The one with the childcare jigsaw
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.
News at Home
The short version
I had to work all week and it was exhausting, not to mention a childcare jigsaw to make it happen. But we did and I’m so thankful for all the people that helped us – it takes a village!
Sunday
I didn’t manage to get a Sunday post up today (last week now) because I was super busy all week and the Saturday night, I planned to write the post when we got home from a play date. Well, 2 minutes from home Dante threw up all over. I have no idea why (maybe car sick?) but I spent my evening cleaning his car seat… holy shit those things have a lot of little crevices.Anyway… on to this week. I’m going to try and write every night again.
Today I spent getting ready for the week ahead. I have to go to work everyday this week and it’s caused quite a bit of stress in the childcare department. My brother can watch Dante beginning at 10 a.m. but we needed someone for 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and we’ve been struggling to find someone. Last minute, my friend’s sister came through. So she came over briefly today to meet Dante and to just go over everything. She volunteered to wear a mask the whole two hours she’s watching Dante and that makes us feel much better. She has 0 experience watching kids though, so there’s a little nerves there. Kiko’s going to get him up and fed before he goes to work so she won’t have to do anything but keep him safe and play with him. It’s a full hour and a half earlier than normal breakfast time, though, and I’m worried how that will mess with his schedule. Besides childcare prep, I got groceries, prepped a Buffalo Chicken veggie casserole for dinners, and cleaned. Hoping for a good week.
Monday
Today went well enough. I got my workout in before work and left on time. Kiko got Dante breakfast and Emma showed up 10 minutes early. She said Dante was amazing and she was happy to help, so I’m feeling more confident that (1) she’ll show up tomorrow and (2) Dante is doing okay at home. My brother showed up at 10 as planned and had a good day with Dante. He said he felt like Dante was babbling more and more, which give hope. He has also noticed, though, that Dante doesn’t seem to know his name and that he doesn’t do much gesturing. I really hope this is all just side-effects of the isolation we’ve been in this past year.
Work was busy but fine. 7:30 – 5:30 is a very long day, especially when you can’t really identify a single break you took. And since I have to leave my house at 7 to get there on time and then take my brother home, my day ended up being 7 – 7. 12 hours. Hate it. Thankfully on Sunday I prepped a casserole that I’ll eat all week for dinner, meaning I’ll (1) be healthy and (2) have something ready for dinner with no work or thought. We swapped evening duties today – Kiko did the clean up and I played with Dante since I missed him all day. He was happy and healthy, so hopefully that’s what we’ll see more of this week. Gah I am tired though!
Tuesday
Today was stressful. It started off well – I got in my workout, left with enough time to stop at Starbucks, and things were off and running at work. And then, just as work was going crazy, my brother called to say that he was having seizures and couldn’t watch Dante. It was 9:30 and our babysitter was scheduled to leave at 10. I called her and she said she would see the latest she could go to her job. Her boss needed her by 1:15, which meant she had to leave at 12:30. So I called Phil back to see if he thought he was going to be better later — sometimes it passes — he was having a bad day, so no. I asked if he thought Zach (his partner) could watch Dante in the afternoon, and he could get here about 1:45 because of work meetings. So then I called Kiko to see if he could take lunch from 12:30 – 1:45. He could. So it was like a jigsaw puzzle of childcare. Oh yeah, and while i was doing that jigsaw puzzle, I was also fielding calls for our survey and managing our command center. By 10 am I was exhausted and ready for bed… but I had 7.5 hours ahead of me still. Work didn’t slow down at any point. The only good thing about the work day was that, because Zach babysat, I didn’t have to drive Phil home, so I got home at 6 instead of 6:45. The evening was fun with Dante though and thanks to my casserole I had a decent dinner. My hip is bothering me, but I’m hoping I can sleep well and it will feel better tomorrow.
Wednesday
Today was much less stressful. Phil felt good and was able to watch Dante like normal and we hit our stride really well at work – I didn’t feel nearly as overwhelmed. I still worked from 7:30 -5:30 (out of the house pretty much 7 – 7) and I’m definitely exhausted. This afternoon my left hip started hurting super bad… LIMPING bad. It would get a bit better when I moved around, but when I first got back up it hurt. And forget crossing my legs or sitting crisscross applesauce. I tried to sit on the floor with Dante and it hurt so bad. Dante has the sniffles, which makes me nervous, but he seems otherwise fine. No fever and hasn’t needed any medicine yet – just a super runny nose. Hoping he get better quick. He skipped nap today and was awake super early, so I’m concerned he’s not getting enough sleep.
After dinner, I did Dante’s bath, put him to bed (and he was out right away) and then I took 2 Tylenol PM (I know! I was finally off them) and watched “The Body” with my friend who’s watching Buffy for the first time. I was fading in and out of sleep as I watched it with her and I passed out before it was over. (wrote this on Thursday)
Thursday
I woke up in a little pain this morning, so I opted for a hip-opening yoga class. It definitely helped, but since I was still in some pain I took 2 Aleeve as well. Work went well and thankfully no childcare concerns 2 days running. I snacked too much today though and I am worried my weight will be up tomorrow. I got off a little earlier (5, instead of 5:30) and made it home 6:45. I’m still super tired today and haven’t read all week (I’m listening to my audiobook in the car, but no reading before bed). I haven’t had the energy to write a review of my most recent read and I really shouldn’t start something new before then. I figure I’ll have a new TBR list to read this weekend anyway.
Friday
Today wasn’t as long and my hip stopped hurting, yay! Work was busy, but we wrapped up the survey and were out of the office by 3:30. We celebrated with happy hour, something I haven’t been able to enjoy for a VERY long time – between new baby and then COVID – I THINK my last real happy hour was December 2018. Everyone I work with is vaccinated (hospital employees) and we went to an outdoor patio where tables are far apart and servers wear masks. So we were 100% compliant with the CDC recommendations and I had a really nice time – I had a couple margaritas, a couple pieces of flatbread and got to know my coworkers better. I picked something up for Kiko’s dinner and was home by 6:30. After dinner and cleaning up I called it an early night.
Saturday
Dante didn’t wake up too early – 7:45 – so I got to sleep in a bit. We did breakfast and went to the park so he could run around. After lunch he went down for a nap and I started my audio book. And fell asleep. It was that inbetween wakefulness and sleep that made me think I was awake and listening, but in reality I don’t know what i read well enough… so after dinner I restarted. So far, I had missed A LOT. Franky was in the area, so he stopped by just before Dante’s bedtime for about 20 minutes. I always love to watch Dante with his big brother – he laughed and ran around super happy.
Blog News
Not much to report, except that I did very little blogging this week. I was just too tired. I’m going to try and get more in this week, starting with drafting posts for next week today and some visiting.
COYER Spring semester has started and you can sign up now. Also this month is Can You Read a Series in a Month? Challenge time – it’s not too late to sign up! I actually finished my series this week on my commute.
Last week on Because Reading
- [8 Mar] Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix ★★★½
- [9 Mar] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Social Media
- [10 Mar] Waiting on Wednesday ~ The Mary Shelley Club
- [11 Mar] A Knight to Remember by Hermione Moon ★★★★
- [12 Mar] Podcasts ~ Parcast Networks…The Dark Side of…
- [13 Mar] #MyTBRL ~ March Winner 2021
- [14 Mar] My TBR List: March 2021 Results
- [14 Mar] Sunday Post with Berls | The one with the childcare jigsaw
- [14 Mar] The Sunday Post ~ Another Productive Week ~ Week in READview! 2021
Challenge update
This week I finished:
I’m participating in 4 reading challenges this year. Here’s how I’m doing:
Backlist Reader hosted by Lark @ Bookwyrms Hoard: 13 books this year
Library Love hosted by Books of My Heart & Angel’s Guilty Pleasures: 1 book this year
New Release hosted by (un)Conventional Bookworms: 0 books this year
COYER (Spring) hosted by Because Reading: 6 books this year
FitReaders (hosted by Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About & Felicia The Geeky Blogger)
I’m just failing left and right with my goal this year. I’m about 10 pounds up for the year! WTF?! I worked out 4 days this week but I sat in a command center brimming with food and my resolve gradually dwindled until by Friday it was gone.
Some of you may know that I had lost 350 lbs since 2011, including 200 pounds from gastric bypass about 3 years ago. At my lowest I was about 30 pounds from my goal weight and now I’m 85 pounds away. So I’m up 55 pounds. Not okay.
Time to get drastic because I cannot go back. So I’m doing a bariatric reset diet that I found. It’s basically what I ate for 8 weeks post surgery, condensed into 8 days. I’m going to try it and if that’s not enough, I’ll do the 8 weeks. Here’s the plan:
It’s drastic, BUT I know I can do it because I’ve done it before. I start tomorrow since I needed to equip myself with the liquids.
Added to My Shelf
I had no time to add books!
Man oh man…that must be really stressful not knowing if the babysiters will show up and be on time and all that. Sounds like Dante is adapting well to all the hoopla going on around him. Really glad you got to have some fun at happy hour on Friday! You definitely deserved it.
Sounds like quite a week!! Good luck with kick starting your weight loss again, you can do it! I need to do the same thing! With not having water two weeks, then being sick for a week and half lets just say the healthy eating went out the window…lol. So time to get back at it! 🙂
Have a great week!
Stormi
You really have done so much and been so amazing this week! I can totally relate to hip pain as I am 12 weeks into that. I’ll have to look into hip opening yoga. I really hope this weekend is letting you get some rest and you won’t have to be at the office so much next week. Good luck with the reset. I’m not doing anything organized until the hip thing ends. My audio listening has been slow but I’m reading more ebooks.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
WOW!! I am amazed at all you do and how you keep your family happy and healthy. What a hectic week. I hope things calm down for you. As for the fitness aspect, good luck with the new diet. Sending love and support.
What a busy week and sorry it was while in pain. LOL, glad the jigsawing child care on Wed worked out, and hope your drastic diet helps with your reset.
Have a good week, Berls!
Glad you were able to cobble together daycare. I’m sure that it was stressful, but everyone got through it. I’m sure Dante is enjoying interacting with different people! Have a great week!
Crazy week, I am glad you were able to get someone to watch Dante. I guess you still haven’t found a daycare to take him in yet? I am surprised the hospital doesn’t have someplace.
I hope this week isn’t too crazy for you! Happy Reading! xx
My friend did the reset diet a few months ago because she started gaining her surgery weight back too. I hope it helps you get back on track!
I can only imagine the jigsaw childcare can be. I watch my sister go through it quite a bit. Her saving grace is that she works at a school that will provide free schooling once her younger kids reach preschool age. I think her middle child is a year or so away from that and then her newborn has awhile still, obviously, lol.
At least your TBR pile managed to stay clean amid the chaos! Hope you have a great week ahead!
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Have a GREAT day!
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