Office Hours

Today is Tuesday.

I missed my office hours yesterday.

Do you schedule office hours? Not real business hours but mom hours. 

I try to keep Monday mornings for business. My actual hours are 9-12. If you happen to call me and I don't answer, you know why. If you try to make plans with me and I decline, my secret is out.

Time to make appointments, manage paperwork, fine tune five social calendars, laundry, menu planning, manage more paperwork, return phone calls and straighten the house after a typical busy weekend. 

And if time permits and I've finished my work, I may read a book of my choice or watch an episode of something other than Wild Kratts. Or if it's the dead of winter, I may just crawl right back into bed.

Sleeping on the job? I think so.

I just left lunch with a dear friend who recently returned back to the work force.

What a transition-and she told me the key to survival is "letting go."

Often I wonder how I will ever get anything done if I return to teaching some day.

I'm not there yet....

So...back to office hours.

Weekends are busy. Everyone has busy weekend, I know that.

At this stage in our lives, that is the normal. Normal isn't always good. But right now, it feels good.

All three kiddos are involved and we're involved together.

Along with sports, we manage to fit in social time, Mass and down time.

It's balance control. That's what else I do on Monday mornings.

 

This past weekend we had it all-practice, games, more games and social obligations.

Yeah for our gourmet club and for sacrament celebrations.

And the surprise firetruck at one of the games. We happen to walk out after the game to a festival type celebration, fire men truck included. C enjoyed chatting with one of them. He happened to play ball in college so I'm a little unclear of what they talked about...hoses or home runs. Isn't this a cute picture?

Oh, wait...this was the cute pic I was referencing!

 

After a warm day at the fields we were toast. 

I could have crawled into bed at 7 p.m. and been happy as a toddler with lollipop.

Thankfully, we had Gourmet Club. GC forces us to sit down, relax, enjoy a pomegranate martini (or 2 or 3) and indulge in delicious food.

We went with traditional Italian.

So good. Every bite of it.

Menu- roasted tomatoes with homemade pesto for appetizer.

Caesar salad complete with homemade dressing and bread crumbs. (Will definitely be making those again. Simple. And very garlic-ly.)

Homemade pasta.

Meatballs and sauce.

Strawberry Napoleon for dessert.

Now I'm hungry.

 

The next day was a special day for an awesome kid in our lives. This blondie celebrated his first communion and confirmation. J sponsored him, don't they both look dapper?

And then, just like that, it was Monday morning.

I had a last minute obligation that called me away from my office hours but it involved coffee, kids and being crafty so I was ok with it.

And then today I woke up to Tuesday plans and pushed aside my office hours yet again.

There's always tomorrow...