September
It’s been an overwhelming holiday season. The end of summer and the start of school threw my life into a whirlwind of kid chaos. My son asked me to mentor a FTC robotics team. We had zero experience with robotics. Time-consuming is an understatement to describe the commitment to FTC. These kids are growing up in such a different world. Some of the kids I mentor could run circles around former coworkers. Their world is so fast-paced, and their exposure to technology is at an unprecedented level. It takes everything to keep up with them and somehow, the robotics organization thought it would be a great idea to compete in December. I should have known how chaotic and overwhelming the holiday season would turn out to be.
Putting Volunteering On Hold
Things have been so crazy that I had to pull back from volunteering at the dementia care home with my dog Cap. Driving with anxiety and dealing with my dog’s growing desire to ignore the residents we visited (he’s getting old and grumpy), made me realize that I needed to practice what I preach. I reached for the oxygen mask before I could help others and before I knew it, the holiday season started to overwhelm me.
October
Halloween was a lazy one and I only have one child who now goes trick-or-treating. Fall is seriously just triple stress. Halloween – Thanksgiving – Christmas for our family but I know that others who celebrate Ramadan, Hanukah, or Diwali are in the same exact boat! Tis the season for just not stopping. We all reach into our magic hats and pull raindrops and roses out of our derrieres!
November
This year we rented a cabin in Blackwater Falls, West Virginia. We had a really nice time and it was good to get away. Of course, the decision to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner was a bit tough in that environment but we pulled it off. The ground was icy and muddy so we didn’t hike so much but it was beautiful and appreciated by all. There’s a family of Scrooges in my house as the kids get older. They WANT the Christmas tree but “right now I’m watching Netflix so can we do the decorating later and oh can we do it when you want to sleep or something?”
December
I wound up putting that Christmas tree up myself this year. Then there’s the consumerism. I never go into a store during the holiday season, I shop 100% online. In fact, I don’t even like to leave my house during a normal day (as many of my closest friends will tell you). I’m in my happy place today while I did some laundry, shopped online, and am now forcing myself to write something on my little blog. I’m feeling very content because the loner part of me, the person who could sit in a room and talk to herself for hours is out in full force.
Motivation or Lack Thereof
“Be careful what you say to her because she writes a blog.” That’s the buzz amongst neighbor “friends.” The son of one of these friends confided this feeling from his mom to my son. I was shocked and did a complete evaluation of past posts. Not one word was written about a neighbor or their child and it made me so self-conscious that I looked back at my posts to see what I had written that could make them feel this way.
Nada. Zip. Zero. I’ve written about my own hot mess and have kept their mess out of it. Trust me, this blog would be much more interesting if I wrote about their hot mess. I’ve attributed the comments to just lame shit people say. The damage was done though, and it caused me to shut down and stop writing for a couple of weeks. Motivation killer activated.
Holiday Season Magic
Baking cookies and tonight I’ll be getting ready for my son’s basketball game. It’s only a week before Christmas. When older generations are asked about their lives, they repeatedly state that the best time of their lives, and their happiest moments were when their lives were chaotic in the raising of children, the balancing of careers, and the ongoing challenges of balancing it all. Remember that when you think that life starts after retirement. Enjoy the journey and be grateful for the chaos in between.
Sending much love to you all.
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