Our living room is breaking out in boxes. With less than a week till we’re handed keys for our new house, I shouldn’t be caught off guard… but I am anyway. A psychological cinder block is sitting squarely on top of my packing mojo, and I really wish I knew why so we could get on with this move already.
I feel distracted by nothing in particular, my brain wandering in the annoying, aimless way of ten-year-olds on summer break. The agenda for this month had been impressive: potty train one child and teach the other to read and write. Both are ready for their respective milestones, and I feel the responsibility to teach, the urgency to do it now. But first chores take my attention, and then laundry, and I have to finish the grocery list, and what in the world are we going to do about our empty house in the States? And then everyone’s hungry and lunch is late, and our afternoon gets knocked so far out of orbit that not even coffee can help, and I plug the girls into the TV so that I can get some pressing things done on the computer… and before I take a single focused breath, it’s too late to go to the park, and the motherguilt sweeps its cloud cover over the evening. And then the girls are in bed, and I’m cleaning up from their dinner to make ours, and we finish eating at bedtime exactly, and I realize I have gotten nowhere for the sixth day in a row.
It’s frustrating. As is the rash of empty boxes in our living room. Somebody should really start packing them.
i love packing boxes!! wish i could come over and help … if there were not those 800 km in between us 🙁 and this little guy named noah who turns everything into chaos everywhere … i guess that wouldn’t be much help 🙁
It is so nice to know that I am not alone, I do the same things. Complete with the mother guilt and all. I think, at least for me, that it has everything to do with the deadline. Whatever NEEDS to be done gets done, the rest just pokes at you like thorns. Good luck with all the packing and moving…I can’t wait to hear how it goes 🙂
sounds like procrastination to me!
just kidding 🙂 you are one busy lady!
(and i am queen of procrastination)
Reading your blog instead of packing myself. So far the boxes have not started filling themselves.
One day at a time. There were times I felt overloaded and it reflected in my mood, especially when my kids were young. Grumpy and tense I would try to take it all on. But now, I know there is always tomorrow for the things that can wait and even so, if they don’t get done, so be it. I wish now I had this perspective then.
Oh, don’t feel rushed to teach Natalie to read and write–she’ll have plenty of time to do so–and as a former teacher, I can safely say that she WILL learn in a snap without much effort. But there is something magical about the time before they can read and write when the world is as big as they imagine it to be. Things crowd in once words hold fixed meanings… just a thought.
Also–go easy on your beautiful self. Things will get packed! I see why there is resistance–it’s a big thing to move. Isn’t this place you’re in now where you first came when you moved to Italy?
Sorry, folks – comments go a long time without being acknowledged when one doesn’t have accessible internet!
Christina, I especially wanted to say thanks for the perspective. Part of my drive to teach her is knowing that she won’t learn to read in school for another two years, and even then, it will only be in Italian. Nevertheless, you’ve got me noticing how much imagination and joy goes into her pretend-reading now and that it’s okay for her to hold onto that a while longer. Thank you.