The vibe of the week: ebullient, whipsawed, “what am I forgetting”? The end of school, family flying into town to stay with us for a week, manuscript submitted, catching up on the social life I more or less abandoned for a month while deep in drafting…! I’ve come up for air, and it is refreshing and chaotic! But the fizzy-business of the week also made me wonder why we volunteered to schedule the children’s passport appointment and various other inessential but lovely things for right now. Couldn’t we have waited until the languor of August? Receipts to carry forward to next June, when I will inevitably overbook myself again.
Things I did well this week:
+Took proper time to celebrate the milestone of submitting my manuscript. Landon took me out to dinner, and we opened a bottle of Ruinart the afternoon I told him: “it’s finished; I can’t look at it anymore.” That is, until I receive the developmental edits…! When I will again tumble into an abyss of words and self-doubt. Ha!
+Listened to my body in various ways. Drank a ton of water, put myself to bed early one night, let myself skip a run. It’s always a tug of war, isn’t it — when to push yourself to stay committed, and when to go slack and loose. I’m favoring the “softer” side right now. It feels right.
+Somehow managed to get all the gifts wrapped and distributed — for some reason, it was gifting week? End of school gifts, niece and nephew gifts, a neighbor’s graduation gift, hostess gifts! I felt like I was running a small gifting business. I don’t know how, but somehow every gift was carefully selected, wrapped, ribboned, and handed off at the right time. One little mnemonic that has been helping me right now, especially when I am pulled in a lot of different directions: do the small thing to completion. I’m often tempted to half-assemble the gift, and then say “eh, the tissue paper is all the way in the basement; I’ll get it next time I’m down there” or “I should put fresh towels up in the guest room while I’m thinking of it, but ehhh I don’t feel like it.” This week has been all about doing small things all the way. This has the benefit of giving me tiny dopamine hits throughout the day — “checkmark! completed!” — and gives me the impression of “one more closed tab.”
+Continued my nighttime phone detox. Now going on week three of no phone from the moment I set foot in my bedroom at night to the next morning at 8 am, usually once the kids are off to school.
Things I want to work on:
+Maintaining more equanimity in the face of my kids’ meltdowns and tantrum-y behavior. I saw a funny meme this week that said: “I don’t know what you’d call this phase of parenting, but I’m in the one where you say, ‘Take off your shoes,’ and your kid says, ‘These are sandals.'” That’s about where we’ve been this week with my daughter — recalcitrant, correcting. It has been difficult to maintain composure when she’s pushing all my buttons but I really am trying. Sometimes I think — you know, I’m not a robot, it’s OK to express hurt, frustration, surprise, etc? Wouldn’t it be weird and wrong to respond with perfect stoicism to every wild barb tossed our way as parents? But as with anything, there’s a middle ground. There are times to express shock and times to be the quiet voice of reason. I am working hard on the latter.
+The five second rule. I still scramble to fill voids and reassure people conversationally way too much, and when I am intentional about just staying quiet for a second, I find it excruciating…! I was aware of this a few times this week.
Work in progresses, all — on we go —
Sunday Shopping.
+First, had to mention that my new gingham linen bedding (seen above) is 25% off at the moment! I’m in love with it!
+Into a longer hemline denim short at the moment, inspired by Alice Pilate (seen below)…into these Everlanes!
+After I wrote this post on “swimsuits for mom life,” one of the brands I mentioned, Stylest, which is designed to accommodate the coverage needs of any woman, reached out to send me one of their styles! I can’t wait to wear and review. I picked this style — their bestseller — in a chili red.
+A perfect oversized gray sweatshirt. I own a different sweatshirt style from this brand and adore it. Very lived-in, vintage.
STYLEST DREAMSCULPT SQUARENECK SUIT // ELIOU SHELL NECKLACE // GAP X DOEN TOP // STAUD BAG // GINGHAM SCRUNCHIE // LEFT ON FRIDAY SWEATSHIRT // EVERLANE SHORTS // MADEWELL BAG // QUINCE WILD HEIRLOOM TOMATO CANDLE // TKEES SANDALS
Last note on swim: a small restock of Follow Suit’s Flora this week! Run while you can! Run TTS.
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