Well!
It’s a good thing I’m writing this today rather than last week, because I will be far less whiny. As noted previously, we returned from the west coast on Sunday night (LATE); I’m not sure I mentioned that on Monday morning at 7:30 AM EDT*, Genevieve had a craniofacial appointment (asymmetric head, more on that later).
On the positive side, I didn’t have work that day.
On the negative, the week started out really badly (with 5 hrs of sleep or so on Sunday night due to G’s appt) and really never improved from there. Our kids seemed to be stuck on Pacific time at night but somehow not really in the morning, and everyone was cranky and tired. And somehow work wasn’t starting any later. We will add to these conditions with these additional elements:
1) I didn’t work out at all during our vacay (too tired), in part because I think I broke my 5th toe (getting up from the floor . . . apparently I am getting THAT OLD) but mostly because the trip was too tiring
2) I returned to work with a massive backlog and some really challenging patients (and not challenging in an academic/interesting way, either).
You may have noted that there was mostly dead air on this blog, although my guess is that no one is tracking me that closely. There was just not a spare moment that I didn’t want to spend sleeping or curled up in the fetal position (probably clutching my phone and scrolling Insta, if we’re being honest).
HOWEVER.
Things are now looking up!
1) I hired a babysitter Saturday from 10-6 and basically worked the entire time. This was in part because I needed to try out a babysitting service (our nanny will be out 10 days in Sept and I had to hire a temporary solution) and in part because the work backlog really REALLY needed to be handled.
2) The kids seem to be back in our time zone, and G has actually slept a bit better the past 2 days – 8 – 5:30 yesterday and 9 – 5 today. (You can bet I went to bed 5 seconds after she did).
3) I went running yesterday, kicking off my return to working out. I’m aiming for a run / Beachbody hybrid and have my sights set on a half marathon in March. I feel like I need some sort of ‘just for me’ goal, and this seems like a good one. This morning is return to Total Body Cardio (21 Day Fix) and I anticipate pain . . . but hopefully the good kind.
4) School started! We needed this fresh start / kick in the pants. Day 1 went very well.
* I will admit I had to google this. It’s quite confusing that “Daylight Savings” happens when there is actually MORE daylight, huh?
5 Comments
Thank you for being honest and real about these difficulties. It really resonates with me. I appreciate the candidness. Glad you are back and filling us in!
G sleeping from 8-5:30 is huge! As soon as you start getting 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep regularly, it’s like the heavens open up.
Love the toothless first grade shots 🙂
Long time reader, very rarely a commenter, but I am pretty sure I just ordered that same unicorn lunch bag/sack for our soon to be first grader. She starts Monday.
I hate re-entry, with a passion. I even struggle with three-day weekends sometimes. There is something about that disruption to the routine that my brain struggles to readjust without a massive pity party I almost always either take the Monday off or work from home, and if we get really lucky, we come back a day early, book a babysitter and go stay in a hotel while the kids re-adjust with someone else.
Returning from vacation and travel is so tough! I feel like a hidden/under-discussed aspect about travel and family is the chaos of returning. I am sure that people who travel all the time have ways to manage it because travel is part of their routine. I only travel for work 2-3 times a year and we take about 2 bigger family vacations each year–the return/recovery is always dreadful even if the trip itself is fantastic.
I also loved your comment on the podcast about conversations about school choice! I’ve gotten sucked into those awkward conversations and no good comes of it!
Love your first day photos! 🙂
Coming back from vacation is always very hard you know