11 months to Christmas

January 22, 2014 by joycegan

Read Time:3 Minute, 4 Second

“In the blink of an eye and the beat of a heart…” we are almost through with the first month of 2014.

For me, I’ve settled quite comfortably into a new daily routine. For one who’s always loved school, but hated waking up for it, I am now wide awake when my alarm rings at 6.15am for – guess what – school again! Only this time, it’s to bring Matthew to Marymount Kindy.

And may I just say, how much joy it brings me everyday to fetch him there. The teachers are kind and warm, and know just how to soothe away a frenzied child’s sense of abandonment. Then there are all the adorable little people just… walking about, everywhere around you. And there is always song and dance. Whether the tears are flowing or laughter is filling the air, let the song and dance carry on!

So I ferry our little prince to school, and then chauffeur the hubz to work, before coming back home to nurse little Emma (who’s anything but little). We spend some mother-daughter time together, all of an hour tops, before I head off to pick the boy – which has been my “Happiest Moment of the Day” quite a lot.

We chat about his day in the car (and I need to do this first because his memory fails him as the day progresses), come home, eat lunch together, and then I put him down for a nap. If Emma is awake then, I get to spend more time with her. If she’s not, then I get stunned for a bit, unsure which task to check off first with the one hour that I am free.

Soon enough, Matthew awakes and we play… then he bathes, has dinner and is put to bed for the night. These days, Emma goes to sleep around the same time he does, and so I find I do actually have some time for myself and the hubz, if he’s home from work. Joy.

[I try to play with the cats for a bit everyday, but most days I just end up apologising to them: “Give mummy a bit more time okay? When the babies are older, I will be all yours again. Good girls, Maya, Inca!” Sad.]

That’s the gist of how a typical day looks like for me, minus the thousand and one errands that come my way, the hundred and one things I continue to be distracted by, and the quite finite number of postings I make of my children on Facebook (because – if anyone doesn’t know yet – I’m using Facebook as a family database). I continue to potter around the house, and reply messages to stay connected with friends though I try not to be distracted by the damn phone when the kids are around.

And then I try some more to eke out more goals I want to achieve.

I think I will go back to cooking. For starters, just one meal a week.

Today, I think about reading 26 books. I don’t know yet what they are, but I know their titles begin from A to Z. Maybe I will blog about that adventure. Maybe I can write another book based on this trip. Or maybe I won’t do anything about it at all.

Possibilities. That’s what 2014 is about, maybe.

Prepared for it or not, like it or not, the momentum has begun. And while it seems like it was just yesterday when we were celebrating Christmas 2013, I know that (again, ahem) “in the blink of an eye and the beat of a heart”, Christmas 2014 will be upon us.

And may it be so!