What happened to nap time?

As the mother of two young children, I live for nap time. I've been known to use the time to catch a few winks for myself, but usually that only happens if I'm sick or didn't sleep the night before (hence my naps twice last week - the kiddos have been needing TLC in the wee hours of the night). Nap time is the time I reserve to wear my author shoes. You caught me - I don't wear shoes when I write, but you get the drift! The kids close their eyes and I know I'm safe to dive into my work when I hear the contented slurping of fingers (the thumb from my son's room, two fingers from my daughter's room).

But events from the last few weeks leave me in a bit of a panic. My daughter (nearly one) is content with just one nap in the afternoon (GASP!). To make matters worse . . . my son is now napping only EVERY OTHER DAY (double GASP!). That leaves me with just one opportunity for writing/reading others' work/researching/etc. a few times each week instead of my treasured twice a day gold standard. I fear this leaves me with no time for procrastinating or day dreaming because nap time is now more precious than . . . than . . . it is nearly as precious and rare as sleeping-in!

So now the work begins for me. My life-balance is out of whack and I'll be adjusting to find a new (and temporary, of course!) balance that will keep me working (books just don't launch themselves and my poor mom/business partner can't do it ALL herself!), the kids happy, the house hopefully out of the reach of chaos, my body healthy all the while maintaining my marriage so my husband knows I appreciate him and am still quite pleased that we found one another for this journey. I think that was a run-on sentence. Seeking balance sometimes does that to me - my thoughts get spinning faster than I can track them. Listing things is helpful in sorting it all out.

So, for the next few weeks as we figure out this new sleep schedule, you can bet that I'll be eyes-to-the-screen, fingers-to-the-keyboard every possible moment my children slumber. My blogs might be filled with to-do lists and adventures in figuring out how to sort through them. Stick with me, it means I'm problem solving and my brain is still functioning, slowly but surely. You can worry when the blog entries get sparse. It will mean one of two things:

- my son has given up naps altogether (it pains me to even type that, for fear it might come true!)
- the new speed of life has led me to establishing a balance that includes ME taking a nap on a regular basis

Either way, I'm up to my eyeballs in life's adventure looking forward to whatever comes my way! It will just be easier if I can somehow convince my son to keep napping . . .