5 Downs:
1- The overwhelm feeling I complained about several weeks ago has not lifted. If anything, it might be worse. argh. I don’t have a great plan in place to combat this, at the moment. Maybe later today I will sit and try to corral all the to-dos from my head/ paper into one place, and start actually figuring out when certain things can get done. Up until now, I’ve mostly just been treading water, without time to really address any of it. (My schedule does not look amazing or very clear AT ALL though for the next…couple of months. Hmm. So, not sure how this will go.)
2- It feels like we are hemorrhaging money right now, and it is very annoying. From paying for tree removal, to needing new brakes in my van (installed Wednesday), to paying for camp balances and other such things, it feels like every time I turn around I am handing someone a large quantity of money. 😑
3- I woke up at 3:20 a.m. yesterday (Thursday) and never fell back to sleep, meaning <5 hours for my total sleep. I also had to drive Ethan to an evening soccer game (rare- the only one not on a weekend all season), 1 hour 15 minutes away. We hit the road around 5 pm, only to see the low air tire pressure light come on 3 minutes later. Pulled off at a gas station and found this in my tire:
I topped off the air, hoped for the best and got back on the highway. Fortunately, it held. Ivan is taking it in today. But just another hassle… Also, the game didn’t get done until 8:30 pm, so we didn’t pull in the driveway until 9:48 p.m.
4- Some work stuff has me a little on edge, too. We have a new manager (again/ finally) and I’m feeling that familiar unease of a ton of potential changes/ upheaval maybe coming our way. This often seems to accompany big management shifts. It’s looking like several new “standing” meetings are being added to my schedule; not thrilled about that. My job has been notoriously LOW in the meeting department, which I’ve always been thankful for. It still doesn’t seem too bad, and the new manager seems great so far, but I just hope the meetings don’t start to get carried away….
5- Also feeling some annoyance with my husband’s work schedule. Well, just that he is never home until after 6 pm, sometimes 6:30. This isn’t LATE late, I know, but it’s late enough that he’s not much help with anything dinner related and/or driving kids to anything in that 4-6 pm range. (Fortunately, summertime is light in the evening activity area- that’s more of a school year issue.) He IS always happy to do the later pickups/ driving, but for example- last night I had no choice but to handle the far away soccer game, because he wasn’t home at 5 when we needed to leave….
5 Ups:
1- We have a lot of fun stuff on the calendar!! Yes, I feel a little too busy, so maybe some of it shouldn’t be there. But we have tickets in Chicago on Sunday for the Mexican National soccer team’s game at Soldier Field (we’ve never been to a pro soccer game, will be fun!), I have concert tickets in July, etc.
2- Although Ethan’s 7 pm soccer game was not awesome timing last night, it was actually a beautiful evening. The sky was gorgeous as the sun went down, and it was a good, exciting game. The actual experience was quite pleasant. I was just tired driving home, after the 3:20 wakeup…..
3- Ethan was kind of zoning out on the way home (acting like an almost 14 year old….he chatted for a few minutes, but then was just mostly listening to some music/ “chilling”). I found a decent country station, as we were in a more rural part of the state. Tim McGraw’s “My Next Thirty Years” came on. Hadn’t heard that one in forever!! So good. Ethan liked the lyrics, too, and got a laugh out of the line “Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers…huh….Maybe I’ll remember, my next 30 years….”
My favorite verse:
My next 30 years will be the best years of my life
Raise a little family and hang out with my wife.
Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear
Make up for lost time, here….in my next 30 years.”
4- The kids are REALLY HAPPY to be on summer break. Like, really, really happy. “Gleeful” is the word that comes to mind. Ethan has spent so. much. time. with his friends this week, and he is just ecstatic. One slept over the other night and they spent the whole day after playing outside, biking around, buying ice cream at the gas station, etc. You know, summer stuff. Asher spent maybe FIVE hours or more at the gym yesterday afternoon with various friends. He just didn’t want to leave! They swam in the outdoor pools, sat in the hot tub, bought snacks, played a bunch of basketball, worked out? maybe? Not even sure. But he was also loving life yesterday.
5- The Mexico soccer tank top we ordered on Amazon (for the game on Sunday) arrived and it actually fits me perfectly. It’s cute! Has a Mexican flag/ soccer ball and the word MEXICO in big letters on it. Ivan has a Mexico soccer t-shirt already, but I didn’t. I’ve not had the greatest luck with online shopping lately, so this was a nice surprise.
Have a great weekend!
GRATEFUL KAE 
Oof, that is a long day, especially on a night with such little sleep. Yikes! It is tough to be the more available/flexible parent. That is the situation in my marriage, too. I work for a huge company and I have coworkers that can take meetings for me if need be or can cover for me if I am with a sick kid. Phil works for a tiny company so there isn’t any overlap in roles and he’s such a “yes” person that he is always taking on extra work, or that is how it feels. So he hasn’t been able to be home to help with Paul the last 2 days and won’t be able to on Monday either. But luckily he can help the next 2 days when I have an in person presentation one day and a client meeting the next day.
I’m glad you had as many good things and not-so-good things. The standing meetings would frustrate me, too. I hate meetings! They are often a big waste of time! I ran our team meeting once when my boss couldn’t be there and it was a record short meeting so everyone jokingly told my boss that I should run the meetings going forward!
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The nail in the tire thing just feels like so symbolic of the “one more thing.” I often talk about things being like “death by a 1000 papercuts.” We just got back from vacation and I always feel guilty about complaining after so much fun…but I hate the transition back into routines. The fridge is empty, the inbox is full, and there is so much laundry to do. It’s all fine, it just feels like being pulled in so many different directions and I feel scattered.
No real advice to give, but as always love how you both “keep it real” in this space, while showing how important balance is and so much of that comes from finding joy in the little things like a beautiful night sky at soccer practice.
Also, I could not love the word gleeful to describe the boy’s feeling about summer break more if I tried. I can still remember the thrill of being off university in the summer and it is one of my favourite memories EVER. That sense of liberation is hard to beat 🙂
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My husband introduced me to country music when I met him and I love that Tim McGraw song (and some others of the early 2000’s :))
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YES the late 90s/early 2000s country is hands down my favorite. My sister and I got into country in our high school years and there were just so many great ones. Literally when I hear then, they take me back to driving around with the windows down on a summer night, 16 year olds…. a very happy time.
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the overwhelmed might be the rushing to the summer break? hopefully in summer break the pace slows down. your boys are old enough to be self sufficient so you can dedicate a bit more time for yourself?
I know how a bad night of sleep can affect my perception of life, so hopefully after you have a good sleep, you’re feel better
. last week of summer here too and girls are looking forward to the summer break although we don’t have any big plans yet.
I hear you about husband not getting home early. fortunately my hubby has been home 24/7 since the pandemic. whenever he goes out at night, I kind of resent him leaving me with the girls alone but I know he deserves it. it’s good to know you have a partner at home, especially when you want to rest at night too.
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