Productivity...

How was your day today? Are you just finally getting a chance to sit down? Have you been sitting down all day? Were you out and about, or did you stay home? Do you have an active job or passive job? I'm a stay-at-home mom. My maternity leave ended the middle of March, and I made the decision long before then that I wanted to stay home. It's actually been a goal of mine since I was in College taking Early Childhood Education. I thought, when I graduate, I'll work until we are ready to start having children, and then once my maternity leave it up, I'll open a dayhome so that I can stay home and raise my children with all of the knowledge I have gained! Well, that has almost gone according to plan. I really, really wanted to do licensed care, but because our deck isn't finished and our yard isn't landscaped yet, I'm not able to. I have to have a "safe, outdoor playspace." So until that time, I'm just watching one other child (who is actually only a week older than Mason!). I plan to open a licensed dayhome come September. It's kind of nice that everything didn't go according to plan, because this way, I still have a lot of my summer to "do what I want" with, as this child only comes three days a week.


Today was the first day he started coming. He arrived around 7:45, which meant I was up at 7:00 for a shower (yeah, I take 30 mins to do what should take 10 min lol), and then straightened up a few things in the kitchen while I was waiting. I usually don't shower until I put Mason down for a nap because I REALLY like my sleep...and Mason usually sleeps until between 8:00 and 9:00...so 7:00 was pretty early...especially since I had a terrible sleep last night. Do you find that happens to you? When something big or new is going to happen the next day? Even if it's not really that exciting? Like Christmas Eve....when I was a child I could hardly sleep, and it's still that way lol! Must be the stress of everything...so anyways, 7:00 came early this morning. I have been so lucky to have a child that I could teach to sleep in!

Back to my point--productivity. I don't like to admit that I'm often pretty lazy, but it's true. Most days, I get the kitchen cleaned up and a load of laundry done, and that's about it....I feel SUPER productive on the days when I vacuum, clean the bathroom, or sort through things that should have been put away long before...but I don't really feel too guilty about it, because the majority of the time spent not being "productive," is spent with Mason, watching him develop and change. Marvelling at how quickly he learns and picks up on things. Feeling so proud of him when I see the new skills that he is using. And just rolling around on the floor with him and Jake (our dog), playing and laughing. I am so blessed to be able to be a stay at home mom!

So when I heard a few weeks back, that someone in our area was looking for a dayhome, I thought, well, now's my chance. So I took it and now I get to still do everything I just talked about, but with one more child. It was so great to watch the two of them interacting and learning from each other today. And it was a much busier day that I'm used to! But it was a "good" busy-ness. When I worked in daycare, we always had a schedule that we followed--although it was sometimes just loosely followed--it was still there. So I know no other way. Today I put us on a loose schedule and it was great! We did everything that Mason and I usually do, took a walk in the sunshine (which hasn't happened for a while!), and I was able to use the time they were napping (Mason who usually sleeps for 2-3 hours only slept for 1 hour today...hopefully tomorrow will be different!) to clean up the toys, wash the highchairs from lunch + clean up the lunch mess, do supper prep, as well as peel and chop up a whole bag of carrots (the small bag that is), to blanch and freeze this evening. Hopefully tomorrow I will get a chance to sit down while they nap! The child's father surprised me and picked him up an hour early, so otherwise he would still be here and I wouldn't be able to sit down quite yet...I mean, I could, but you try sitting down with two one-year-olds crawling all over the place, exploring everything...

Anyways, today was a great day. I got lots done while they napped,a load of laundry in while they played, and the front entrance vacuumed while they finished up lunch. And the strange thing is, that I don't feel as tired as I thought I would! Must be the exercise from the walk...we'll see how I'm feeling after supper though! I don't know about you, but that's when I want to just vedge!