How Things Change

Hello Cubicle Buddies!

Thought we were due for a chat again.  Looking forward to it?  I know I am!

So today in my few spare minutes of time I started a list.  I love lists...if you haven't noticed by my previous blogs....  List are survival for me.  I sometimes refer to them as 'my brain' because without these lists I'm not sure how I would get anything done...and well...I don't get everything done so just imagine how bad it would be without them! 

So my list this time around was the things I was hoping to get accomplished next week.  My two girls are signed up for full day camps next week and I see this as a week of free time to get a lot of my stuff done.  I'm so relieved to have this chunk of time to get caught up.  So I'm planning which days I will be out getting stuff done around town and which days I'll be home getting stuff accomplished here.  Like the thank you cards that should have gone out in May (I was using the postal strike as an excuse for a while...) or the decluttering of bedrooms and some toys.  And maybe a little bit of time for me.  Lunch with a friend or time to sit and read a book for a few minutes.  I'm really looking forward to all I will get accomplished!

But then...I had to chuckle.  Because although I'm excited to get this time next week....I will still have my 6 month old boy with me.  I didn't forget about him.  No.  It's just that having 1 kid is sooooo much easier then having 3 kids. 

Why do I chuckle at this thought?  Because I remember how hard I thought it was back when I had only 1 kid.  I remember how when Ryanne was born I had my year of maternity leave and I would cry when Dave would get home from work because I had gotten nothing done that day.  Not even a shower!  The kitchen was a mess!   I hadn't eaten all day!  It was so hard to get anything accomplished!  I loved my baby but I could not figure out how people did this!  And how did people do this with more then 1 child!  We were so appreciative of the grandparents when they would offer to come and watch the baby so we could get some time out.  We'd go out and be so relaxed and soak up that 'me time'. 

Then when we had Charlotte I realized how much free time we really had when there was just 1 child.  Now we had 2!  We would never have free time again!  I remember being terrified when we decided it was time for Ryanne to come home from full time day care and I'd have 2 kids by myself all day!  How would I survive!  How do people do this with 3 kids!  Would I ever shower again?

Then we had Martin.  And so far I have survived.  And I do have showers...occasionally.  We are busy.  There's not a lot of free time and finding time to get things accomplished is limited.  So I chuckle at my list for next week because I expect to get a lot of things done with a 6 month old in tow.  If I could travel back in time and tell the 'me with 1 baby' that there would be a time when having only 1 kid was considered easy?  I think that 'me with 1 baby' would assume I had gone crazy in the future.  :)

It's fun to look back and see how things have changed.  I think I'm doing alright...and I'm not crazy!