daily life – Life of Jill

February 10, 2015 March 11, 2015

I am a grown-ass woman/child who knows what she wants

As you can imagine, or guess from all my complaining, feeling better after all this dental crap hasn’t gone as smoothly as I would like. It has taken A LOT out of me. I’m just beat. All the time. (More than usual. And that’s saying something.) Since I expected the big Christmas tooth pull was the worst of it, I honestly thought I would be back to my old ways in no time. I couldn’t have been more wrong. With absolutely zero down time, I’m afraid that the recovery from the latest dental adventure was even worse than the one before. A little over two weeks out and I’m FINALLY not wincing in pain every time I yawn or eat or sneeze or (attempt) to brush my teeth. Eating can still be a challenge, but at least I’m doing better.

I also got myself a Monster’s Inc kiddie toothbrush because that’s how I roll.

(I needed a smaller toothbrush to handle the affected area. My dentist thought this might work better. Hilarious that when she pulled a couple from the drawer, I belted out “Sully!” when I saw it. Because I’m a grown-ass lady who knows what she wants out of life.)

***

Being so run down, it was nice that this weekend could be so low-key. The much needed rain gave us a perfect excuse to hunker down at home for most of the weekend. There were still things to get done (of course) but the four of us watched two movies on Saturday and one on Sunday. No really. I’m not lying. We actually did that.

Miraculously, we also left the house. We hung out at my sister’s house for a little bit on Saturday. We had dinner with some of our favorite people on Sunday. Sarah and I even participated in a local running event. Which was awesome, but…yeah. My training schedule is suffering most of all with all this recovery crap. I’m a little worried about it since we’re in the middle of our half marathon training. THIS COULD BE INTERESTING. Hopefully I’m back to it soon.

***

I’m trying to work out a better schedule over here. I loved looking back over January. LOVED. I want more of that. As proud as I am of posting here so much more, I’m struggling to do the same in February. I guess that when you give yourself an out, you take it. Or * I * take it. I’m a jerk.

But more than anything, I just want to remember. The good, the bad, even the indifferent. 10 days into February and I’m more tired than I ever expected, but there was fun to be had anyway. And lots of coffee. Because, duh.

Gonna make things happen. Here we go.

October 7, 2013 January 2, 2015

I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address

I’m trying to reorganize my life. That sounds a tad overdramatic, but it’s actually kind true. My life is busy and crazy, but it also changes quite a bit. Whatever system we try to use to keep us on track may not work after a few months because someone’s schedule changes or we have a new things added to the to-do list. And sometimes, we just need to press the reset button and figure our shit out.

Beezus, The Dude and I all use a shared (iCloud) calendar to try and organize some of the crazy. But there’s always something that can’t be tracked on that sort of device. I mean, I know it doesn’t make sense, but some tasks and reoccurring appointments that are easier to track on a visible calendar or white board where the entire family can see it.

After weeks like last week and this weekend, I faced today knowing that we needed to reassess our plan of attack. Our current system just isn’t working for our life right now. And while life may settle down in a few months (yeah right) we need a way to keep things more on track.

I also am still waiting for someone to figure out how to get more hours in a day. I still need sleep. But I need more time to accomplish all this.

After a trip to Target, I feel like I’ve made a good start. (Office supplies, FTW!) I’ve picked up a couple of supplies to (hopefully) help. I need to revisit daily tasks that need to be done as well as those tasks that need to be done weekly. (And a way to track/remind myself what needs to be done.) I need to figure out meal planning because we are only home in the evening one night a week right now. (I KNOW.) Life is super overwhelming right now because just keeping everything straight is next to impossible.

Last week I posted something on Facebook that I kinda felt bad about afterwards.

Not everyone makes the same choices as me. I get that. And sometimes I have a hard time when people say that I should do things this way or that. (Ok, I often have a hard time with that.) When your priorities and choices are different, your life will not make sense to anyone else. It just better make sense to you. All this craziness needs to be worth it in some way, shape or form. And life balance? Sometimes just doesn’t exist.

I spent pretty much the entire weekend watching my kid play softball. The same kid who also had homecoming Saturday night. And whose team made it to the championship game Sunday evening. She’s busy. And our weekend was busy supporting her. But I have no regrets that I was there and didn’t miss it.

Even if that means that today I’m faced with EVERYTHING that needs to be done.

So here’s to a little reorganization. It seems like a perfect time to re-think how we do things. Fall just feels like a natural time to make some changes, even if this is probably something I should’ve done a long time ago.

Now is as good of time as any.

September 10, 2013 January 2, 2015

sometimes this is what our evenings look like

Yesterday I left work around 5:45. I was already running late to pick up Beezus from school and water polo practice when she called me.

“Um…do you have my softball bag?”

“Uh…no. Did you put it in my car?”

“Um…no. Ok. I’ll just tell coach that I’ll be late to batting practice so we can go home and get it.”

“Can’t you just use someone else’s bat?”

“MOM.”

“Beezus.”

(Exasperated sigh from both of us.)

We don’t live close to her school. We live slightly closer to where batting practice was, but driving ALL the way home and then basically ALL the way back wasn’t going to work for me. I was already solo-parenting it last night. Dropping Beezus off late would’ve made me late getting home for Ramona when my parents dropped her off.

I have nothing planned for dinner. I also don’t have much to make into dinner.

Being sick all last week has put me behind on all household things. Although, my house is pretty clean, thank you husband and my short breaks from feeling poopy.

(I still don’t feel all that great. But at least I’m better than I was.)

Ramona still had homework to do when she got home. I worry about her getting it done and still getting to bed on time.

Feed the dog. Clean up…after the dog.

Husband, thankfully, was able to pick up Beezus from batting practice, but I was already in the car and a quarter of the way there when he called. (I had no problem making THAT U-turn to head back home.)

Help Ramona with her homework. Remind Ramona that she needs to finish homework and hurry to bed because it’s getting late.

Laundry. Damn. That should’ve been started hours ago. I rushed to get that going. OH BUT WAIT. I forgot that I washed towels two days ago. So, yeah…THOSE need to be washed again.

Do we have anything for lunches? NO. No we do not. So to the grocery story I go. At 10 o’clock at night. Knowing that I have to be up at 4:30 to help get Beezus and The Dude out the door by 5am. (Tuesday mornings at our house suck eggs, y’all.) (The Dude offered to go to the store. But helping with high school math is way harder than a grocery store trip. I made him stay home.)

I try to not feel guilty that I toss crap like Uncrustables in my cart. Sure, PB&J are the easiest sandwiches in the world to make…but let’s go ahead and make it easier on Jill because I’M STILL NOT DONE WITH OTHER SHIT ONCE I GET HOME FROM THE GROCERY STORE. There’s lots of other good and healthy food in my cart, so I try to make myself feel better. Except…what is my family going to eat for dinner tomorrow while I’m gone at an event? Probably should grab something for them…

Get home and start the load of laundry that I needed to start HOURS ago. Put those pesky towels in the dryer.

Put away groceries. Stopped feeling bad about Uncrustables when I think about how all lunches are practically made.

Send some emails that I meant to send hours ago. Love that emails can be sent so late.

Put clothes in the dryer.

Head to bed. Pretend that I’m going to bed at 9 and not midnight. Laugh at earlier in the day when I thought I might be able to go to bed early.

Remind myself to be grateful that not all nights are like this.