Been a Bit BusyThis is one of those weeks where it's important to document everything that happened so that in 30 years' time, when I find myself retired and curled up on the couch* with my Cavalier King Charles spaniel and Abyssinian cat, drinking tea, reading a book, and wondering what in gosh I'm going to do with the rest of my day, I can look back and marvel at how I used to be able to cram so much on top of our regular overscheduled week and not only get it all done but enjoy most of it. (The method, Future Self, was daily double shots of coffee.)
Here are the extras from this past week:
WEDNESDAY
Violet and Jesse came over for a playdate with Iz. OMFG, I have never in my life been subjected to such loud children! Seymour and I kept begging for sixty second silence breaks. The girls helped me make
Groundnut Stew and Omo Tuo (Ghanaian pounded rice balls--mmm), and lemon bars.
Afterwards Violet's dad Craig and sister Fifi came over, and the volume turned up two more notches. I was a bit bummed because the child-herding and volume controlling sucked away most of the adults' attention spans, which meant that we didn't really get to talk with Craig all that much. He is a really lovely and interesting man and we rarely get the chance to converse. Next time.
THURSDAY
Realized that my hair was looking
extraordinarily shitty (though I must say I do "dedicated mom too busy to worry about her own appearance" very well), and got that lid cut and colored. Locally, as my regular stylist had the stomach flu. Even though I specified several times that I wanted something distinctively NOT suburban mom, guess
what I ended up with. Bleh. I'll need to go back to my SF stylist in a few weeks to fix it.
Had dinner at my former boss's house. It was great to see him and his family, as I hadn't seen him since Iz was Mali's age. Seymour came too. Weird to be around folk who are stil involved in the tech/web/software world. Realized that I had very little to say and that no one asked me anything about myself--guess I was wearing my SAHM Cloak of Invisibility. Doesn't mean I didn't have a good time.
FRIDAY
Seymour left around noon to mountain bike for three days up in the Sierras.
SATURDAY
Dropped Iz off to go on a Girl Scout Campout with JP (saint), Danielle, and Elise. Iz is a
Juliette rather than a troop-dependent scout.
Prepped house to be not completely disorganized and filthy as Babysitter A was to watch Leelo for 24 hours. Bless her, bless her.
Babysitter A dropped me and Mali off at the airport so that we could go to my brother's surprise 40ish Birthday Party in Fucking Phoenix. My brother lives right by Sun C!ty, for chrissakes. Jeez. But it was a good party, and I got to see my parents and frolic with the moron triplets who are all three of my brothers:
Originally uploaded by
Squid Rosenberg.
SUNDAY
Got up far too early so my very kind dad could get me to the airport so I could scurry back to Deadwood within 24 hour time limit. Got to chat with my brother Chet at the airport, that was pleasant. He had a lot to say about EU vs. NATO policies, and his take on the differences between British and American Muslims. All very interesting.
Retrieved Iz from JP's house. She was totally wonked out from too much fun, and had even for the first time in her life asked to be excused from playing so she could go read and regroup.
Later on JP and kids came over for dinner, thank heavens. I can't take too much of being the only adult in the house.
Seymour came home just in time to help out with bedtimes routines. Hurrah!
MONDAY
Ep's birthday dinner! Yay, Ep!
TUESDAY
We lost the car to the dealership for 24 hours, which means that Seymour had to forfeit his monthly SF Not-for-profit Tech-head gathering so that I could go to an Iron Gate night meeting (sorry, Sweets). I made a special effort to participate in the meeting so that they couldn't take offense at my riding the Iron Gate wireless all evening long.
WEDNESDAY
Fundraiser and dinner at Sage's to get supplies and toys for the Deadwood School District Special Ed classrooms. I made yummy soba noodle veggie salad, Sage made superdelicious chicken noodle soup, and altogether we parents managed to get the Special Ed teachers a goodly proportion of the supplies they'd wishlisted.
TODAY
It's my fucking birthday, people. It will be a day of absolute self-indulgence, punctuated only by a family trip to the post office to get passports.
Seymour is taking me out to dinner at Fore!gn Cinema, at my request.
----
Hmm, really, that doesn't sound like all that much, does it? Consider, then, that Mali has still been refusing to sleep before 10 PM, and sometimes midnight. I think that all the busyness didn't suck me down into the mire because Seymour has been home to help me with our usual weekly schedule. Monday 10/16 he starts his new job, at which point I'll consider myself well and truly reamed as only those who spend all day at others' beck and call can be.
Here's my regular weekly schedule. I am so grateful to be driving a relatively fuel-efficient car!
SUNDAY
- 10:30 Seymour and I alternate going to church. Iz has UU Catecheism class
- 1:00 Babysitter A comes to help with Leelo. Now, again, this is wonderfully helpful and overall makes us better able to function, both individually and as a family--but it also negates most spontaneous weekend jaunts.
MONDAY
- 7:45 Drop off Iz at Marys's for carpooling, drive Leelo to school and walk him to his classroom
- 11:25 Pick up Leelo from school
- 12:00 Take Leelo to Jefferson School for OT (Occupational Therapy)
- 1:00 Take Leelo home for ABA Therapy with Therapist L
- 2:50 Pick Iz up from school, take her to Aikido
- 3:30 Leelo home program ends, pick him up
- 4:20 Pick up Z from Aikido (at this moment I would like to interject that Aikido is 20 minutes from our house)
TUESDAY
- 7:45 Pick up Marys for carpooling, drive Leelo to school and walk him to his classroom
- 8:15 Drop Iz and Marys off at Big Noggin
- 9:00 (starting Dec. 2): Work in Mali's class at Iron Gate
- 11:25 Pick Leelo up from School
- 11:30 Iron Gate shift ends. Still have to figure out how to reconcile these two.
- 12:30 Drive Leelo to Speech Therapy at Sage's
- 1:30: Drive Leelo home for ABA Therapy with Therapist L
- 2:50 Pick up Marys and Iz from Big Noggin
- 4:00 Marroqui arrives to clean house that I've spent all non-driving time frantically tidying
- 5:30 Sushi with Jo and Girls
- 7:00 (Two nights per month) Iron Gate night meeting
WEDNESDAY
- 7:45 Drop off Iz at Marys's for carpooling, drive Leelo to school and walk him to his classroom
- 9:00 Babysitter K arrives to play with Mali so I can work on Leelo's program, paying our bills, managing the architects project, our other domestic affairs, and other neverending insurmountable transparent tasks.
- 11:25 Pick Leelo up from school
- 12:30 Leelo: ABA Therapy with Therapist L
- 1:30 Go get Leelo's friend Alyx for facilitated playdate
- 2:30 return Alyx to her home after facilitated playdate
- 3:00 (alternating weeks) Supervise Iz and her Spanish class-mates after school ends and before Spanish class begins
- 3:30 Drive home to pick up Leelo
- 4:30 Pick up Iz from Big Noggin Spanish
- 5:00 Babysitter A arrives to work with Leelo so I can make dinner and ever-so-gently remind Iz of her homework duties
THURSDAY
- 7:45 Pick up Marys for carpooling, drive Leelo to school and walk him to his classroom
- 8:15 Drop Iz and Marys off at Big Noggin
- 9:00 (starting Dec. 2): Drop off Mali at Iron Gate
- 9:15 Bad Moms' Coffee!
- 11:25: Pick up Leelo and Alyx from school and drive both to our house
- 12:00 (ideally) Alyx's mom brings Mali to our house (her other daughter Clara is in Mali's class. Not arranged yet though)
- 12:30 Leelo: ABA Therapy with Therapist L
- 1:45 Iz early release day. Pick her up.
- 2:30 Drive Iz to piano lessons
- 3:00 Pick up Iz from piano lessons, drive her home
- 3:30 Leelo sprung from ABA Therapy
- 6:00 Hagiography candidates Marroqui and Babysitter K come to spring me and Seymour for our weekly golden evening
FRIDAY
- 7:45 Drop off Iz at Marys's for carpooling, drive Leelo to school and walk him to his classroom
- 9:00 Babysitter K arrives to play with Mali. You would think that with babysitting three times per week I'd have time for just about anything, wouldn't you? Maybe I'm just completely incompetent, but the answer is no. And I don't think I blog all that much, so that's not the reason I can't dig myself out, either.
- 11:25 Pick Leelo up from school
- 12:30 Leelo: ABA Therapy with Therapist L
- 3:30 Leelo sprung from ABA Therapy
- 4:30 Pick up Iz from Big Noggin Spanish
- 5:00 Babysitter A arrives to work with Leelo so I can make dinner and theoretically play with my girls
There you have it . A detailed record of how I am privileged in support, while equally impoverished in terms of free time.
*
FYI, this is not really how I see myself. I hope I'll be spending much of my time dragging Seymour all over the world to witness, educate (ourselves), advocate, and assist.Technorati Tags: autism, parenting, parenting burn out, special needs parenting, zombies