I did not think I had racked up quite so large a physiological deficit, but the four hour long nap I took from 9am to 1pm tells me differently. Some of that was lack of sleep, but I believe the larger part was the various emotional tolls of the week. This was an emotionally costly week.
The last hour or so I’ve spent carefully watching the tribe of animal warrior children who have created a fort in the corner of my yard. Gleek has somehow become the tribal leader despite the fact that many of the children are several years her senior. Thus she has discovered the joys of trying to negotiate a dozen people into agreeing on a course of action. Mostly I have been watching with joy as time and again Gleek manages her frustration and talks with the various factions instead of screaming, hitting, or storming into the house. It is a situation rife with possibility to be really hard on her. Unfortunately a different child ended up with hurt feelings instead, but I hope that talking has resolved that. So I’m keeping an eye on things and bringing out food to try to mellow the tensions. Mostly everyone is having fun, particularly after a break to let frustrations cool a bit.
I was looking at my archives today and realized exactly how often I’ve missed posting lately. This is not a problem, my blog is to add to my life not to create stress. But the fact that I was not aware of how many days I’ve missed is an indicator of the fullness of my brain. In some ways I still feel like I’m trying to catch up and establish a normal routine. Every time I get close something breaks loose or arrives and I have to spend focused attention to adapt. It means that the back of my brain is occupied with schedule stuff instead of having time to gather pieces for cohesive blog entries. This is the right thing to be doing with my time and energy, but I miss the joy of finding the right words to wrap around my thoughts.
Bit by bit my house is getting cleaner and more organized. Ditto with the daily schedule. I’m starting to build patterns of order. Little things make a real difference. Things like spending five minutes to clean up breakfast thoroughly instead of haphazardly. I have those five minutes now because there are times when the kids are getting ready for school, but I must not let myself be distracted by work or internet. So I spend a few minutes here and there on house tasks, and it all adds up. I also gave my junior high student and my high school student a clearly defined place to store their school stuff. This really helps because they know where they should put it and I know where to shove it if they leave it laying around. It is just storage cubes in the front room, one for A days and another for B days.