Month: January 2016

Geez Louise, it’s another one of those mornings! When some areas of life start cracking open and moving forward with creative juices flowing and good mojo and flow, I start forgetting my wallet, losing my bus pass, and spacing on calling or texting people back. Such is the life of an artiste, non?

Right. No real harm done, just a bit scattered. It’s a weird and short week with Monday off, a quasi-sick day for E on Tues (he turned out to not be actually sick but I was terrified he was getting croup again), and we’re taking tomorrow off to go to Yosemite. Happily, work is going great and I’m blogging in my job now which is totally fun. I’m enjoying it.

Meanwhile, miracle mornings NOT going as planned, due to aforementioned problems getting up without rousing the babe. Today I’m going to see if my company wellness program offers any deals on fitbits, good idea for a soundless alarm! I did meet with my new life coach and, as planned, instantly loved her. She reminded me of my doula and she said that’s funny because she used to be a doula. I believe it. We dove into the deep end. I was proud of how succinctly I stated the big questions of my life right now. She led me in a guided meditation and provided resources. She gently reminded me that I will likely find the answers not with my head, but with my heart, which made me cry. Because I know a LOT more in my heart than my head, and my heart is never wrong. First order of biz: daily meditation. 20 minutes.

A couple of news items! We accepted a spot for E at a Spanish immersion preschool to start in July! I have felt stressed and horrified by the preschool application process and largely avoided the bulk of it because most schools accept kids 2.9-3 in September, and E will be like 2.4. So this was one of the few schools that accept 2 year olds (“school” in quotes, I think it’s more just day care for the twos, which they call Pequeñitos). They do not offer aid, but very few places do and I think only one that I know of for 2 year olds and it doesn’t have Spanish- we’re good for now. I like the place, the nurturing, Latin vibe, the songs, the food, the playground. It will be awesome. It costs approximately three times what my parents paid for me to attend college per year including room and board but that’s not a fair comparison because that was 24 years ago. Wait is my math right??? Anyway, c’est cher. Mais c’est super.

In other news, you will not believe on which creative project I’m making real headway: the nursing garment. I will not over promise but my dear clothing designer friend L came over for dinner the other night and sketched it. It’s awesome. She works for a company that accepts crowd sourced ideas for new garments- so, if we manage to get her sketch posted with my description, I will have you ALL vote to get it made! Hallelujah!

Tomorrow, we head to snow and I’m as excited as you to see E and 4 friends romping in some serious snow!

Love to all and keep on plugging!
xo

OMG I just want to remember the details of last night and this morning because it’s so funny and crazy and I know these details slip away.

Last night we had sausage and quinoa and kale for dinner, facetimed with Mimi and Chacha, and E had a bath with his new tugboat from Lili which he loves. I realized that I could get everything cleaned and put away and ready for bed without keeping him up too much past 8. So I did and we got in bed for the night. This was my next attempt to get up early for the Miracle Morning. Go to bed super early, get up super early.

Because E had eaten almost a whole carton of berries right before bed, he was apparently on a sugar high and was crawling around the bed and up and down for a while before settling down around 9.

At about 2:30am he starts saying, mournfully, “Applesauce, applesauce… mommy…” And I thought he might be dreaming. But then he sat up and said cheese, cereal, pan (as in Spanish for bread), and I realized he was hungry. So we got up and both had a snack.

Back to bed. I put my fully charged phone within reach on the bed (there’s no outlet near the bed which kind of screws up my plan to quickly turn off the alarm) and went to sleep.

I missed the alarm at 5:30 because it was too quiet and buried under the covers- never heard it. I woke at 6:20 and E was not latched on. I sat up and started meditating for three minutes before he started whimpering. Back to the boob and back to sleep.

We woke again at 7:50 with the sun streaming in, nearly 12 hours after going to bed. Now I was running late! Got him dressed, put a kettle on for coffee and hot cereal (the microwave is broken) and it barely was ready in time for him to take three bites before the nanny arrived. She ended up taking the bowl and spoon with them for breakfast on the go. I had left his lunchbox in the stroller way downstairs the night before so quickly put cut-up veggies and hummus in little containers, plus applesauce and a package of crackers. They left and I started in on a crockpot recipe when I realized the applesauce and crackers were still on the counter- ran outside in my bare feet but they were gone.

Got all the ingredients in the crockpot while making myself eggs and quinoa (oatmeal is annoying on the stove and I forgot to order any kind of milk for cereal), cleaned up, packed myself a lunch of cheese sandwich, clementines, banana, and crackers, got dressed, took down the recycling, moved my car because tomorrow is Thursday street cleaning, then realized I had left my bus and office passes in the apartment, stopped at home again, changed my pants and boots because they were uncomfortable, and walked to the bus.

And now I’m on the bus. Late! It’s 9:45. But always in awe of the process and enjoy the challenge. The nanny says esta bien, she can fill in some more lunch snacks. Another day begins…

Tonight I’ll try again to get the alarm figured out because I think 5:30 may be the sweet spot.

Hope your day goes smoothly, amigos.

Greetings from SF! We are back. Every year, I get all reflective at the New Year, set some intentions, and then all hell breaks loose as I attend my sales meeting in the first week of the year. So, knowing that, I approach the second week of January as the Real Deal.

My Miracle Mornings are going just OK. Basically, my nursing and cosleeping toddler doesn’t want me to get out of bed and seems to be latched on every time the alarm goes off. Waking us both up an hour early certainly defeats the purpose, so I’ve most often just gone back to sleep. I may keep trying or I may transition to a Miracle Evening for a while.

The really wild and amazing and mind-blowing part is that as soon as I did let’s say 1.5 Miracle Mornings and shined a light into the dark caverns of my mind, I discovered a host of competing priorities all in a wrestling match. I had known they were back there but just had faith that I would figure it all out later. Well, guess what? It’s time.

I don’t really like the expression “figure it out.” It sounds like you’re starting from scratch, with no real clues. I have a lot of clues! Yet I’m going to start by opening up all the options. And hiring a coach. Because after my last post, my friend E recommended her coach and I loved her website and want to pay attention to what the universe puts in my path right now. Because I feel myself entering a transitional time and I am seeing meaning in everything.

For example, I’m crunching numbers constantly trying to get them to add up during the child care and preschool years- and the other mom of my nanny share just texted (since I started writing this post) to say she wants to share the full five days a week, bringing my costs down. Powerful stuff.

Yesterday I did a prioritization exercise where I compared every priority to every other priority and decided which was more important, which allows you to rank them. There are always surprises. And if you choose to give up A, it’s because you know you’re prioritizing B. I can send you the exercise if you want- this one has helped me at many critical decision points in my life.

I’m guessing this is how it will be from now on now that someone else’s future is in my hands. 🙂

Almost to work. I’m feeling expansive and more aware of the big picture and the control I have over my choices. So much unknown yet so any possibilities for me and my little fam.

Happy New Year and love to YOU!
xo