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 . . .

The less-fun, but necessary, side of balance

What a day we had yesterday! Funny how being woken-up at 6:30AM doesn't seem so terrible when your three-year-old is bellowing "Santa left a trail of fruit snacks! He came!" We enjoyed living the day through his eyes, while keeping tabs on the little sister (not yet a year old, but close!) as she tried sampling wrapping paper, boxes, and crawling over/through/around the opened packages to make sense of it all (using all of her 5 senses). We also enjoyed many phone calls to family scattered across the country as we shared Christmas greetings, stories of Christmases come and gone, and thanks for love and generosity . We also reported our good fortune of having a white Christmas (not REALLY, but we did enjoy watching snowflakes fall for about two hours). It was a good day.

So yesterday's words were "fun" and "family". Today's words are "clean" and "juggle". I'm the one doing the cleaning - the bathrooms, the laundry, finishing cleaning the kitchen (my husband started this morning, but that job is just NEVER finished), getting gifts put away. My husband is chief-in-charge of the juggling, though I suppose I'm doing a bit of that, too. He's finishing a floor tiling job with my dad in our basement (thanks, Dad!), juggling our son (the "helper"), the dog who is happy to go outside/inside (repeat!), and some of his own cleaning as he works on the floor. I'm handling the other half of the time with our son ("I need a break - that's hard work" he reports), thank you notes (one at a time, which is as long as I can keep Ethan's attention to complete, or as long as I can sit before having to refocus Megan!), and our still-curious and excited daughter. Oh, and of course, there's that cleaning stuff!!

But as part of me wants to grumble (cleaning is not my cup of tea, but really who wakes up and says, "Wow! What a beautiful day, I think I'll go scrub a toilet. There's just nothing more satisfying than a clean throne!"), the other part of me realizes the reality of cleaning/chores is all part of what enables us to enjoy the "fun" and "family" part of life. Thank you notes are an essential part of the season for me. I like taking the time to reflect on the love and thought that went into the carefully chosen gifts people sent, processing the true puprose of gift exchange. And I hope that sharing those moments with the gift-givers helps them feel like they are here with us.

Oh, And I DO have to admit that there IS something satisfying about a clean bathroom, even if it isn't the force that drives my day.