The Week Off

Every weekday my alarm goes off at 4:30AM, I jump out of bed, get dressed, hop in the car and am at the gym by 4:45.  At exactly 6AM I have to leave the gym.  At 6:10AM I have to be in the shower.  At 6:30AM my husband's alarm goes off and the kids have to get up.  At 6:45 we all go downstairs where my husband has to make my coffee and I have to be out the door at 6:52AM.  At 7:00AM I am sitting at my desk at work.  This is where I'll remain until 2:55PM when I have to leave to pick up my son from his school.  He and I run home, he washes his hands, we grab a snack, get in the car, and drive across town to pick up Lena.  Lena  jumps up and down when she sees Jun and I, grabs our hands, and asks why I pick up Jun before her.  Most days we drive back across town to our house.  We all run in the house, wash our hands, fix a snack, unpack backpacks and clean out lunch boxes.  It's usually about 3:30 - 4:00PM at this point and I still need to do log back into my computer and do a little more work, usually I'm logged in and working for about 1- 1 ½ hours.  After that, the kids and I spend about ½ - ¾ of an hour walking/running/biking around the neighborhood.  Then it's time to get back home to make dinner and force the kids to set the table.  Todd comes home at about 6:15PM and we have to eat the moment he walks in if we have any hope of avoiding the evening meltdowns.  We finish dinner by 7:00PM, clear the table and do homework.  This usually takes us until about 7:30PM and now it's time to get the kids ready for bed, read books, and then get the kids into bed as close to 8:00PM as possible.  Once the kids go to bed  it's time to clean up the dishes and get clothes and lunches ready for the next day.  With any luck, this is all finished by 9:00PM and I can keep my eyes open for long enough to chat with my husband for about ½ hour before falling asleep.  That's all the normal stuff, we also have days when we go to art class, meet other kids for play dates, meet our Chinese Friendship student, or run errands.  We have days when we don't have any food in the house and we have to go out to eat, and then there are days when it's just too nice outside, and we cannot possibly sit inside after coming home. 

 

I'm lucky, I live just a few minutes from work, Jun's school is behind the house, and I can do some of my work from home.  Couple this with the fact that we don't have the kids enrolled in a ton of activities and Todd and I are actually among the lucky ones, our lives are pretty calm comparatively speaking.  So, if this is true, then why am I SO stressed out all the time?  I'm always overtired. The kids are usually fighting, I have to either beg or scream in order to the kids up in the morning, get them dressed, get them to the breakfast table, get them to brush their teeth, or pretty much anything else I'd like them to do.  I'm always worried about getting my work done, not being in the office enough, what to pack for lunches, what to make for dinner, paying the bills on time, cleaning the house, getting the kids to do their homework, and just generally keeping it all together.   I am always stressed out.  I am always thinking about what should be done and what isn't being done.  And feeling stressed out all the time makes me more tired, more jumpy, and more grumpy…  So, I've made a decision.  I'm taking the week off.  It started today.  I'm not leaving town, I'm not leaving my house, the kids aren’t  leaving, my husband isn't leaving, and I'll still be at work.  But I'm taking a week off from all the stress.