Back to School, Back to Routine

Gwen headed back to school on the 3rd after two weeks off. We had a great time with our "12 Days of Christmas" and then much playing with the new toys, but honestly we were both ready by the end of that last week. I had a list a mile long of things to do that would be so much easier without someone under 10 in tow, and she was ready to play with someone fun (OMG, please no more paw patrol figurines; no, i can't think of one more thing to make with LEGOs). While the laziness and relaxation of break was nice, we were also ready for some routine again - seriously, give me all the yoga back!

Ironically, I ended up getting super sick right after she returned to school and didn't do much of anything for about 4 days (including one snow day that we spent watching movies). The cough came first, and stuck around the longest (I'm stillll coughing! ugh), but thankfully the super fun fever and chills, lack of appetite and complete absence of energy went away after those few days! Gwen was super sweet and understanding about my inability to be entertaining, and Trav was great with my inability to make dinner, so I was pretty guilt-free about taking those days. That said, I'm pretty sure when I looked around the apartment when I finally felt better, I literally let out an "ouf!" 

New printer/copier/scanner... to help me with my business needs!

Prior to break, I had been feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything - the cleaning and purging I needed to do, Daisy's impending surgery, the hows of making travel work without the money now being spent on Daisy's surgery, upcoming items to prepare for my business - but the excitement of some child-free days, and of being well enough to do anything with them, made me much more productive then I might have been! And boy did it feel good to be productively getting things done again, to start a project and work on it through completion, with no interruptions. I also made sure to give myself an hour or so of quiet reading time to recharge before picking Gwen up at the end of each day (man have I missed reading!).

Gwen and I both have more patience thanks to this! Also, the apartment looks better then it has in weeks. Welcome back routine!