This is me in the morning without enough sleep.
It’s the best and the worst. A new year. A chance to do new things and improve on the previous year. That’s certainly true. But first I had to get through the morning after last year.
With three children under eight, the morning after begins too early. It’s 7:30 a.m. and the two girls have migrated to our bed. I felt the kicks at 4:30 from the first arrival and at 5:30 I helped lift the youngest into bed next to me. All this after going to bed at 2:00 a.m. with a belly full of salmon, potatoes and pudding. And eyes still dazzled by fireworks on the beach with the middle boy asleep, the eldest giddy and the youngest hiding in my shoulder. I excused myself first to retire to bed. My wife hung back, politely chatting with friends next door. It was a strategic move, my mind is telling me now at 7:31 a.m. She stayed up later to lock up so she could get sleeping-in rights.
I like mornings but not without enough sleep or waking up to a wet bed. The youngest didn’t make it to the toilet and the eldest girl is warning me of the spreading pool. My wife’s side remains dry, leading me to believe that weight may play a factor in the path of the liquid. [continue reading…]
Yeah, a good rest first. Then we’re hitting the surf!
When I was a kid and even into my thirties, the holidays were for playing. We went off to hike, ski, surf. Play hard, rest hard. Skip stones in a river in Big Sur after a hike. Kick it in front of a campfire after surfing in Baja California. Eat a big dinner after a day on the slopes at Mammoth Mountain.
I’m on holiday now and it’s hard to keep my eyes open. These are the first days since stopping work. So I know that it’s all about resting up and then playing. My exhaustion, no doubt, is a product of parenting and overwork. Something’s got to give. It’s got to be the work.
No doubt there are lots of books written on the matters of parenting, stress and work = exhaustion. And drugs to take and doctors to see. Homeopaths, psychologists, exercises, gyms, cures, diets, shamans, group cuddles, incense, mushrooms and herbs, eastern philosophies and movements of all kinds.
I think I’ll go for the work less and yield more and live better. I’ll work less and spend more time with the kids and my beautiful wife. Whoever decided that work to live wasn’t good enough? I’m off to play. Of course, after a few good nights sleep. Then watch out!
What do you do when your house becomes a home for fleas, a hive for buzzing bees and a nest for birds?
Christmas is a time for sharing and we’re doing our part in our house in Pinamar on the coast of Argentina. It’s turned into a home for dozens of spiders, a bird and a too large number of creepy-crawlies that, well, give you the creeps.
Since we arrived the other day for a two-month stay for the summer, creepy things have happened.
- I stepped on a frog – twice
- I found a spider in my cereal
- I walked through 13 spider webs
- I caught the kids flicking rolly pollies down the staircase
- I spent 36 minutes trying to get a fly out of the bedroom at two in the morning
- I found a snail in my shoe
- I told the cat off for repeatedly bringing dead dragonflies into the house
We’ve gone sixties. We can flow, frolic, love and be mellow because we’ve got the birds and the bees in our hair and in our house like in the 1976 musical “Hair.” [continue reading…]