6 Things I Created In a Week of Too Much Adulting
I use the most generous definition of “create” here and I use the most stressful meaning of “adulting.”
Monday this week felt like Thursday. Then I spent all of Tuesday operating as if it were Thursday and then on Tuesday night I felt, phew, thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday. It’s been one of those weeks.
As it goes with one of those weeks, you can imagine I served scrambled eggs for dinner by the TV on Wednesday (still wasn’t Thursday). It did get us through my daughter’s dance rehearsal night, but it also got me vacuuming up egg bits on top of carpet and, of course, ants on top of egg bits on top of carpet, at the very early hour of 7am the next morning. But by then it was actually Thursday, so rejoice! The week was progressing.
I got no writing done this week, or rather no writing to share. The adulting tasks that were required this week were x10 more than usual and it meant less sleep and little weekend reset and no lunch breaks. Think of things like: car-buying, will-updating, and the never-ending medical care and rehab that is having had a blood clot in your 30s. Too much adulting in every outside hour of my full-time work.
Here are the things I created or started this week, however small, that wasn’t working, adulting, or vacuuming.
Literally made lemonade from lemons. Well, my daughter did. She picked, washed, cut, and juiced backyard lemons and I made the simple syrup. We added mint from my plant. It was a treat.
Squeezed orange juice, too, from the box of hometown, super-sweet oranges that arrived in the mail from my father-in-law. Best time of year for citrus mail! We are in citrus heaven.
Toasted toast and brewed tea every night while reading a book. Because, self-care.
Defrosted freezer soups that I previously created. I pulled out my favorite homemade soup of all time Zuppa Toscana With Gnocchi (from this Half Baked Harvest cookbook) one night and then Chicken Orzo Soup with Dill (Skinnytaste Meal Prep cookbook) from our freezer the next night for dinner. There was enough to deliver hot soup on a rain night to our neighbor. Never doubt the power of freezing soup.
Doing exercise that keeps it all going - my daily walks outside and my 50th Pilates class since I started a few months ago. No small feat in my season of life and health.
Cancelled but recreated our family snow trip, at a much lower elevation for the current snow load. Then a forecasted blizzard undid my carefully crafted Plan B. I officially postponed the snow trip and instead, last-minute, hired a babysitter for an afternoon this weekend. My partner and I will now have a leisurely meal together this weekend without snow, yes, but also without children and without ants in scrambled egg bits. It will be great. And next week will be different.
Do you try to create things (or recreate things) during times of temporary overwhelm? Do you have your own version of scrambled eggs, homemade soups, and toast you rely upon? And are you a type that postpones or pushes through, or some combination of both, during weeks where it’s never-Friday? I’d love to hear.