Archive for April, 2008

April 23, 2008

time out

I’ve been having a hard time recently organizing my day; I sit down to work when I get back from dropping the kids at school and the VERY NEXT THING I KNOW it’s 1:30 and I’ve read every word of the Daily Mail but I’m still not finished with whatever it was I set out to do. Also I haven’t loaded the dishwasher or started any laundry or eaten any lunch.

I hate that. Especially the part about lunch.

Yesterday I was talking to some friends about this, about how we have all this TIME while the kids are at school, endless time, in theory, but we’re still scrambling around to get things done and working nights and weekends to keep up. And I said, all flippantly, that sometimes I think I need to start setting a timer, like I do for the kids, and using it to keep me on track.

And my friend said, “That’s a really good idea.” And I thought, wow she’s right that IS a good idea. I should try that!

No wonder I can’t get anything done; I’m to much of an idiot to make a decision.

Today I used the timer while I was working. I set it for thirty minutes, and used that time to deal with my email and read the New York Times (only the style section OF COURSE) and then I set it for an hour and worked on one project, and then set it for another hour and worked on a different project. When it went off, I stopped whatever I was doing and went on to the next thing.

And dammit if I didn’t have a more productive day.

I had been blaming my inability to get stuff done on my uber flexible schedule (”flexible” by the way is just another word for “working ALL THE DAMN TIME because the Internet never closes or takes days off and without the bloggers there is NO CONTENT and advertisers don’t like it when there is NO CONTENT”). It turns out my SCHEDULE isn’t the issue; the real problem is that I have the organizational skills of a first grader (with ADHD) and I need a lot of external structure to actually FINISH anything.

Good to know!

Tomorrow I have to do things that involve leaving the house; do you think it will be weird if I have my egg timer with me? If you’re in the Apple Store at lunch time and you hear a DING, look for me — I will be trying to replace my iBook power cord in under thirty minutes.

Posted by Susan 8:38 pm • everyday life • 22 Comments

April 21, 2008

it snot you

Charlie is feeling JUST FINE today, thank you, or fine enough to spend every single moment of the day in which I have not been doing something specifically for him stalking me around the house asking me to DO SOMETHING FOR HIM.

In other words, fine enough to go back to school tomorrow! Woo!

He has a new cast, a blue one, but there are no photos because now we’re out of the oh-my-god-we-broke-the-baby phase and into the phase where we start to wonder if we will ACTUALLY be paying off the doctor’s Porsche out of our own pockets (I do not know for a fact that this doctor drives a Porsche; he’s a terrific doctor and certainly deserves one, and will probably be able to afford it by the time Charlie’s arm is all healed, at the rate we’re going). The arm looks good, though, and we’re no longer worried about how he will play t-ball with only one limb.

Although of course he’s not playing t-ball because I would sooner go hunting with Dick Cheney than have to sit through t-ball season. But you know what I mean.

Charlie also appears to have made a COMPLETE recovery from the whole strep infection, which is good since he hates the medicine and will have to take it for EIGHT MORE DAYS. And there’s nothing I love more than starting the day with a kid who spends FOURTEEN MINUTES sitting at the table whining about the medicine, and then shoots it down in one gulp and announces, “That wasn’t too bad!” Every day for TEN DAYS.

Henry has either the Worst Allergies Ever or a Truly Badass Head Cold; either way, every time he blows his nose, he fills the tissue with what very well may be portions of his brain. Then he leaves the tissues willy-nilly all over the house, or, if he’s feeling particularly helpful, hands them to me and says, “Will you put this in the trash for me?”

Yes, because one of my greatest joys as your mother is to TOUCH YOUR SNOT.

Charlie is currently arguing with Wade about how many pillows he needs in his bed and what exact pillow CASES they need to have on them, and I am counting the SECONDS until EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this house leaves me all alone, for at least seven hours because I just had the SAME discussion with Charlie, TWICE and I am all done being the mommy now.

Although as soon as they all leave, I will come down with The Strep. Mark my words.

Posted by Susan 8:25 pm • Henry&Charlie • 13 Comments

April 20, 2008

I’m pretty sure the pharmacist thinks I have a crush on him

Charlie is sick; he ran a fever all day yesterday and was up three or four times in the night. At 4:30 am, I decided that he had strep throat and called the triage line to get us on the list for the Sunday morning clinic at our pediatrician’s office.

By 7:00 am, Charlie was feeling fine; he ate two pancakes for breakfast and brushed his teeth and let Wade do something about his gigantic floppy mess of hair. We went off to the doctor and waited in the hall for half an hour, while Charlie played with my iPhone and was generally cute and charming and healthy-acting.

I felt like crap, of course, but the boy seemed to be just fine.

Fortunately (hahaha) his throat culture came back positive, proving that even on three hours sleep I really DO know what I’m doing here (or alternatively proving that paranoia pays off, at least some of the time). And now, of course, the kid is miserable again, but at least he is loaded with antibiotics and will be feeling better tomorrow.

You know, when I take him to get a new cast on his broken arm.

(Do you know what the coolest thing about the Sunday morning clinic is? When you’re one of only two patients in the office, the doctor lets you see her do the throat culture, the part where she puts the enzymes in the test tube and swishes the swab around and then sticks the test strip in. And then she lets you look for the two lines that say INFECTED. Although I think I was more impressed by that than Charlie was.)