So, we’re back. Not that there is anything wrong with being back. I’m actually incredibly ready to be back. To have a schedule. To clean out every closet in my house because OUT WITH THE OLD! BURN THE SAGE! TOSS THE THING THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE TOSSED … EARLIER. And yet, getting back into the swing of things is no easy feat. Especially when you have to rally, not just for yourself but for your kids, who are like, "VACATIONS 4-EVER!"
Because, let’s face it, nobody wants to wake up in the dark to go to school. Nobody wants to put on a school uniform after wearing princess dresses with rainbow tights on their heads for three straight weeks. Nobody wants to NOT make cookies with all the sprinkles.
This week, the twins went back to school mid-week and, once again, it took us hours to get out the door. And then once we got to school it was separation anxiety central, because “Why do Archer and Fable get to stay home and not us?” (I actually kept the twins home at the beginning of the week. And then I realized it was impossible to get anything done with everyone here, so I insisted they go back to school. Sorry, guys. #guilt)
Anyway, to all of you who are, like me, trying to regain some sense of schedule: Hi, welcome. Let’s hug.
I don’t know about you guys, but at the moment I can’t help but want to both ride the New Year momentum (so something awesome and groundbreaking!) while simultaneously recognizing that I can barely deliver the essentials.
I only wish that there was a switch I could flip to make it easier to go back to work and life and shaving my legs. Because, Lord knows, I haven’t seen a razor in weeks. I am growing, like, six beards right now, and not because I’m trying to be all lumbersexual up in here. I am legit OVER IT. Like, eh, hair is fine. It’s just … hair.
Meanwhile, there’s all this pressure to get into the gym and hire a trainer and do a juice cleanse, which is not at all what I’m doing right now.
I am, however, doing the following five things:
Five Things I Am (Currently) Doing in the New Year
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Walking around the house with one of those giant, desk-size day planner calendars, trying to think of things to do … later
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Putting bags of gently worn (no longer in use) clothes in my trunk and forgetting I put them there until I open my trunk and everything falls out into the middle of the street and I am picking up toddler underwear and pink Ugg boots in the parking garage at Target.
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Reading. Three sentences a night before falling asleep.
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Pushing all of the things I should be organizing underneath the beds of the various rooms I should be organizing, making exceptions ONLY for food items like apple cores and petrified string cheese.
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Writing 2016 on all checks and forms because I don’t know why, actually. I thought 2015 was last year?
There are other things I’m doing so far this year, of course, but it’s too much work to write them down right now. Maybe next week, when the kids are back in school and I’m not typing this post while standing up at the local coffee shop, utilizing their wi-fi (ours has been down for two days) as I drink my latte with my children all, like, “Are you done yet? Can we go home now?”
Yes, kids. We can.
Let’s go.
Game on.
What about you guys? What does your life look like nine days into this fine-looking year? Are you killing it? Or do you just feel dead?
Photo: Maggie Mason
