A little slice of recent life around here (pulled directly and verbatim from real life.) I was cleaning out old emails earlier today, and found this one – part of a thread I had going with a friend recently:
“It’s almost 2am (1:55 to be exact) and I’ve been up working on this project I had to finish. It’s so wonderful to have work to do that I can do on my own timetable, around the kids…but the flipside to that of course is that sometimes (like today) I really need to finish something…and I’m trying to do it around the kids! And, at 5 and 3, they have very little respect for ‘Mommy has to get this done!’
Maisy was my problem today. It was, ‘Mommy has to get this done!’ And the response was, ‘Okay, Mommy. But look at this pretty rainbow unicorn I drew! Her name is Petunia. She lives in China. She flies all day long. And Mommy, remember I had a bad dream last night? It was really scary. There was scary music. Hmm…music. Mommy, can I listen to your iPod? Mommy, I’m hungry!’ And then up pops Henry from the floor where he was playing with Matchbox cars, ‘Me too! Me too! Mommy, I can get food myself, I’m a big boy now. I’ll use that big knife to cut the watermelon, okay?’ And then Maisy: ‘I can get food! I’m big!’ And then Henry: ‘Maisy, I’ll get it for you. You’re not tall enough. And I’m your big brother. That’s my job.’ And Maisy: ‘NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Mommy, Henry says HE is going to get my food. And I want to get it!’ And Henry (tearing up): ‘Mommy, Maisy doesn’t want me to get her food. She hurt my feelings!’ And Maisy (sobbing…totally in retaliation): ‘Mommy, I want YOU to get my food. Only YOU…NOT Henry.’ Henry crying. Maisy crying. Me: ‘Guys…I have a deadline on this thing I have to do for the work people. Do you think you could give me just a few minutes? Please?’ Both kids fuss and put on their best dramatic faces…because you know it’s been like THIRTY MINUTES since food passed their lips. They’re STARVING. Me, in desperation: ‘If you guys let me get this part done, I’ll let you watch cartoons on the internet on my computer when I’m finished’ (a huge concession on my part, because we’re trying to break them of their tv habits right now.) Faces light up. Kids jump up and down and run out of the room gleefully. I work for about two minutes…until somebody clunks their head. And we begin again. And thus, I complete my work at 2am!“
I relate the above just to sort of give a little more weight to my words when I say: I’m a little bogged down right now!
A fairly large project I’m working on is due this weekend, and it’s a scramble to get it together. Particularly around the little guys. Consequently, I’m finding myself slipping in a few areas – most notably housecleaning and other writing (like blogging.)
The housecleaning isn’t that big a deal. I’m at my soon-to-be-ex-husband’s apartment at the moment though – and I admit, I do feel a little bad about the state of it. Either the kids trash it every day, while I sit at my computer and try to work – or the three of us pack up and get the hell out of the chaos for a few hours of sightseeing in DC (and then I work and they trash it). Either way, every day I’m leaving a fair amount of mess for him to deal with – mess that he did not create himself.
(By the way, an unfortunate consequence of staying friendly with your ex is that you really do feel sort of bad about things like this. If I hated him, I’m certain I’d get a great deal of pleasure [or at least feel no guilt] in allowing his home to morph into a disaster zone.)
As far as the writing stuff goes, it’s actually a good time for me to lay some of that down and let it sit. There’s something to be said for doing that every now and again and then returning to it with fresh(er) eyes. But my inability to carve out sufficient blogging time is bugging me. I have about six posts simmering in my head that really want to be written! But more problematically is the fact that there are several comments sitting unanswered on different published posts right now.
So basically this post is a long-winded way of saying: I’m so sorry for the delay in getting to those! I really love when people comment – and when somebody takes the time, it feels very rude not to respond. Not to mention that there are some things I really want to say back!!
After this weekend my time will be my own again (at least, a lot more than it is right at this moment.) And I will pick up all of the many threads I’ve dropped. Thanks for your patience!!
A little slice of recent life around here (pulled directly and verbatim from real life.) I was cleaning out old emails earlier today, and found this one – part of a thread I had going with a friend recently:
“It’s almost 2am (1:55 to be exact) and I’ve been up working on this project I had to finish. It’s so wonderful to have work to do that I can do on my own timetable, around the kids…but the flipside to that of course is that sometimes (like today) I really need to finish something…and I’m trying to do it around the kids! And, at 5 and 3, they have very little respect for ‘Mommy has to get this done!’
Maisy was my problem today. It was, ‘Mommy has to get this done!’ And the response was, ‘Okay, Mommy. But look at this pretty rainbow unicorn I drew! Her name is Petunia. She lives in China. She flies all day long. And Mommy, remember I had a bad dream last night? It was really scary. There was scary music. Hmm…music. Mommy, can I listen to your iPod? Mommy, I’m hungry!’ And then up pops Henry from the floor where he was playing with Matchbox cars, ‘Me too! Me too! Mommy, I can get food myself, I’m a big boy now. I’ll use that big knife to cut the watermelon, okay?’ And then Maisy: ‘I can get food! I’m big!’ And then Henry: ‘Maisy, I’ll get it for you. You’re not tall enough. And I’m your big brother. That’s my job.’ And Maisy: ‘NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Mommy, Henry says HE is going to get my food. And I want to get it!’ And Henry (tearing up): ‘Mommy, Maisy doesn’t want me to get her food. She hurt my feelings!’ And Maisy (sobbing…totally in retaliation): ‘Mommy, I want YOU to get my food. Only YOU…NOT Henry.’ Henry crying. Maisy crying. Me: ‘Guys…I have a deadline on this thing I have to do for the work people. Do you think you could give me just a few minutes? Please?’ Both kids fuss and put on their best dramatic faces…because you know it’s been like THIRTY MINUTES since food passed their lips. They’re STARVING. Me, in desperation: ‘If you guys let me get this part done, I’ll let you watch cartoons on the internet on my computer when I’m finished’ (a huge concession on my part, because we’re trying to break them of their tv habits right now.) Faces light up. Kids jump up and down and run out of the room gleefully. I work for about two minutes…until somebody clunks their head. And we begin again. And thus, I complete my work at 2am!“
I relate the above just to sort of give a little more weight to my words when I say: I’m a little bogged down right now!
A fairly large project I’m working on is due this weekend, and it’s a scramble to get it together. Particularly around the little guys. Consequently, I’m finding myself slipping in a few areas – most notably housecleaning and other writing (like blogging.)
The housecleaning isn’t that big a deal. I’m at my soon-to-be-ex-husband’s apartment at the moment though – and I admit, I do feel a little bad about the state of it. Either the kids trash it every day, while I sit at my computer and try to work – or the three of us pack up and get the hell out of the chaos for a few hours of sightseeing in DC (and then I work and they trash it). Either way, every day I’m leaving a fair amount of mess for him to deal with – mess that he did not create himself.
(By the way, an unfortunate consequence of staying friendly with your ex is that you really do feel sort of bad about things like this. If I hated him, I’m certain I’d get a great deal of pleasure [or at least feel no guilt] in allowing his home to morph into a disaster zone.)
As far as the writing stuff goes, it’s actually a good time for me to lay some of that down and let it sit. There’s something to be said for doing that every now and again and then returning to it with fresh(er) eyes. But my inability to carve out sufficient blogging time is bugging me. I have about six posts simmering in my head that really want to be written! But more problematically is the fact that there are several comments sitting unanswered on different published posts right now.
So basically this post is a long-winded way of saying: I’m so sorry for the delay in getting to those! I really love when people comment – and when somebody takes the time, it feels very rude not to respond. Not to mention that there are some things I really want to say back!!
After this weekend my time will be my own again (at least, a lot more than it is right at this moment.) And I will pick up all of the many threads I’ve dropped. Thanks for your patience!!
