Sunday reset

I love Sundays, for so many reasons. The peace and strength I gain from attending mass (though we've been really slacking on mass attendance lately) is an important part of my life. It's the one day of the week I can almost always guarantee Papa Bear won't be working; with the work his company does, his work hours depend on the terms of the contract and policies of the job site he's working on, and the last few months it has included a lot of Saturdays. Every Sunday the extended members of Papa Bear's family gather for Sunday lunch, and usually at least some of us are in attendance. I enjoy spending time with my in-laws, but lately Sunday has become an important day for me to take a little time for solitude and recharge for the week ahead.

Papa Bear got up with Sunshine and Fidget, and took them early to visit his parents. This is huge for me; because of my paralysis I struggle with chronic fatigue issues, and being able to take my time getting moving helps me pace myself for the rest of the day. If we're not attending mass as a family, I typically watch mass or at least read through the day's scripture readings and pray a rosary before getting up. Then I've got the house to myself to take care of whatever I want or need to accomplish.

With Sunshine and Fidget home all day every day, there is very little time to myself in my daily life. On Monday afternoons my mom takes Sunshine to gymnastics which coincides with Fidget's nap time, but 90 minutes a week is just not enough to myself. Sometimes it's something as simple as anything but preschool channels on tv, or slightly more adult music on Pandora (which is what I have on as I'm writing this morning; right now it's playing "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers). Sometimes I just want to hang out on Facebook, Pinterest, and playing games on my iPad. Typically though it's time to accomplish tasks which are hard to focus on with two kids in the house.

Sunshine is quite independent for a six year old, but there's still lots of "Mama, can I...", not to mention homeschool lessons to teach/supervise, chores to enforce, attitudes to handle, and back and forth with her neighborhood friends in the afternoon. And Fidget, God bless him, didn't start saying Mama until after his second birthday (after starting speech therapy through our state's early intervention program). It's a beautiful sound to hear after so much time, but I sometimes think he's trying to make up for lost time! Sometimes I can't even turn to look at something else in the room without him shouting "Ma-MA! Ma-MA!" not to mention his sensory-seeking tendency to get into everything - the usual 2yo mischief, only amplified - and the very real concern that his Pica will find him ingesting the one little Lego that rolled away or something equally inappropriate. Put it all together and it doesn't leave much time to focus on things that aren't child-oriented without staying up late.

Yet there are always clothes and dishes to wash and put away, just like any other parent. There are also homeschool papers to grade and lessons to plan. Calendar events to coordinate: doctor and therapy appointments, extracurricular activities, social gatherings, church events. I do of course chip away on those things throughout the week, but to have a large block of time to hear my own thoughts and focus on those things is priceless. Papa Bear organized a great backyard barbeque yesterday afternoon to celebrate my birthday, but after our children themselves my Sunday reset time is truly the best gift of all.