How many more days of break?

Work has been so thoroughly kicking my ass of late, I was really excited to go on break. Wednesday night, I kept remember that I didn’t have work the next day and I felt positively giddy.

Thursday my kids had school but I didn’t, and I spent the day at the SFUSD enrollment office getting questions answered about Pre-K and TK options for my son, after which I was able to have lunch with my husband down town. I also got my allergy shot, and braved Costco for a few things we needed.

This morning my son woke up at 5:30am (not that uncommon for him since the time change) and we hit the ground running. My kids spent most of the morning fighting with each other, sullenly declaring how bored they were, or flat out refusing my requests to put away their stuff or eat something. My husband only gets Christmas and New Years days off, and since we aren’t going anywhere he didn’t request any more, so for most of the next two weeks it will just be me and my kids. Suddenly I was reminded what 15 days will really be like, and the break no longer seemed quite so appealing.

I immediately started thinking about how I could make this time manageable for all of us. We’ll definitely need a schedule each day, with a few planned activities interspersed with down time. We will definitely be practicing quiet time, or mommy needs a break, A LOT. Also we’ll be doing a lot of cleaning up before we start doing something new (which won’t go over well AT ALL).

I pulled out my kitchen-science, tinker and art books to give me some ideas for projects. I texted a few friends that I knew had a couple of days off to see if we could get together. I really like spending the day out of the house, but my daughter especially really likes staying at home. I’m going to try hard to honor her needs and only plan a few things. I might also be able to set up some play dates, but if my son is around when my daughter has a friend over, no one has a good time, so I’ll have to figure that out. Blerg. Why did I think this break was going to be a… well, a break?

I’m glad Christmas comes at the beginning of it, because my kids are basket cases waiting for the day to arrive. We aren’t doing a lot of the “fun” Christmas stuff that I love (or think I love?) but I’m okay with that. My son definitely doesn’t want to sit on Santa’s lap and my daughter doesn’t care so that isn’t happening. (Entering a mall at this point would be a suicide mission, with how present-obsessed my 4-year-old is, so I’m fine dodging that bullet). We are hitting up our amusement park’s Winter Wonderland AFTER Christmas because my dad is sick with the flu. It will probably be way more manageable that week anyway. We still hope to walk the streets with the crazy lights on Christmas Eve with my parents, which my kids love. I might also get ginger bread houses after Christmas day, when they are on sale, so we can do that one (the kids really enjoyed it last year). The reality is, all this Christmas stuff doesn’t have to happen before Christmas day. I don’t need to create that added pressure.

I decided not to do cards this year, and I’m 95% okay with that. I am going to double down my efforts on getting the summer photo books done because I have a 50% off your entire purchase code for Shutterfly that ends on the 28th and the books eventually need to get made and printed, and there is no reason I can’t get them done while I’m on break (and save a shit ton of money). I also need to make my grandmother’s calendar… Those are really the only things I need to get done in the next week.

I hope to go to work one day (my husband might take off so I can do that), so I can start the new year with my grading up to date and my first month planned. There are some PTA things I should do as well… breaks are always good for getting the stuff you’re always putting off done.

I just hope my kids don’t drive me crazy for the next 15 days. They both have so much attitude (oh how my 4-year-old can mimic his sister’s tone and mannerisms!) and it’s all I can do not to yell at them in frustration (at one point today I screamed, YOU NEED TO STOP SCREAMING AT ME!) at which point I laughed and told them to do as I say, not as I do, which I then had to explain. We all recognized how ludicrous it was that I yelled at them not to yell, and we had a good laugh about it, for about 20 seconds before one of them started antagonizing the other and the vicious cycle began repeating itself.

Blerg. The days really are going to be long. I hope there are some quiet moments too. I hope we can enjoy each others company, at least for some of it.

What are you looking forward to for the next two weeks?

What are you dreading?