#1 - Not to jinx it, but the last few nights have been luxurious. Baby Q has only woken up once in the night to be nursed and then has slept until 7 or later in the morning. Even though I still have to be up at
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#2 - Our latest work project in the cottage has been finishing off the one room in the cottage we were using as our staging grounds for our boxes, etc. I'm pleased with the result. We're calling it the Ladybug room (although there is not one single decoration of a ladybug in the room--but many live variants seem to believe it is their personal room in the cottage....), and it is intended to be a craft/toy staging area for the girls. They seemed pretty pumped about it when they saw it yesterday.
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#3 - Our next projects are to finish hanging up the last few decorations in the cottage and to give it a severe spring cleaning (state inspectors coming in a few weeks--gulp! Actually it shouldn't be too bad as we keep up with it pretty well, but it's getting the nooks and crannies that sometimes get missed in the day to day business of living--that's the key). The decorations are thanks to an amazing sponsor of the children's home. For our cottage Christmas present, she handed me a substantial gift card to Hobby Lobby. FINALLY made it there this week and had fun picking up pictures and the last few items we needed to really get the cottage completed. Took me several hours to figure out the best deals, but thanks to the wonderful discounts of Hobby Lobby, I think I spent our gift rather well!
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#4 - Continuing on the vein of cottage news for this Quick Takes, we're going to have an unusual few days around here. We've got a bunch of girls going on family visits for the weekend, and then another set of girls going to a school trip the first part of next week. Might actually be quiet for once! I'll take what I can get this shift as we've still got three weeks left (for a total of four weeks on).
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#5 - It's funny how my life is now broken up into three week thought patterns. Because of the length of our shifts, we get one full week off at a time when we are off. Which is great. You can take a mini vacation just about every month! With no stopping in-between or course. Back in December, my parents purchased tickets to come visit us in May. That seemed like ages away, and in some ways still seems quite a ways away, except for the part that I really only have one more off-time between now and when they come and visit us. That really changes my perspective of time! So close!
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#6 - When we first started working here, I wasn't sure if I would be able to handle these long shifts well. Truth is, I really love them. There is a sense of regularity and rhythm that is a part of our day to day lives here that was often missing where we were before when we worked for six days and were off for three. Its definitely easier on the kids, and feels less fractured for us. And even though, in many ways, we're responsible for more things here (we do all the cooking for one), I never feel as overwhelmed as I used to, partially because of not feeling like you're either just back on duty and trying to get back into rhythm or prepping to go off duty and getting ready to pass everything on to another individual. Of course, it's somewhat limiting in our timing ability, but that's okay. It feels better overall.
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#7 - Mind you, the flip side of working so many days in a row, is that if you have a rough patch of time, you can't look forward to being off or catching up on sleep any time soon. You have to just work through it. Which is really more like a regular family, I suppose.
For example, we have a little one in the cottage who has been fighting going to sleep at night. Last night, just for a change of pace in solving this issue, we went ahead and got her out of bed and had her sit and write sentences until she was ready to go sleep. Very boring and sleep inducing activity--even for a stubborn one! Problem being, by the time we actually got her to go to bed quietly (as opposed to wailing and waking up the whole house--the alternative), it was late. I hadn't had any down time for almost the whole day, and I still desperately needed my unwinding time. Which means that even with Baby Q being obliging in his sleep patterns the last few days (knock on wood), I still am up and feeling sleep deprived! Grrrrr... Oh well, one step at a time.
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