Feeling better. We all are, except for Lulu who has a new cold before she ever got over the one she caught -- as best as I can tell -- the very second she stepped into her classroom. But, she's sleeping alright so things are fine, and she's getting more juice than usual which is a pretty big deal in her world.
We have some weekend plans to see our friend Miss Vivian (she is polling very well among all current residents of our house, as she always-without-fail comes with presents for the kids and last week's were perfect, and because last week she came over for Saturday bedtime and like an old pro chased the post-bath Lulu around and got her nighttime diaper and jammies on her which is much harder than it actually sounds). We are also seeing one of my coworkers who is young, has no kids but expressed an interest in meeting mine. We are having lunch and I have warned her that (1) it will be no longer than an hour and (2) we will probably not be able to get down more than one glass of wine. (Did you know that everybody gets drunk on Sunday afternoon here? My best work friend calls it 'Sunday Fun Day' and she and her husband start drinking at two and stop at eight. She's very funny so tells the story like even if they're in the middle of a glass of wine, they put it down the drain and switch to water. I sort of doubt it because she's very sensible and I just can't imagine her wasting wine.)
Work is still feeling sort of bad, but I did get an email from a client last night telling me that I'm perfect. No matter what, only eight more weeks in this office. I keep reading -- seeking out if you must know -- articles about working out of the home. I clearly like working on a part time schedule, at least, outside of the home. But the only way I know that is from a retrospective assessment of the last chunk of time. On a daily basis, things are not so clear especially if work is feeling hard as it has for the last two weeks. Before I had kids, I had no doubt that balance would be clear: I would know definitely whether I wanted to work outside the home and how much (if I could negotiate a part time schedule). But this is not true. I'll never be absolutely certain, especially with Lulu's new daily ritual of looking up at me with big (somewhat manipulative if we're honest) eyes and asking, "take me to school today mommy?" It's like childcare, one of my other important post-children realizations, and it's never actually settled. It's always changing.
So my challenge to myself is to be as happy as I possibly can for the next eight weeks (and beyond, but baby steps, right?). To that end, I'm reading a book called 'Happiness at Home'. It's astonishing because the woman who wrote it and I are exactly the same (except that she went to law school at Yale and clerked for Justice O'Connor, huh) and I love her book best because she makes me feel less crazy for thinking so much about happiness and what strategies I can implement to make myself and my family happier. I haven't finished the book yet, but I do find it insightful and somewhat inspiring (though, I must admit that I don't have the energy to do all the things she does as it's her fulltime job to try this stuff and then write about it).
I was looking at these yesterday, so thought I'd post them today even if they are a year old!
We have some weekend plans to see our friend Miss Vivian (she is polling very well among all current residents of our house, as she always-without-fail comes with presents for the kids and last week's were perfect, and because last week she came over for Saturday bedtime and like an old pro chased the post-bath Lulu around and got her nighttime diaper and jammies on her which is much harder than it actually sounds). We are also seeing one of my coworkers who is young, has no kids but expressed an interest in meeting mine. We are having lunch and I have warned her that (1) it will be no longer than an hour and (2) we will probably not be able to get down more than one glass of wine. (Did you know that everybody gets drunk on Sunday afternoon here? My best work friend calls it 'Sunday Fun Day' and she and her husband start drinking at two and stop at eight. She's very funny so tells the story like even if they're in the middle of a glass of wine, they put it down the drain and switch to water. I sort of doubt it because she's very sensible and I just can't imagine her wasting wine.)
Work is still feeling sort of bad, but I did get an email from a client last night telling me that I'm perfect. No matter what, only eight more weeks in this office. I keep reading -- seeking out if you must know -- articles about working out of the home. I clearly like working on a part time schedule, at least, outside of the home. But the only way I know that is from a retrospective assessment of the last chunk of time. On a daily basis, things are not so clear especially if work is feeling hard as it has for the last two weeks. Before I had kids, I had no doubt that balance would be clear: I would know definitely whether I wanted to work outside the home and how much (if I could negotiate a part time schedule). But this is not true. I'll never be absolutely certain, especially with Lulu's new daily ritual of looking up at me with big (somewhat manipulative if we're honest) eyes and asking, "take me to school today mommy?" It's like childcare, one of my other important post-children realizations, and it's never actually settled. It's always changing.
So my challenge to myself is to be as happy as I possibly can for the next eight weeks (and beyond, but baby steps, right?). To that end, I'm reading a book called 'Happiness at Home'. It's astonishing because the woman who wrote it and I are exactly the same (except that she went to law school at Yale and clerked for Justice O'Connor, huh) and I love her book best because she makes me feel less crazy for thinking so much about happiness and what strategies I can implement to make myself and my family happier. I haven't finished the book yet, but I do find it insightful and somewhat inspiring (though, I must admit that I don't have the energy to do all the things she does as it's her fulltime job to try this stuff and then write about it).
I was looking at these yesterday, so thought I'd post them today even if they are a year old!
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