)
GRATEFUL KAE 
We haven’t bought anything for the boys but we barely buy anything since my MIL gets them so much stuff. We might not get Will anything? Is that awful? But his birthday is in December and he just doesn’t really need anything and won’t notice. I’ll probably get him a couple of books and call it good. We decided to get Paul a refurbished iPad so he has it for long car trips/plane trips. But that is the extent of our shopping plans. I did order some holiday books to open during advent. We got an advent calendar last year w/ little drawers to pull out. Last year every 2-4 days a piece of paper would say ‘pick a present’ and I got him some matchbox cars. This year I decided to get books since I know we’ll get our money’s worth out of them!
It’s hard to come into a Monday after an exhausting and busy weekend. There are parts of my current stage of life that are challenging – and especially this weekend w/ the end of DST. One of or both boys have been up at 5:15 since Saturday (no idea why Paul was up so early on Saturday – he usually sleeps until 6). But one good aspect is that we don’t have a ton of extracurriculars – or really any at all right now! So our weekends exhaust me, but for a different reason and I have control over things like grocery shopping and meal planning. Things will shift once I go back to the office 3 days/week. I’ll need to do more weekend prep work so dishes come together fast on week nights.
I hope today was a better day!
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I totally get those Mondays that you start with a plan to tackle the list and start the week strong and then the post-weekend symptoms win 🙂 hahaha…. I’m sure you’ll eventually Get back to it.
holidays shopping? I think I won’t do it this year as we will be out during Christmas. one less thing to worry about 🙂 Hate holiday shopping.
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Ah, that sounds nice. Some year, I’m going to do that. I LOVE the holidays and all the traditions, so we usually never travel then. I like to be home to enjoy the season. But some year? Going to plan a big trip over that whole week and just skip all the stress!! Genius. 🙂
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“Vague”- my least favorite kind of to-do list. Oh I can so relate. Another thing I hate – those items that get punted from month to month (my planner is month view with a long side-bar for notes/tasks. I loathe moving things from one month to the other. I’ve had “Get L’s passport updated” as a to-do for almost 6 months now. I just need to get the darn picture taken already and get this process over with…).
Love that your boys have a list. My kids lists aren’t necessarily reasonable (to me); one child wants a hamster and they 100% would be over it in like 2 days and it would be my responsibility. It’s NOT happening. What I do is make a list on my phone (the AnyList app – love, love, love); when I get ideas or people mention things, I’ll write it in a list called Christmas ideas with the person’s name and the item. I literally put like 6 items in there on Christmas last year…for this year. It really, really helps. I don’t necessarily follow through with all the ideas, but it’s just really handy to refer to. For example, a friend mentioned loving my long sundae spoons when she was visiting over Christmas, so I made a note and when her birthday rolled around (we no longer do Christmas gifts), I looked in my gift list and saw that line item. I bought the spoons and she loves them, but I know I would have forgotten them without this prompt.
I’m so exhausted tonight (I worked well into the evening last night), that I’m sitting in bed at 7:06 wiling myself to get to 8:30. I have never had DST kick my butt this badly. Everyone is so tired the last few days. I do love the extra morning light, but really do wish it just didn’t happen every year. It is quite tiresome – and I don’t even have young kiddos anymore! But grateful I got today’s work tasks mostly completed within working hours, so I can just hop into bed all warm from the shower and chill out and go to bed at a ridiculously early hour.
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Oh, get the hamster!!!! We have two and we LOVE THEM! Seriously, obsessed. They are sooooooo cute. If you ever do get one, get a Winter White Dwarf hamster. They are the sweetest, cutest hammies around! 🙂
I love the idea of keeping a list all year. I actually tried to do that and made a page in the back of my planner for it. But alas, I had like. one thing on there. haha! I guess I didn’t do a good job of paying attention. Or I just flat out didn’t have good ideas this year!
We just got our boys’ passports updated too. I sent my husband with the boys to Walgreens to get the photos (so maybe just delegate that! ha!) and then we all had to go to the appointment (not sure how it is done in Canada though). It was a bit annoying to deal with but you’re right- really not that bad! Just get it over with. 🙂
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