Here we go . . .
I am optimistic about this call week — sort of. Mostly because unlike the usual setup, this time it is SPLIT!
I am on for 72 hours, then 24 hours, then 72 hours with ~3-4 days breaks between each. Yes, the whole thing will probably feel like it’s lasting forever but honestly that seems so much more manageable to me. This was done because of our move but I’m also excited that it will be a bit of a mini-experiment of what it feels like to split up the time.
Ways in which I will try to make things easier:
1- Sleep in until 6-7 if I’m woken up overnight. I will be flexible about my usual morning routine/workout schedule. If I’m lucky enough to sleep, awesome! But if not, I will get the extra rest I need.
2- Stay at work until I’m done with notes (and lean on some extra childcare). Our nanny is fine with covering (she’s even helping with the actual moving/packing days, though Josh will be there too and we have a professional crew coming). So I will not invent imaginary pressure to get home at a specific time. I will finish up my work each day and not leave notes to linger & stress me out. Today might be an extra-long day as I have a stack of new results to go through (since I was off last week). That’s okay — I have time to do it.
3- Order in or bring healthy + good food for lunch. I need to make this aspect easy. I will focus on salads and skip the Starbucks because unfortunately it often seems to trigger migraines. And I REALLY don’t want to be dealing with that this week.
4- Keep organized lists. I will spend extra time this morning grooming + fixing our inpatient list (unfortunately there was some EPIC malfunction and our usual list was deleted, and the last person on call created her own list but new consults won’t pop up on it so — I need to fix things). Having a clear list of patients to round on is key, plus since there will be multiple handoffs with the shared call week, this is extra important.
Here we go!
Random weekend pix leftover:
No, we are not getting one.
(Refugee refers to a book she is reading for school)
15 Comments
I am loving the optimistic mindset with which you are entering the Call and the Move week. That is half the battle won. Best wishes Sarah 💐
I am so glad your nanny is willing to be around for your move. You can never have enough hands when moving. I haven’t moved in a very long time (>10 years) but having our housekeeper there to help make beds, put away kitchen stuff and generally just be another adult still stands out as the number BEST thing we did for that move and we have professional packers and movers too. Good luck!
I would feel my mission on Earth is complete if I came across a handwritten to do lidg on my child’s desk ❤️
Good Luck!
I hope the new format of call week will make things easier and that everything will go as smoothly as possible.
Annabel’s desk is so tidy! I also think that item #3 seems completed 😊
Good luck with everything you have going on this week!
Good luck with everything. It sounds like you have a great mental – and practical – framework in place. I’m so happy the move will soon be behind you and I suspect it will remove a HUGE mental load.
I love your statement: “invent imaginary pressure.” This is me, but I like how you worded it and feel like I need to do some self-talk in this area, labeling X,Y,Z activity as simply me “inventing imaginary pressure.”
And I think we have two of Annabel’s desks? If hers is the IKEA Micke?
Yes! Such a good way of phrasing that. Good luck with everything this week Sarah!
In fairness to your kids, I ogle that fridge everytime I got to the hardware store too. I love love love the freezer set up in it. Sadly it was 1/2″ too tall for my space or it would have been mine when we had to replace ours a few years ago (though I was looking at a model without the large screen – my kids too would never have left it alone!)
Best of luck with call and the move! Seems like you’ve got some healthy tools to help you this week.
We bought a version of that Samsung fridge (but not that humongous! Ours is much more normal sized) for our new kitchen a couple summers ago, and we LOVE it!!! The screen is pretty sweet and it has lots of useful tools in there. 😉 My kids are older though, so they don’t bother it. I love uploading pics of the kids and having them on the homescreen. I can change them out so easily anytime. And my family Google Cal syncs to the calendar on the fridge screen! So the kids can just click and see what they have going on that day. I can update chore charts on there, too! And grocery lists, etc…and play music….It’s amazing. Eliminates the need for an actual calendar or anything in the kitchen for us. You might want to reconsider, Sarah… 😉
I just wanted to leave a cheerleading message – you can do it! Go Sarah! 🎉🎊🎉🎊💐🎶🎉🎊
All excellent strategies for managing this crazy time. It won’t last forever – i especially love that you prioritized sleep (and did so on your podcast) – it’s amazing the urge to try to keep up normalcy when things are absolutely not normal. And also the unhelpful one that a lot of women in particular seem to have about doing it all ourselves. So smart to get movers and packers, and extra childcare and food. All so smart! Good luck with call and your move – exciting to be in your new home! <3
I am glad your call will be split up! It will prolong it but make it less overwhelming overall, I think? Doing a full week of call just sounds like so so much! I hope that everything goes smoothly. I think it will be good to have this burden behind you. I think anticipating something is often worse than actually going through it sometimes, and that seems to be the case with moving.
Awww, love her list! Good luck with it all – holy moley!
Oh that book Refugee is heartbreaking. If you haven’t read it, it’s a great read to put things in perspective. That’s a deep book for 3rd grade!
Yes she cried at one point but ended up liking it. She’s in 4th (and her classroom is actually 4th-5th). I agree heavy topics. I want to read it!