I feel like lately my mind is just full of stuff that I keep ruminating on over and over. Some of it's indecision, some of it is timing, some of it is the time of year. Here's just a sampling:
1) Babies - Not mine, thankfully. My co-worker is a month away from her due date and my younger cousin's baby shower is next week. I'm so happy for both of them as this is the first time for each of them. Neither had an easy road, so seeing them this close to the end is exciting. Looking at shower gifts for my cousin and putting together a must-buy list for my co-worker (she's not having a real shower prior and has no local family so I put together a must-have, recommend, and nice-to-have/later list for her, that she can use to strategize once we give her a generous gift card tomorrow) definitely took me back. This, after all, was the time of year when my showers were, and I remember just how exciting/terrifying those last couple months were. We were readying the house, had a room full of baby gifts, were attending birth and parenting classes, and watching my belly get bigger and bigger. And it was spring, which made it even better, and there was just so much to be excited about. As crazy as it felt at the time, I miss the simplicity of those days! We had no idea what was ahead, and it was fun to have such a big event ahead!
2) Spring - We are all just craving spring like crazy. The weather has given us a few very brief, barely-there peeks of spring--enough for two outside runs for me--but that's been about it. No extended pleasant weather, unless you count a solid week of sun we had when it was super chilly outside a few weeks ago. We have seen more sun, and I think our grass is getting a little greener, but aside from some crocuses, it looks like real spring is still a ways away. Jacob wants to shoot hoops, Carter wants to run, and I think we all just want to feel some legit warmth!
3) House Stuff - We have so many things that need to be done around the house. We're months overdue on getting a plumber in to do a number of things, including replacing a pressure regulator valve, fixing our shower diverter, replacing our bathroom sink, and fixing the kitchen faucet and disposal. We just don't know who to hire, so I keep putting it off. We need to replace the side door to our garage since the window in it broke this winter. It's still intact in the frame, but the door is old and probably needs to be changed out. We have diseased trees in our yard that need to be looked at. My dated kitchen (the one that was such a breath of fresh air when we moved in) is starting to frustrate me, but that's a whole huge can of worms I should not open just yet. I also picked up an order from Lowe's tonight that had a new smoke detector (one of ours only beeped quietly), a new toilet fill valve (ours is getting stuck so the toilet won't refill properly), and eight bags of mulch (because the flower beds need it). All of that needs attending to, but I did get the smoke detector installed tonight. On the smaller side, I'm finally ready to pack away our old desktop computer, which means I can ditch our giant office desk and reorganize the storage in the office. I'm currently stuck on just how I want to do that, but I'm eager to move that along--even though we're barely even in that room. Still, it felt good to clean items off the old computer and take one step toward simplifying something in our lives!
4) Coming Attractions - We have some fun stuff coming up in the next couple weeks, and I'm in one of those modes where time essentially can't move fast enough to get us there. It doesn't help that I'm actually in a lull at work. While this is a welcome first lull in about two years, I'm getting antsy because part of the break is waiting on other people and I know there will be a crush coming soon. But in the meantime the days are dragging a bit, which makes the wait even harder. The kids actually have a random day off on Monday (Craig is staying with them), and then I have to leave work early on Friday to pick up the kids (and possibly my aunt) and head to Buffalo for my cousin's shower. Craig will be on the road, so the plan is to stay for a bit on Saturday and hopefully hit up an Easter egg hunt somewhere, or even try to go to the Broadway Market in Buffalo for a bit. The kids are off the entire next week. Craig will be with them Monday and Tuesday, and I'll be off with them Wednesday through Friday. I'd like to go to Buffalo on Thursday and take the kids to the science museum, since I haven't been there in ages and they currently have a Lego exhibit. We'll stay for all of the usual Good Friday family/church stuff, and while we could go home Saturday, Craig encouraged us to just stay the weekend and he'll meet us on Sunday morning after his Saturday night home game. It's always a toss up between a lot of back-and-forth vs. having two cars there on Easter. Carter really wanted to do the breakfast at my parents' church, so we'll see if the plan to stay sticks. We'll actually be back in town the following weekend, too, for my cousin's daughter's first birthday. It's a lot of driving, but it's all good stuff so even though these stretches are tiring, they're worth it. I still have some stuff to do to prepare for Easter, so I shouldn't be rushing it, but I'd really like to get the show on the road.
5) Kid Stuff - As usual, the kids keep my mind preoccupied constantly. There's always the normal frustration with them not getting along. Jacob's been mouthy and Carter has been a bit pesky, and both of those things have made Craig and me crazy. But when they start turning on each other--Jacob making fun of Carter and Carter bugging Jacob for no reason--it just gets exhausting trying to get them away from each other. My bigger issue right now is technology. Jacob either plays basketball (in his room or outside), plays Xbox, or plays on Craig's phone. There pretty much is nothing else. He has no desire to read, doesn't really watch TV, and is otherwise bored when any of those first activities aren't happening. He wants his own phone, which is tempting given how much he complains about it--and yes, he'll probably need one next year at least to listen to music on the bus--but if he has one there's nothing stopping him from being on it all the time. And Carter will have a screen in front of his face unless he's expressly banned from it. He has a ton of toys and plays so nicely with them when he does play, but it's rare unless we force him to. Otherwise, he's either watching a show or playing on the tablet or Craig's phone. All. The. Time. And yes, I know that's our fault, but I end up being the main enforcer and it gets tiring. Last night I made Carter do a giant stack of sight word flash cards before he could play, and I think we need to keep that up because his reading isn't quite where I'd like it to be. But between the two kids, the complaints when electronics aren't in the mix are intolerable and yet I almost want to ban everything outright for a bit just so they realize there is more to life than a screen. I just need to have the willpower to deal with the misery.
Normal life is challenging enough most of the time and it's so hard to find room to deal with the rest of this stuff on a daily basis. I know this is the small stuff, truly, and we're so blessed, but some days it's pretty overwhelming. One way to deal with a lot of this stuff is to just DO it so it can be crossed off the list, but it takes some effort to take those steps, and some days it just isn't there. But day by day...one thing at a time...
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