Welcome to 2017! We’re 4 days in and I’m already exhausted. We’re 4 days in and my four year old has already surpassed his screen-time quota for the whole month of January. What can I say? When your toddler has a high temperature, snuggling in bed and watching reruns of Paw Patrol and Voltron is the best cure (and possibly the only way to stay sane while also caring for a 5 month old baby).
Despite the sickly start, I am super excited for this year! It’s going to be a big year!
Our little plot of land was finally registered by the council in December. It took almost two years, but here we finally are. That means when our builder comes back from their summer break, it’s all systems go to get our plans approved, contract signed, and you will be reading far more frequent (albeit more stressed!) updates on our new home.
In less than a month, Mr 4 will be starting primary school. Break out the tissues – I am still in denial about this. (So is he, apparently, because he told me today he can’t wait to see his friends at preschool next Tuesday. I had to remind him he graduated in December and he won’t see them until this first day of “Big School”.) So January will be consumed with the joys of school shopping, uniform purchasing and me wondering where the heck all that time went between him being born and him becoming a student.
Mr Z has already changed so much in just 5 quick months. He is all smiles and giggles, and has recently discovered his thumb, which spends most of his waking hours firmly lodged in his mouth. We just started him on solids this week and I am bracing myself for the messes that will ensue as a result. It’s hard to think that by the time this 12 months is over, he will probably be eating lamb cutlets and walking around like he owns the place.
If the last few months of 2016 are is anything to go by, there won’t be a minute of 2017 left to spare. I started lettering in September and spent the better part of December with ink-stained fingers, and have loved every minute of learning this new craft. It forces me to take some me time every day, to sit still and reflect, and to create something. Which means you’ll see me doing WAY more of it this year.
I also started studying in October. Because, you know, I got bored.
Ha! Who am I kidding?
No, I signed up to a masterclass with the Australian Writers Centre because, despite already having a rather full plate, I’m determined not to let my writing take the back seat – which, thanks to the full plate, it often does. But not this year. No way. I am determined to write, write, and write some more.
With all this going on, I’ve started the year really conscious of where my time goes every day. It’s also why I started a bullet journal this year (I need everything in one place or I will lose track / lose my mind).
It’s now almost 10:30pm. Most normal people are winding down and preparing for sleep. Because, you know, that’s what you do at the end of the day. Not so for me! Late at night is usually the only time I have left to do anything remotely productive. Lately, both my children have been refusing to sleep at the time good, healthy (perhaps fictional?) children sleep, so the hours between 9pm and 1am have become the only time left for me to write, study, create, or do anything that remotely resembles being a responsible adult, including things like responding to messages, checking emails from clients, paying bills, and attacking the list containing the million and one tasks required to build a new home.
Admittedly, working at this late hour isn’t foreign to me; it’s how I used to function in my early twenties. While I was at uni, my brain didn’t ever really switch on until late in the evening (often a few nights – if not the – night before an assignment was due). The only difference is back then I didn’t have as demanding a job as being a mum to two little humans. Two little humans who, for the last 16 hours, have consumed every drop of energy my body can produce.
And so as much as being a “night owl” comes naturally to me, I also love – and need – sleep in order to function during the day and give my kids the attention they need and deserve. I know I need to come up with a different way to approach getting my work done this year. I know forgoing sleep is going to ruin me in the long-run; I am not a great person to be around when I’m tired. Unfortunately, despite how far humanity has come in recent centuries, having children and sleeping in still can’t coexist in this universe.
I will take that realisation as my cue to sign off and bid you goodnight – I am two modules behind in my masterclass and still have a bunch of tech stuff to do on the backend of this blog (yayyy tech stuff at 10:30pm… not!).
I hope you’ve had had a wonderful start to this new year and I wish you the grace and love you need to kick ass in all the things life will throw your way.
(And if you have any tips for me on how to get my family/home/study/freelance/work/adulting stuff balanced without having a breakdown before July, I’d love to hear them.?)