When Nothing Gets Done

My baby Grace on her knees and ready to crawl, maybe.

In recent months, I feel as though I have lost most control of my home, my activities, and sometimes, even, my sanity.

• I used to be able to multitask quite well. 

• I kept things quite organized, a skill I have possessed for most of my life but put to a new level when I was a first-grade teacher. 

• Posting new photos of my girls so the grandparents (and even aunts, uncles, and cousins) could see their development was something I did with regularity. 

• And so many more things....

Now, I feel like I can barely keep my head above water on some days. Some days I don't get much accomplished beyond changing diapers, laundry, making breakfast and lunch for my girls, and sometimes dinner for my family.

I will admit that I put some of this issue upon myself. I've gotten even more involved in blogging and all that goes with it in terms of trying to promote it and get a larger readership (I dream of actually making money from my blog someday, for a little spare change just for me.) I also have two little girls who keep me busy. With Grace about to crawl any day now and Ginny into absolutely everything, I don't often have that many moments in the day to accomplish all that I hope.

The other part of the problem is sleep deprivation. Since Grace was born (and honestly, probably the month or so before she was born), I have been operating on very little sleep. Grace is not a sleeper like her sister. She decided to take after me. How unfortunate. Where Ginny would sleep in 6 hour chunks quite regularly at this age, I'm lucky if Grace sleeps in 4 hour chunks. What doesn't help matters is that Grace keeps waking herself as she "practices" crawling in her sleep.

Ginny keeps me quite busy.

Adding to the issue is my husband's work schedule. Lately he has been working a lot of night shifts. In the past few weeks, his schedule has been as follows: 7 overnight shifts in a row followed by a couple day shifts, then he had 2 midnight shifts followed by a few day shifts. Then, another string of 7 overnight shifts. Those shifts ended Friday morning with him only getting one day off and now he has 3 day shifts. In a couple of days, he will have a string of 7 midnight shifts.

When my DH is dealing with all of these shifts, I feel limited in what I can do while he attempts to sleep during the day. The last thing I want to do is wake him from sounds of cleaning and banging in the kitchen. And, again, I find myself in a situation where I feel like nothing is accomplished.

So, I'm tired and stretched and ready to get into a routine for me again. My girls are in a routine, but my routine long ago disappeared into the ether. I want to get it back. I need routine almost as much as my little munchkins do.

This week, I plan to power through and try to get a routine back. Get control in my life plus organization. It won't be easy, especially after a night of 5 hours broken sleep. It won't be easy as I try to remain quiet once my husband starts the string of midnight shifts on Friday. I will do what I can though. I will push myself to achieve something at least once a day. Well, that is my plan anyway.