Thursday, September 17, 2009

Planning For Time Off

Occasionally, even a control freak like myself can let go. Today, for a first in my book, I let Lauren's mom pick up Claire from preschool so Claire could play at Lauren's house for the afternoon. I was firmly comfortable in this decision, and with Claire out of the house and the twins taking a full nap today, I got three uninterrupted hours of work time. Three hours is unheard of on a usual WFH day, and was much needed to catch up on all sorts of big and small work tasks. All along, I've been working against a September 15 customer deadline, and thought that once I hit 9/15 I'd be able to finally take that week of vacation I never took this summer. Instead, the customer pushed back its product launch, and I'm juggling all sorts of last-minute changes, and I'm sensing my vacation time is slipping away again. And I'm frustrated. Burned out. I really need the break. I have taken one vacation day this entire year, and that was the Friday Claire and I flew to Atlanta.

So I might just take time off, customer delay and all. I have already set aside the twins' birthday as a vacation day, so I might start adding on days next week. Or the following week. All I know is I refuse to let vacation time slip into cold weather time - I need to take it before we get much into October. I want to play outside all day long, visit a pumpkin patch, and do other outdoorsy things. And I want to take time off before we hit the first sickness for the kids, which is sure to slam us any day now that Claire is back in school. Oh, blessed summer of 2009, this was the healthiest we've ever been, and I thank the gods of health for our break from after-hours clinic visits. I dread the sickness cycle we will be entering soon, so I need a good week with the kids to remember fondly when we're in the thick of ear infections, fevers, and vomit this fall and winter. With vacation on the brain, it's now time for me to research kid's activities for the next couple weeks, so I'm signing off.

Oh, and thank you, Lauren's mom, for ensuring that Claire fell asleep before 10:30pm tonight. I'm getting pretty tired of seeing her little face at 11pm, still wandering the house looking for attention. Can someone please explain to me how an almost-five-year-old gets by on less than ten hours of sleep a night?

1 comment:

JaelCustomDesigns said...

Popping in from MBC!
Now following your blog...

I don't have multiples but, I have four children ages 13, 11, 9, and 20 months! I can relate to you on some level! Lol