From Friday Mom – Erin:
I head back to work in a little more than a week from today. I am savoring these last few days with Charlotte, but I am also trying desperately to make it through the final items on a fairly lengthy “to-do” list that I had hoped to accomplish while I was on leave. As I mentioned last week, my work schedule is often too demanding and unpredictable to plan ahead with any degree of certainty. That means that our social calendar is plagued with uncertainty, as is our around-the-house, long-term chore list.
When we moved into our new house at the end of last July, we put off a number of activities until the winter, knowing that I would be home full-time with our new baby girl and able to tackle some of those tasks. Before children, we tended to tackle a few house chores each weekend. Whether hanging pictures, weeding flowerbeds, or organizing storage rooms—we were able to steal away a few hours here and there for those tasks. Since Rory was born, our weekend time is largely dedicated to him. As a result, a number of the lengthier “projects” have fallen by the wayside. This includes both simple tasks, like reorganizing the kids’ closets, and larger ones, like hanging a gallery wall in the stairwell or calling an electrician to assess a failed light fixture. Sure, naptime provides a short window of opportunity each day. But let’s face it—sometimes mommy and daddy need a nap then, too. This is even more the case now that we have two children.
When Charlotte was around a month old and finally falling into a bit of a schedule (of sorts), I started slowly checking these items off the to-do list. I purchased artwork for bare walls, I hung shelves, I rearranged furniture, I emptied boxes, I sorted clothes, and I sifted through a fair number of items that made the move but probably shouldn’t have and collected them all by the curb for the garbage men to carry away.
Some weeks I tackled a lot. Others, I ignored the lists in favor of taking in all of Charlotte’s adorable baby smiles and savoring these fleeting days. Most days, I found a delicate balance between staying in the here and now of it all, and keeping my eye on the goal of feeling “settled” in this house before I head back to the office in May.
In this last week, however, I am trying very hard to remind myself that this is likely our last child. As a result, these are the last few weeks in which I have no obligation other than to bond with our newest little blessing. The house will not fall apart around us if we leave a wall bare, a paint job unfinished, a light fixture dark, or a shed unorganized while I enjoy these final days. As I ready for my return, I am constantly reminding myself that a two-working parent household is marked by a certain degree of chaos and unbalance and “to-do” lists left undone. Hopefully, by the end of next week, I’ll be okay with that!