1- Completely honored to be part of this Mom Hour episode today!
It was particularly thrilling because I got to chat with Christine Koh in addition to Sarah Powers. (Kelsey of Girls Next Door Podcast was supposed to be there too, but was sick – missed her! Apparently she will be doing an Insta Live component next week).
2- Speaking of Insta . . . I’m still off. SUPER off. After putting up my ‘away message’ at the end of November, I have remained abstinent. I went through a brief phase in early December where I was sneakily perusing Reddit (goddamn it the pull of social media!) but that has since been deleted from my phone as well.
I do actually enjoy my life more without social media! Who knew!? I also just don’t think it is something I can moderate. I am grateful that I do not ‘need’ it for my career. (Though Cal Newport would probably argue that very few people truly do.)
3- Finished Apples Never Fall. First novel of the year, and honestly? I loved it. Not deep, but totally FUN and still touched on some ‘bigger’ more poignant topics.
4- Running. I had a great interval run this morning (5 x 1K @ tempo pace, which is supposed to be ~9:00/mi but I did slightly faster than that –although maybe on the Garmin it would have been ~9:00). I have been running a bit more consistently the past few weeks (though still not very high mileage – under 20/week!).
I think I had sort of convinced myself that I would never be able to run faster again, but this gives me hope. It wasn’t even that cool out (it was ~70 – not hot, but not amazing weather either).
I don’t necessarily think I will be able to beat my old PRs (set before I turned 30!) but maybe I can get closer than I thought.
5- Happy first week of the year. I guess we made it through the first 7 days of 2022, for better or for worse. Not getting COVID this week and having 3 kids still in school feels like a victory and minor miracle. Thinking of everyone out there dealing with viral symptoms or the accompanying SIGNIFICANT logistical challenges. It will get better!
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It’s a complete disaster here at a district level. No one knows if any given school is going to be sent to virtual next week and today is our second snow day of the week (plus we had a two hour delay another day). My younger one is just SO confused about if he’s going to school and/or mommy and/or daddy will be trying to work. We had been home since mid-December due to exposures and my husband has basically decided one of us needs to quit our jobs. We got through March 2020 by lying to ourselves that this would not be too long and now we just have no reserves left. I know we are so privileged and so many people have it so much worse but the toll it is taking especially on the younger kid is really hard to see.
Yes. This. All of this. I never thought we’d get to the ‘I guess its time one of us quit’ conversation. But here we are.
Oof, that is just horrible. I’m so sorry. 🙁
I am so sorry, Irene.
Several leading doctors at our provincial children’s hospital (I’m in Canada) wrote an open letter to our government officials asking them to please re-open schools (this week school was just canceled outright; next week we’re going virtual). Basically he said the risk to children is low, transmission in schools is low (far more likely to spread during family gatherings) and that we absolutely have to prioritize getting the kids back to school.
I also think the “privilege” aspect you mentioned is also starting to feel like a heavy burden as well. For so long I’ve tried to stay positive by knowing so many other people are struggling on a whole other level. And that is 100% true, but the guilt of my situation is bringing me down. Because it’s still so hard to watch my kids cry over online schooling. It’s hard to watch my kids have to isolate from friends that now have COVID. It’s hard to try to fit in work before kids start schooling and after they go to bed because I have nothing left in my emotional, physical or spiritual tank.
Your point is so true – in March of 2020 it felt like we could collectively get through this. Now it just feels like we’re all losing the will and the might. Sigh.
Tbh, I think it’s a waste of time to feel guilty over relative privilege; this isn’t the suffering olympics, after all, and your kids are genuinely struggling. Let that guilt go. It’s okay to be angry and sad about all of this without castigating yourself for not having a better attitude. ❤️
Irene – are you in North Alabama? Because I could have written your post verbatim.
No, we are far North of you. I’m truly sorry you are going through the same thing. So many people are struggling right now.
Good luck!
Way to go on your run! I recently bought and started one of the Heart Rate plans from Another Mother Runner to build up to March half marathon. I’d had several lacklustre training seasons – with okay half marathon results (I’ve done 5 since my son was born in 2017) but wasn’t loving it and was coming to dread running which is my first love! So, I took a hard look at myself and i was always trying to be where i was. It is so freeing to run by heart rate and time – when i feel that urge to blast off in pace i just remember i am building that foundation and need to listen to my zones on my watch! I am starting to accept where I am today. I am so much slower on my day to day runs but i am seeing glimmers in the interval days and I feel how much better my recovery is, especially from long runs. And I even had my highest mileage month in years in December so lots of wins there. But i also feel deep down that my best running days are not behind me – maybe not the PRs but possibly! But it is important to find the fun in it still.
so fun to check back how we run when we were “younger”. once I move to a colder place, I might do a challenge to challenge my younger self hahaha.. do you have a gold for faster 5/10k? I want to set up one not sure how realistic it is. I love long steady runs but shorter runs makes me feel stronger.
No specific time goal yet. My PR for 5K is under 23 minutes . . but that was in 2010 🙂 I am NOWHERE NEAR that now. I may try to approach 25-26 minutes if possible but no true goal. I just haven’t run significant mileage in many years.
Way to go on running faster than you thought you would! Gives me hope that that could be me in a couple of years. I have tried to let go of my pace since I’m juggling a lot right now but my 10 mile race was sooo slow this fall.
Our son is quarantining for a daycare exposure and we narrowly missed one for our son since he was home sick with us for most of the week. Miraculously, we saw an ENT and got the ok for tubes and got scheduled for the first surgery on Monday due to a patient cancelling after their pre-op Covid test was negative. Now I just need Will’s test from yesterday to be negative but it seems like it will ne since the other 2 this week were. We’ve been trying to keep the boys apart as much as possible in case the older one does get Covid. He gets tested Monday and can go back on Tuesday if it’s negative. At least he is easier to have home, though. We just let him be on his iPad as much as necessary so we could still work yesterday (well, the amount I worked was pitiful between 3 appointments for Will – had to get a pre-op physical in addition to the Covid test).
But I am WORN out. Kind of hanging on by a thread since sleep has been so awful. I had a string of nights of <6 hours. I need 7-7.5 to function well. I am lucky that my company is understanding and my colleagues can cover for me. That is not the set up for many, including my husband. Between our visits to urgent care, the ED and the various clinics we’ve been in this week, the healthcare system is totally overwhelmed. I feel so bad for them. And teachers. And parents. And school administrators making open or close decisions. And the list goes on and on and on.