Food Challenge #1: When Life Gets in the Way

Despite being a consummate procrastinator, I’m really not one to make excuses. Sure, I do my share of justifying in my head but when it comes down to it, I usually own up when things are truly my fault.  Some have said that I tend to beat myself up a little too much when things get rough… and I suppose it’s true.  That being said, even I have to admit that sometimes life still simply gets in the way of my best laid plans. 

And holy hell there’s been a lot of life around here lately. 

So my lack of food challenge posting has been partly due to our crazy schedules and partly due to be being lame and not getting my butt in gear.  Because sometimes? Change is hard. 

For now though, would you humor me, please, and let me make some excuses? ok? Because I kind of feel like getting this out.

On average we have been out-of-town roughly two weekends a month since, ohhh… Spring?  This does not do wonders for our routines.  Our bathroom gets dingy (especially with all the wet weather we’ve been having, wtf?) and the laundry piles up, our cupboards become bare.  We find ourselves doing stop-gap things to just get through the weeks.  We grocery shop in bits after work at the crazy expensive shops by our respective workplaces.  We (and by “we” here I mean “I”) clean the bathroom after Gus is in bed, and we (being Masa now) fold laundry late into the night. 

And that’s just the everyday stuff.  In the last two months, Gus has somehow come down with two ear infections and I’ve contracted a couple of illnesses of my own.  At one point a couple of weeks ago, we were both on antibiotics at the same time.  Add to that mix that Masa and I both occasionally work late and the concept of a “routine” in our home becomes something of a myth.  We do what we can and I’m pretty proud of what we do manage: the kid gets fed decent food, he gets washed and his teeth are brushed.  he gets stories every night and goes to bed at about the same time each night.  We hold together what needs to be held together to keep a sense of order in our son’s life.  But sometimes this balance is tenuous at best.

I thought this post needed a bit of the cute. Here's Gus accepting a flower from his Grandpa at the pumpkin patch this weekend.

There were a lot of titles that I thought about (am still considering) for this post.  But nothing really seemed to cover the sentiment I’m going for.  The sentiment that isn’t complaining, exactly. But it’s not boasting or glowing with an “it’s all SO worth it!” moral either. 

It’s steady in the middle of the sticky stuff that makes up real life. 

Being a working mother is hard. It’s as hard as I’ve ever imagined it would be and then a lot of times it’s more.  And yeah, it’s rewarding because of all the things I can give my child because I work (like, you know, food?).  This post isn’t about the pros and cons of working mothers vs. stay-at-homes… we’re all in it together in my book and both are bone-tired difficult at some points.  No, all I’m trying to do here is highlight why it’s been so unexpectedly difficult for me to break out of our routines, such as they are, and try to form new habits on the food front.  Because we’re barely afloat some weeks as it is, and I am afraid that if we make any more waves we’ll all just sink. 

Am I giving up? No. Not really. I’m still going to make a concerted effort and I’ll still let you in on it.  Because that’s real life right? Trying to make things work under less than ideal conditions.  We can’t all just say what the hell and continue bad habits because it’s inconvenient to change.  I’m just kind of … well, I’m making excuses as to why I haven’t made some of those changes yet.  And I’m hoping that if anyone runs across this post sometime, who finds herself in my predicament, maybe she can try to go a little easier on herself for a bit.  And maybe, instead of giving up all together, she can resolve, as I have, to do a little at time.

So that’s where it is, friends.  The truth of it.  The sticky stuff that pulls us back, holds us up, and glues us together.

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