On Friday, I made it my goal to focus on our daily routine. Not exactly a HADA project, but my current life project, anyhow. We did alright. We got a slow start in the morning, but we did make it to the park, the dishes got done, and we made homemade pizza for dinner. I know, from experience, that my kids thrive on routine, but once the routine has been lost, getting back onto it is proving to be a battle. The kids have been really tough to handle lately, and it doesn't seem to matter if we stick to a schedule, do fun activities, go outside, or watch TV all day. It's really starting to wear me down. I know they have just gone through a major life upheaval - moving to a new house in a new town - and have another major life upheaval on the horizon when Baby Gussie gets here, but I can only handle so much fighting/hitting/throwing/meltdowns/attitude. I'd love to get more organizing and productive projects done, but my first priority right now needs to be my kids.
There are a few things that I did deliberately make time for on Friday that I would count for HADA. When I made pizza dough for dinner, rather than just making the pizzas myself while the kids did something else, I gave everyone aprons and a slab of dough, and we all made the pizzas together. The girls needed help rolling their dough, but they really enjoyed participating, and I think the pizza was tastier than usual because of it.
We ate dinner early, because the kids were hungry, and I had evening plans, so I wanted to be completely done with dinner before leaving Jer home alone with the girls. I still had a bit of time to spare after dinner, so I took Valerie upstairs early for an extended tubby time. I broke out the bathtub crayons, and I played drawing, guessing, and story games with her for at least 20 minutes. We both had a lot of fun.
Then I drove an hour back to our old neck of the woods for one last evening with my La Leche League movie night ladies. Since I can't remember the last time I got out of the house alone for a whole evening, I'm counting that for HADA, too.
Day 6
Saturday was another "lots of fun, but not a lot of productivity" day. The weather was gorgeous, so we headed to a Marsh Creek State Park for some outdoor play. We met up with some friends from our old town, and it was nice to hang out with people that I already know well, and can just relax around. We're enjoying meeting new people in the new town, but you're always "on" around new people. I'm an extrovert, so this isn't too bad, but sometimes, it's nice to just turn "off" and hang out. The girls had a blast, and even though it was barely 50 degrees (10 Celcius), the girls both kicked off their shoes and waded in the lake. It was a really awesome park, and I think it would become our new favorite summer destination if it weren't for the inexplicable "no swimming in lake" signs. It seems odd to me that you can kayak and wind surf (activities that land me in the water more often than not), but not swim. This seems to be the norm at all the lakes around here. Is it a liability thing? Are they just trying to make money off of their pool? I love swimming, and now that we are two hours from the ocean instead of one, I was hoping to find some nice swimming spots a little closer to home. If anyone knows of any lakes/rivers/quarries with good swimming near Parkesburg, PA, please let me know!
By the time we got home on Saturday, I was starting to feel really ooky. I'm not sleeping well lately, and, while it doesn't seem like I'm doing much, I hadn't factored in how much effort just doing normal, everyday tasks would require when everything is new and different. It's starting to wear on me. I tried to take a nap, but Dorothy's 20-minute power nap in the car seemed to tide her over for the day. Jeremy offered to make dinner, and I did manage to lie down for a bit. I still wasn't feeling very well, though, so I decided to take the rest of the weekend off of HADA. Watched some Doctor Who with Jeremy, and went to bed early.
Day 7
I did wash a few dishes first thing Sunday morning. I am finding that the secret to keeping up with dishes is to just do a few whenever I have a minute, like while I'm waiting for my coffee water to boil. Then we went to church, and, after church, there was a fellowship dinner, so we got to have a tasty meal that required no prep or clean-up on my part. Score! Still not feeling 100%, I took a long nap on Sunday afternoon, then we reheated leftovers for dinner. After dinner, Jeremy insisted that we get out of the house and take a walk. I was dubious, since it was so close to Valerie's bedtime, but I figured we could all stand to get some wiggles out, so I went along with his plan. We walked over to the train station, to see where Daddy gets his train for work, then stopped by the park on the way home. All told, I think it had been almost an hour by the time we got home, so I could probably count that as my HADA for the day, because after-dinner is usually just a slow descent into bedtime. Dorothy had skipped her nap again, so she went to bed early, and we were able to watch another episode of Doctor Who (now we are actually caught up!), and go to sleep early. I was glad for the early bedtime, because I ended up having a lousy night again. One child or the other woke me up at 1, 3, 3:45 and 4:15, then my husband's alarm woke me up at 4:40, then a child again at 5:30. It takes me forever to fall back to sleep right now (I think it's a pregnancy symptom - I remember going through this with my last pregnancy), so this all added up to not-enough sleep.
I think I will have to play today by ear, focusing on the daily tasks and the kids, and only tackling HADA projects if I happen to have motivation/energy/time leftover. I'm not ready to throw in the towel on HADA completely, because I look at the list of projects, and they are things that genuinely do need to get done. But no project is worth sacrificing my health, or risking an early delivery, or completely losing control of my kids.
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