Read that in the “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” song cadence
This week is quite like a time vortex. It is like the ultimate middle.
Many people have this week off work, but there are also many people who are still working. For those who have the week from work – it’s a weird time of what day is it? What is open? Do we take the kids to daycare? Wait, did we eat lunch today? (Just to be clear, I am not a girl to miss a meal, it’s more that there are snacks galore).
Then, for our poor folks who are working, you would rather not be there. Nothing can really get done because so many people are out. People assume you don’t have to work and just make plans willy-nilly like you’re made of money and don’t need to work.
It is all confusing, exhausting, wonderful, and so middle.
My Most Middle Week
This week is interesting for me as well – mostly because I am trying to capitalize on it (Shameless plug that Sharing The Mddl podcast launched this week and I AM VERY EXCITED ABOUT IT), but also, it has interrupted the new normal that I have crafted.
I love a schedule. Ok, well, I love a schedule in theory. Maybe I should say that I love structure. Structure really helps me thrive. This is also the case for my children. If they know what to expect, they do it. By some miracle, they both know where to put their socks and shoes every day. This is just limited to their socks and shoes, at some point we will get toys nailed down too.
With the onset of my illness (that’s what we will call it, even though no one seems to know what it is), I had somewhat developed my own structure. It may be simple, but it was something:
- Wake up, depending on my state help get kids and husband out the door.
- Get myself coffee and breakfast
- Make a get ready with me video for TikTok and then any other video content I feel up to making
- Lay and edit video/post/whatnot
- Nap
- Weird burst of energy at like 3 or 4 and accomplish a task (edit a podcast, write, edit some graphics)
- Do too much and rest up for my kids and husband to come home
- Try to make it downstairs to help with kids, dinner, and eating
- Come back upstairs, kiss kids good night, maybe work on a little more
- Throw on my current romance audiobook and rest until I fall asleep.
It’s not pretty, but it is something. I do daydream about the day I feel well enough to time block out my days to accomplish all of my ideas and tasks and be the boss I know I am. For now, I will take what I got.
This week, the schedule is out the window… and it wrecked me. Ultimately, I don’t blame this middle week, I blame Christmas.
A holiday postmortem
I love Christmas. It has been engrained in me from a young age, and I embrace it. I also feel a need to explain that I love Christmas in a non-ironic, non-aesthetic, wholehearted way. I want my tree to have as many lights on it as possible. They should be colored and at least half twinkling. Glitter is required. I want things gaudy, shiny, sparkly, and fun.
I say that not to shame folks about liking their all white Christmas lights and aesthetic decorations, but to show how brightness and energy is part of why I love the holiday.
Furthermore, I am not bright and shiny right now. I am a barely lit bulb.
Trying to be bright and shiny, even just a little, really wore me down. I didn’t make it to all of my Christmas celebrations. I was also basically fully incapacitated for 2 full days after because of exhaustion.
It doesn’t help that on Christmas Eve, our van decided not to start again while we were at a gas station filling up to go to my grandmas house. It was like -2 degrees, we were just far enough from home for it to be a problem, and had to have multiple cars and trips to get everyone where they needed. But more on that another time.
Embracing this middle week
So, I may be tired, and I may not have a schedule, but I did launch a whole flipping podcast this week. (Not to mention wrote this and sent out a newsletter)
I may not have been bright and shiny, but I did get to see my children be adorable and enjoy the magic of Christmas.
I guess the message here is being grateful for this middle week and the gifts that it can give us. Feel the moments of rest before we get into the pressures of a New Year New Me (which I have plenty of thoughts on, and will rage about soon).
Take what you need and show up where you need. Those are the only goals this week.
Also listen to my podcast, share with everyone you know, and write a review – those are also goals for you this week.