Things that are Saving my Life Right Now...

It’s the little things guys.  Liam has been home from summer school for a week and a half and it’s amazing the shift that adding one more kid to my day can bring.  I mean, it’s just Liam and he’s the easy one!  (Although he is also the kid that lit five matches while I was nursing Rory and then tried to lie about it, so…. there’s that.)  And this shift isn’t even necessarily bad, it’s just a shift.  There are some great things about having him home.  Slower mornings, more time with the kids occupying themselves in the basement and not crawling on me demanding attention, more fun outings because we’re all home and we’ve got a Summer Fun List to tackle.  But it’s that last one that is causing a little strife because I’m getting nothing done.  Which is fine, (again we only have a few real weeks of summer with all the kids home, I shouldn’t complain) but I’ve got to be real intentional about building in some sanity saving things because I’m not getting to the gym nearly as much as I’d like and my quiet afternoons with everyone napping for 3 hours are a thing of the past.  So here are some little things that are saving my life currently.

1.) Setting the coffee maker up the night before and putting it on a timer.  

Waking up to fresh coffee is the best.  I don’t know why I ever stopped doing this.  Just loading the coffee maker the night before makes my mornings better, but that extra step of setting the time so that now, every day at 6 the coffee is ready.  Amazing.

2.) Getting up at 6.

Five Years Ago Colleen would have peed her pants laughing at the idea that getting up at 6am was anything short of terrible (and that is saying something because Five Years Ago Colleen only had one kid and didn’t pee her pants laughing/sneezing/coughing on the regular).  I am not what you would call a morning person.  But that little (or sometimes giant) act of giving myself an hour before the kids get up to read and drink hot coffee while sitting cozy in bed can change my whole day.  For those of you like FYAC who think getting up early is for chumps, the trick for me was waking up but staying in bed.  I hate getting out of my warm bed in the morning and that’s probably the number one thing that prevented me from getting up.  Now, I keep the books I’m reading on my nightstand, slip out for 30 seconds to pour myself a cup of coffee, get back in bed and begin my morning.  It’s seriously the best.  It’s quiet, I’m cozy and I’ve got my coffee.  It feels like I’m at a hotel on vacation every morning (until 7am when the beasts awake).

3.) Running

I’m running again.  Which I really haven’t done with any real vigor in three or four years.  The Hamilton soundtrack is what jumpstarted my running again.  I could listen to that and forget that I was running and wanting to die.  I got used to running with music again so now I’ve branched out to my playlists.  Previously I’d run while listening to audiobooks or podcasts.  I didn’t realize how much having a good beat helped me run.  I feel better when I run while listening to music.  And now that I’m doing that, I’ve stumbled upon the only time in my day when my mind can wander.  I can’t scroll through Facebook or Twitter (which is super depressing these days, ugh election season and TrumpAnxiety) and I’m not focusing on a podcast or audiobook (which is what I’m listening to any other time I’m doing busy work).  It’s a lost art, this mind wandering.  Doing it a few times a week is saving my life. 

4.) The Hamilton Soundtrack

You guys.  I just can’t even with this soundtrack.  You know how the world feels really crazy right now and people, presidential candidates, are saying things that make your skin crawl and you wonder if we’re ever going to make any social progress again?  Listen to the Hamilton soundtrack and renew your faith in humanity.  It’s the smash broadway musical that tells the story of Alexander Hamilton and the founding fathers but instead of being 100% showtuney it’s mostly rap and hiphop.  The show uses only people of color in the roles and it’s amazing to think about this story of our country told with minorities.  To see how the struggle our founding fathers faced is still relevant to so many groups of people today.  And to give the power to tell that story to people who don’t often get to do that.  It’s amazing.  I can’t stop listening to it.  For a while it became an ear worm and I couldn’t get it out of my head but even then I didn’t mind.  It’s so good.  Also, I’m going to see it in November when it comes to Chicago.  I have the worst seats, but I don’t care.

Those are some things that are saving my life right now.  What about you?  How are you surviving summer?