Things have been so hectic this week. I took on a new project for one of my clients and I feel like I have been forced to learn to speak another language in one week's time. I am a bookkeeper and this project has NOTHING to do with bookkeeping. But it is very intricate and potentially VERY lucrative so it was a no-brainer to accept it. That being said, I am beyond swamped. My regular client load has not slowed down at all and there simply are not enough hours in the day to get it all done.
I think all parents out there struggle for balance and I am no exception. I try so hard to make enough time for my business to sustain and support my family yet also leave enough time to spend quality time with that family. And it is hard to make both of those things happen. I get up at 5:45 in the morning to start my day. It takes that long to get us all ready and out of the house by 8:15 and it takes from 8:15 until 9:00 to get both kids dropped off at their respective schools. So even though I wake up at the butt crack of dawn I can't start my workday until 9:15 at the earliest. And The Boy has to be picked up by 4:00 and The Girl has to be picked up by 5:00. So that doesn't leave much time during the day to bill 8 hours. Even if I have my mom pick up The Boy and I get The Girl (thus buying me about another half an hour of work), I still at best have a little over 7 hours to somehow bill an 8 hour day. And that is if I take no lunch and don't "waste" any time driving from one client to another. So to make up for it I usually put the kids to bed at around 8:30 and work for another hour or hour and a half. This means that I literally do not have one moment to myself until almost 10:00 at night at which point I am ready to pass out.
So work days are tough. I could give up my Fridays and put the kids in daycare/school (although that raises my expenses by quite a bit) and work another 8 hour day but I would feel like I have NO time with my kids at all. The Boy goes with The Ex for a few hours on Saturday morning and the entire weekend is spent with errands and grocery shopping and laundry. So while that option brings in more cash it also greatly diminishes the quality time I have with my kids. And of course those kids are why I am doing all this anyway. So I keep my Fridays. And I work like a crazy person Monday through Thursday and I swear to myself that I will catch up at some point over the weekend when the kids nap, or when there is a quiet moment...and we all know how that works out, don't we? Yeah, it doesn't.
I shouldn't complain. And I know there are tons of people out there who are in the same position, or worse position than I am. It's just hard. But I am done whining. At least for tonight... :)
Did I tell you all about The Boy's butterfly project? I think I did. Quick recap: We ordered "Live Butterfly Garden" off the Internet and it sends you 5 caterpillars and you get to watch them grow into cocoons and eventually butterflies (if all goes well). Well guess what? This weekend we ended up with 5 live butterflies. And The Boy could not have been more thrilled. He is SO fascinated with bugs and insects and anything nature related right now that this was the perfect project for him. He brought his butterflies to school on Monday and the whole class watched them for two days and then yesterday they set them free. I really can't put into words how exciting this entire thing was for my boy. He loved, loved, loved it. And I am so happy it all worked out the way it was supposed to (they tried the project at school, which is how we heard about it, and all the caterpillars died...the whole class was pretty bummed. And that is why we took our live butterflies back into his class so they could all experience it together).
So that is what has been going on with him. And with her? Well she is busy being a little one year old. She is showing no signs of wanting to stop nursing on her own (even though it is only twice a day on daycare days and about three times a day on the days I have her all day long) and I am struggling with the decision of whether to wean her or just let it be and let her wean herself when she's ready. I spend way too much time obsessing on this decision. I need to get a hobby... :)
I will end this rambling post with a video of The Girl using her fancy new "walker" toy that I got her for her birthday. I am so scared to say that official walking is not far off. God help us all...
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