23rd August, 2018
So this morning I decided to follow FlyLady's incredibly strict regime of having a shower and getting 'dressed to shoes' before anything else. Well, I didn't quite make it to the lace-up shoes that she urges, but I did manage some flat ones. There's a small window in the mornings where I can potentially get a child-free shower, and it's around 7ish, when Michael's still at home. Usually I use that window to stay in bed. But, this morning I did it. I've done it a few times before and it always felt good, but today I noticed a small difference in the potential benefits. And I wanted to write about it.
First of all, I didn't have to contend with the urgent feeling of having to get out of the shower as soon as humanly possible, because Isaac was screaming in his bouncer chair. I used to think that if I just brought the Jumparoo upstairs (he enjoyed being in it downstairs),then I could pop him in it in the room next door and enjoy a shower without the background noise of Baby-Screaming. But the transportation from downstairs to upstairs clearly put a curse on the Jumparoo. Like an orchid, it did not like to be moved. So my showers feel stressful these days. I try to block out the sound of crying, I do, but it's just not relaxing, even if I do manage to rationalise the fact that a shower is NOT a daily luxury.
So there was that. I did enjoy a stress-free shower, even though it was on a time-limit. But there was something else too. This time I actually managed to get dressed immediately after the shower, having laid out my clothes last night (can you imagine - me, being this organised?? Anyone who knows me or has worked with me - Denise, Sue, Nic... - will be quite shocked. And rightly so). But anyway, I digress. The point is, this time I came downstairs, dressed and scrubbed, for about 7.15am. So where am I going with this...?
Well, it made everything smoother and I have to say I would recommend it to anyone at home with Tinies. It enabled me to just decide, around 8ish, that the sun had made an appearance so maybe it would be nice to get outside and get some walking done, since this cloudy weather has made me utterly depressed recently. And I can't tell you what a difference this makes to my mood - and to Gracie's. She was 'off' this morning, crying over every little thing. She actually broke her scooter on the way out. So that wasn't amazing. But even with that, once we got 'scooting', she was so much happier. And so was I.
And... I was home for about half 9 feeling pretty virtuous. I hadn't done my make-up or brushed my hair, so Fly Lady would probably not have been that happy to bump into me on my way home, but hey ho. That's for another time. Fly Lady says it took her about 2 years to implement her routines and get her house running well, so I'd say it will probably take me about 8.
On another theme, I've started to see why I'm not shifting that baby weight as quickly as I'd like. It's to do with the glacial pace at which you have to move when you're out with a toddler. I was all geared up to get the two of them in the double buggy for an empowering power walk this morning and then my heart sank when Grace informed me she wanted to 'scoot' instead. Okay. I yielded. Consequently, we managed to walk literally around about two or three corners, with me walking back and forth like a Border Collie because I just could not bear to walk as slowly as Grace. I had to try to remember what a lovely time I was having in the fresh air, with the sun shining through the clouds a little, as Grace repeatedly sat down on her scooter and just kind of slid about on it, ambling and stopping to look at, or 'stroke' flowers.
I think I burned about 6 calories on the entire expedition. Gonna have to get that double buggy out this afternoon and push the elephantine weight of it some distance to get those hamstrings (what are they again?!) stretching and those tummy muscles (which Isaac destroyed) back in existence. Wish me luck.