My Day Off

Today was a holiday off for my company, which was great. I got to spend more time with Didi and also do some things around the house. My company is going to start to wonder if I work there anymore since I've had so many days off in February. It's been worth it though to get to spend time with Didi and Dan on a mini-vacation and for her birthday (despite the sickies over staying their welcome!).

Around 1:30 this afternoon, I was standing at the sink complaining to myself how much I hadn't accomplished yet. I started to add up everything in my head; two loads of laundry folded and put away, cleaned up living room hurricane disaster, planned dinners for the week and wrote out the grocery list, washed all of the hand wash dishes, unloaded then loaded and ran the dishwasher again, worked on my old phone / new phone, wrote out half of my review for work, fed Didi breakfast, snack, then lunch, then put her into a nap, took out soup for dinner.

I about died. What the hell was I thinking I haven't gotten anything done? Holy criminey, get a grip woman! So then Didi woke up and I went to get her. I did take a break with her to watch a fun nursery rhyme video we have and ate a snack. Then I read some news online, fed the dog, gave Didi another snack, made homemade sugar cookie dough with her to put in the fridge and we decided to take a walk.

While on the walk, I accidentally got too close to the park. I say accidentally because when she catches sight of the slide or the swings we are done for! She will not relent in her pursuit to go down those darned slides or be pushed in the swings at least one million times. Ok, so it was about 4pm and 25 degrees out, I thought we could definitely spare a few minutes to let her out of the backpack, tie the dog to the tree and have some fun. Of course, being the super mom that I am, I forgot gloves for her and she refused to wear a hat. At least I convinced her that the hood tied around her baby chin was a good idea.

She toddled over to the slides, which were covered in snow, but I did let her go down one time, even though her tiny pants got all wet. Then she toddled over to the swings "Didi swing! Didi swing!". When I push her, she insists that I swing next to her "Mama swing! Mama swing" and of course I do, lying back, breathing in the cold crisp air looking at the crystal blue sky. It was so nice to be all alone at the park with her. It reminded me of this past summer when I would get out of work early and we would walk to the park to hang out.

After 40 minutes in the freezing cold, Jorge was barking incessantly to leave. He was freezing his little arse off as well. I rangled Didi into the backpack, kicking, screaming, and beating me with her tiny fists. But once I got her locked in, she settled down and started singing. Sometimes I know just to get passed the tough part of her resisting, because she will settle just fine and her little world is not coming to an end. We made it home and she watched an episode of Sesame Street while I cooked dinner and whipped up some homemade frosting for the sugar cookies. The cookies are for her birthday party at the school tomorrow.

Dan came home and we all ate together, amused over a lot of news we got last week as some was discussed at his work today and some will be discussed at my work tomorrow. We popped Didi into a bubble bath and cuddle her into bed. Then I finished baking the sugar cookies, unloaded the dish washer and loaded it again and finished up another load of laundry. Phew!

I'm just settling into the evening, time for a pot of tea and to of course make sure those sugar cookies came out ok. Just need to frost them yet :)

And to think I berated myself for not getting anything done. Well, I didn't make it to the grocery, switch over to my new phone, finish my review for work, pack Didi's school bag, make Didi's lunch, finish her 2 year old post, nor put pictures up from the vacation or her birthday. Alas, those things can wait until tomorrow. A mama must rest and rejuvenate.

To all a good night!

Swimming in this Sea of Life,
La Sirena

Fill in the Blank Sunday?

Pardon my lateness this weekend on FITB and my complete absence last Friday.  This month has been a whirlwind of activity, decisions, and sickness. Friday the 10th we were flying to Florida to visit the Grandparents and then Friday the 17th was Didi's birthday. We have all been in and out of the sickies the past three weeks, but we're on the mend. Today will be a most quiet day, playing, eating good food, taking walks, and drinking lots of yummy tea. I took Friday off for her birthday (2 year old update post coming soon!) and we just hung out. We were going to visit a museum close by, however due to everyone being ill, we decided to just hang at home. Then Saturday we had Didi's 2 year old pictures taken at JCPenny. I must post some when they are done. I swear she acted like a little model. The photographer even commented about how good she was; folding her hands, tipping her head, looking at the camera, smiling a lot, giggling at times, crossing her legs. It was a little creepy, but hey, at least we got amazing pictures!

We also had a family birthday party Saturday afternoon. The Elmo cupcakes and the presents were a HUGE hit. I will be posting pics soon!!

I'm up really early for a Sunday, but it's nice to have a spare moment to check in and post on the blog. My "new" boss was let go Friday, so now we're in limbo again at work. Our poor department, at least we power through things and at least I work from home, because being in the office with all of the drama would drive me batty. This week will be transitional for us at work and at home. I'll keep ya posted as there are some other big things in the works :)

Swimming in this Sea of Life,

La Sirena

 

1.  The love of my life is   Dan and Didi.

2.   Falling in love is   about taking time to appreciate the little things, as they are what completes the whole.

3.  Marriage is   a means by which I fall more in love everyday.

4. The longest relationship I've ever had was  14 years (and counting!).

5. The key to a good relationship is  laughter, compassion, and support.

6. I feel loved when   someone does something out of the ordinary to brighten my day.

7.  My favorite quote about love is   "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to Love and be Loved in return".

A Poem

I took a nap today
Hoping it'd all go away

But then I awoke
to the everlasting joke

Ha Ha, no one is laughing.

Swimming,
La Sirena

Fortune Cookie

I keep a fortune cookie fortune I got this year on my calendar in the kitchen. It says "Planning is the prelude to successful action". Is it though? I've planned a lot in the past year and most of it never came to fruition, being that the universe had other plans for us. As I get older, I don't plan as much because I know things rarely go as planned. Plus, I don't want to set myself up for disappointment, which is my own personality really. I tried planning out house chores, but that never really happened. I'm back where I started in regards to just getting by; when it looks bad, I have to clean.

There are some things though that do go pretty well when planned, the weekly meals and grocery shopping. The laundry also is getting into a nice routine for the weekends so we're not bogged down with it during the week. As I get older too, it's hard for me to try new routines or do anything I don't feel like doing. I'm no longer interested in having to "endure" something I don't like or don't want to do. Maybe it's just smartening up to the fact that you can choose joy, choose your happiness.

Dan and I have been working out at night now. We tried the morning thing, but it just didn't happen. Too early to do that much exercise. I like to get up early, but not to run 3 miles. I like to take a hot shower, then make coffee, breakfast, Didi's lunch and then wake her up. It's funny how things just start to fall into place when you let them. The working out at night this week went well, I thought I would be up all night from the energy, but I wasn't. I actually slept amazingly well. An hour long workout, a hot shower and a hot tea makes for a relaxing night.

I've been dreaming up some fun posts for the blog. Since mostly friends and family read it, I'd love to do a "house" tour and feature one or two rooms a week. Some friends who live out of state or country have never seen my house. I can "bring them inside". Then I wanted to add some pages "About Me", "Numerology", and maybe a feature on "Psycards". I pull a Psycard every Sunday night and every month I do a spread that represents past, present, future. I could write about those. Would anyone out there be interested? Or maybe I'll just keep rolling along as usual.

Time to get lunch prepared on this snowy afternoon. We spent a lot of time outside this morning playing in the snow. Hoping Didi will take a good nap and this afternoon we can do a Valentine's art project.
Swimming in this Sea of Life,
La Sirena



 

Fill in the Blank Blizzard Friday

As I am awaiting this meeting to begin, I'm going to procrastinate and fill in some blanks. What a crazy week, now ending in a blizzard today. Didi's center is closed and Dan is taking the day off to watch her so I can work. When you work from home, you don't get a snow day LOL. My old boss was in town to give my new boss the 90 day review, but it didn't happen due to a combination of other priorities. Let's just say new boss is on the way out, but of course there is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape involved. It has been really stressful, to the point where two of my coworkers have threatened to quit. So annoying as I hate drama. Thank god I work from home to keep my sanity.

 

Not a lot of inspiration today to write on the blog. Gotta get back to it.......

Swimming in this Sea of Life,

La Sirena

 

 

1.   If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross off my life list is   buy a new van.

2.    Chicken on pizza    is something I like that other people think is weird.

3.  If my life were a movie right now, the title would be     "Lost in Translation" .

4.  Three things I am looking forward to this month are     trip to Florida,    Didi's 2nd Birthday and     getting projects done at work that are due this month.

5.  My favorite song to sing in the shower is   nothing, I listen to NPR or meditation music.

6.  If I found out that the production of     Chocolove chocolate bars    was ending this month, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow.

7.  One thing I'll never grow tired of is   riding my bike.

Case Of the Mondays

So I've got a case of the Mondays. It's been a great morning despite the fact my alarm never went off so I didn't get up as early as I wanted to (a sign?). I have zero meetings today, nada, zip, zero! I can hardly believe it. It's nice to see my entire day free and clear and I can plan to do whatever I want, to work on whatever I want, to work without being disrupted. Aaahhhh, but! But, I am procrastinating getting on with the huge to-do list for work. There are a few projects I really would like to just clear up and get out of the way, especially since starting Wednesday I will have all day meetings for three days straight.

I will find the motivation if it kills me. If I can get through three things on my list, I will be off to a really good start. That and during my lunch hour I am going to run an errand to get out of the house. I will have my second cup of coffee and get to work and stop procrastinating. Some inspiration:

Swimming in this Sea of Life,
La Sirena









Sorry, I don't have the image source, I downloaded this a really really long time ago and have lost the source link......

Feedback

Have you ever taken a survey? Of course you have. Was it because you were extremely satisfied with the product/service? or extremely dissatisfied? We all tend to answer surveys when we didn't have that great of an experience, or maybe the experience absolutely blew your mind!

As I work in a field that uses surveys a lot for the accounts I manage, I report back to them the customer's experience. I report this back in a positive way and try to spin it and provide tips on how to improve if it was not a good experience for the customer. Now, I believe in karma and I believe in having a positive attitude. For the past 12 months, we have not been having a very good experience with Didi's childcare center. I give the center props for being better than others as it is clean and pretty safe, but there are a few things that are pretty questionable. I've been providing consistent feedback to the center and they have improved - they've actually improved for the entire center (not just her classroom) being that I brought up a Peanut Safe zone, following state ratios, and not dropping my 1 year old off in the 6 year old's classroom or the lobby (unsafe!). It has been a steady and slow improvement, but it's annoying because I expected more, I expected better of them and not to have to try to manage them and remind them of state law (can you tell I work in this field yet?).

At any rate, I am not that type of parent to sit back and ignore it, I actually speak up and I have involved the regional director at times. I don't do it in a mean way, I always speak to the director or teacher in person. I explain the situation such as "I understand that the policy to change diapers is every 2 hours, Didi's diaper wasn't changed for 4 hours yesterday. If you could please watch this as she had a really bad diaper rash last night, that would be great. Especially since they are cloth diapers too". Nothing horrible like "hey idiot! my child cried all through dinner and wouldn't eat because her ass was on fire from you leaving a soaking wet diaper on her all f-ing day!!" See the difference?

LOL

So once a year they send out a parent survey. Last year when Didi started, they had already had the results in from the survey and they put up a sign out front "100% Satisfaction from all parents!!" Um, yah, NO ONE ever gets 100% on a survey, I'm pretty certain about that. This year I got to participate in the survey. I kind of spilled it all, I mean I listed almost everything we would like to see improved. I tried to balance it with some things that are great like the hours they are open, convenient location, activities for the kids. But unfortunately there was just too much. Dan and I are actually thinking of changing centers for Didi.

I felt bad for being so negative, but I did do it in a professional way and didn't call anyone names, you know, like Idiot! I expressed concerned to Dan that this might come back to us in karma, but how are things supposed to change and evolve? Feedback is essential or no one would ever know if something is wrong / right, safe / not safe, etc. Right? Ugh, it's just me over thinking it, but its my child! I have to stick up for Didi, and her safety and happiness are my first concern.

Still seeking the positive and seeing it everyday,
Swimming in this Sea of Life,
La Sirena