The Rest of the Week . . .
. . . didn't go exactly as expected. For some reason I thought I could just get up and go, resuming life as usual.
I was wrong.
I'm definitely in a post-partum recovery period.
Getting up the next day, doing normal chores, decorating my new scripture journal along with my older girls, working for 3 hours at the horse barn with J9 doing hard manual labor, making dinner, cleaning up, and doing our normal evening routine was the wrong move.
Getting up extra early the day after that (Friday), preparing breakfast and lunch, packing the car and organizing the kids for a 50 mile drive to the closest natural history museum, spending 3 hours walking around the museum, having a picnic lunch, driving home, preparing a picnic dinner, packing stuff and kids again, driving 20 more miles to the lake for the church camp out (we didn't stay the night), feeding my crew, cleaning up, being social, packing them back up, driving home, cleaning them, and putting them all to bed was the wrong move, too.
I don't feel that I birthed a baby. But I kind of did. It was small and dead, but I carried it just long enough to be traumatized by its exit from my body. I need time to heal.
So today I'm taking it easier. I did fold 4 loads of laundry, but I folded them while sitting on my bed. I let the girls make pancakes and cinnamon cream syrup for breakfast. They did a reasonable job at cleaning up, but they'll have some details to work on when they get home.
Right now M11, S11, and J9 are walking together to the library for the first time. It's a pretty good walk--over a mile--but they're together, and they have a cell phone with them. The city has been working on the street near our home for months and months--actually over a year now--which has been a giant pain. But the upshot is that we now have sidewalks on the fairly busy street that leads to a park and the library. We've never ever walked before because there wasn't a safe place to walk.
They feel quite grown up being given the responsibility of getting there safely along with 3 backpacks full of books to return, a flyer to post for our homeschool association, and the responsibility of picking up the books that their daddy and I have on hold.
This season of having children capable of and happy to run errands is a truly fun period. I get to stay home with my little guys (who actually need me to go outside so they can play), which I love, and my bigger kids have the fun of running around town, which they love.
I still have to go pick up my Bountiful Baskets order, but I'll take those same 3 big girls who are at the library now with me to do the lifting and carrying. E13 will stay home to babysit the little guys. We'll have a simple dinner of bread and beans and veggies. The kids will go to bed early tonight after a full week in preparation for church first thing tomorrow.
For that matter, so will I.
I was wrong.
I'm definitely in a post-partum recovery period.
Getting up the next day, doing normal chores, decorating my new scripture journal along with my older girls, working for 3 hours at the horse barn with J9 doing hard manual labor, making dinner, cleaning up, and doing our normal evening routine was the wrong move.
Getting up extra early the day after that (Friday), preparing breakfast and lunch, packing the car and organizing the kids for a 50 mile drive to the closest natural history museum, spending 3 hours walking around the museum, having a picnic lunch, driving home, preparing a picnic dinner, packing stuff and kids again, driving 20 more miles to the lake for the church camp out (we didn't stay the night), feeding my crew, cleaning up, being social, packing them back up, driving home, cleaning them, and putting them all to bed was the wrong move, too.
I don't feel that I birthed a baby. But I kind of did. It was small and dead, but I carried it just long enough to be traumatized by its exit from my body. I need time to heal.
So today I'm taking it easier. I did fold 4 loads of laundry, but I folded them while sitting on my bed. I let the girls make pancakes and cinnamon cream syrup for breakfast. They did a reasonable job at cleaning up, but they'll have some details to work on when they get home.
Right now M11, S11, and J9 are walking together to the library for the first time. It's a pretty good walk--over a mile--but they're together, and they have a cell phone with them. The city has been working on the street near our home for months and months--actually over a year now--which has been a giant pain. But the upshot is that we now have sidewalks on the fairly busy street that leads to a park and the library. We've never ever walked before because there wasn't a safe place to walk.
They feel quite grown up being given the responsibility of getting there safely along with 3 backpacks full of books to return, a flyer to post for our homeschool association, and the responsibility of picking up the books that their daddy and I have on hold.
This season of having children capable of and happy to run errands is a truly fun period. I get to stay home with my little guys (who actually need me to go outside so they can play), which I love, and my bigger kids have the fun of running around town, which they love.
I still have to go pick up my Bountiful Baskets order, but I'll take those same 3 big girls who are at the library now with me to do the lifting and carrying. E13 will stay home to babysit the little guys. We'll have a simple dinner of bread and beans and veggies. The kids will go to bed early tonight after a full week in preparation for church first thing tomorrow.
For that matter, so will I.
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