What's The Secret???

How do working parents have time to do anything?

Work from 8 am until 2-4 pm [depending on the work load...]. Super fantastic commute of about 45 minutes...can take over an hour if traffic is particularly heinous.

Once I get home, I've got to figure out what to do for dinner and get the kiddo going on his homework. If I get to leave work around 2 pm, then there's usually some time for me to get some stuff done around the apartment or for me to take a quick shower...but this is really more the exception than the norm.

Around 5pm, I start cooking dinner [if I haven't already started]...and I try and have it finished by 5:45 - 6 pm.

From 6 pm until about 7 pm, I'm either cleaning, running errands, or attempting to entertain the kiddo. If I'm lucky...the boyfriend and I will get to play some sort of child-friendly video game for a little bit....usually some game that the kiddo likes to play or watch...

7 pm to 8 pm is time for the kiddo's shower/bath, getting things together for the next school day, and getting ready for bedtime.

Around 8 pm is the kiddo's bedtime...after reading him a story and all that good stuff, it's pretty much 8:30 pm.

8:30.

Most weekday mornings, I get up somewhere between 5 - 6 am...so I'm dragging butt if I don't get to sleep before 11:30 pm.

Maybe I'm just not making the most of the time between the kiddo's bedtime and my own...but it sure doesn't feel like enough time to get anything accomplished!

Sooooo, there's the basic timeline of my weekday....

Any suggestions on how I should tweak it? Or is the real secret that working parents don't ever acutally do anything fun and they just pretend to?? /ponders

Just Another Day...

Good morning...

Hope you guys are having a good week...mine has been a roller coaster of a week. And not the fun kind, either!

Good news: the family/hospitalization crisis has gotten much, much better. Lots of progress has been made and the whole situation has markedly improved! [At this point, I should probably apologize to all of the nurses and PAs that I relentlessly grilled for information. /nervous chuckle] We've still got a long way to go, but I'm beyond relieved that things are in better shape than a week ago.

Mostly accurate depiction of my desk

Less-than-good news: I am drowning in work. At this point, I could probably work for a good 16 hours straight and maybe get caught up. Not 'ahead', mind you, but caught up.

Yeah...it's pretty grim on the work front...


Aside from work, driving to/from the hospital, and dealing with the family crisis, there isn't much going on...here's to hoping that things settle down a bit, though. One of these days, I'd like to have some sort of semblance of free time again!

Ending this post with a GIF that I laughed at for much longer than warranted..../giggle

Embrace the Suck...

Hey, guys...

If you've been reading my blog, you've probably noticed that I've been posting less and less often. I wanted to apologize for this...I have every intention of maintaining this blog and posting about randomly awesome things as often as possible.

In my last post, I briefly mentioned a family crisis...unfortunately, the crisis has gotten worse rather than better. Like, 'extended hospital stay that results in the family members rotating out shifts sleeping in the waiting room' worse. I plan on posting when I can, but I think it's going to be some time before I can get back to posting [almost] daily.

But, no worries, I definitely will continue posting...

On that note, here's a Supernatural GIF. It makes me smile...and then slightly motion sick, so don't look at it for too long :/

It's Summer!!! Ummm...What Now?

Good Monday morning to you!

I hope you guys are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend...as the proud daughter  of an incredible American soldier, I always support honoring our heroes. I know that I am truly blessed that my father came home from every single one of his missions and that there are far too many people that cannot say the same...my heart goes out to all of the families that have lost a service member and my respect and gratitude go to all veterans and active service members. Great sacrifice goes into everything that they've done and continue to do for our country. [Aaaaand, without them, there wouldn't be the holiday that many are going to enjoy...just saying /grin]

I hear that there are a lot of fun things to do today...lots of sales to shop and such. Guess who's not got the day off...yep! Me!

Happy...Monday.../faceplant

I've got a mountain of appraisal work to get through and a sick little one to boot. But, hey...complaining doesn't change anything, but coffee makes it more bearable! [That being said, if anyone would like to bring me some coffee, I'd be forever grateful...]

Some good news: the kiddo and I survived Kindergarten!! The school year wrapped up last week and his first official summer vacation has begun...and now I'm beginning to fully understand the despair that is the working parent's perspective on summer break.

How do parents handle it?!?

I'm less than 3 full working days into the summer and I'm already freaking out a little...how am I to balance keeping him safely occupied and entertained while working full-time hours+?!?

My usual 'go to' arsenal of babysitters [my parents] is woefully unavailable for the time being, and likely will be unavailable for the majority of the summer...we are unfortunately in the middle of quite a significant family crisis.

I feel like there's a delicate balance between leaving a child to entertain themselves and having the child feel neglected...it certainly doesn't help that my son's one of those kids that always wants someone to play with him, so he's asking for people to play with him after about 5 minutes of playing by himself.../sigh it's going to be a long summer.

Hey, Hey, Hey...

Pssssst! Hey!!

It's me! I know it's been a while since I last posted, but I promise I'm still alive!

Since I've been gone, it seems like I've had a lot going on and yet nothing going on at the same time...I always felt really busy, but looking back, I'm not quite sure why I felt that way.../shrug

Over the last couple weeks, I've had quite a bit of familial distress...I've got an aunt that's going through a tremendous amount of medical complications right now. That alone is enough to make for a worrisome situation, but add in the fact that she's overseas and it suddenly gets that much worse.

Luckily, we were able to figure out a way to get my cousin [her daughter] over there...but it's still a very stressful situation. Right now, the goal is to get her well enough to fly back to the states via MedEvac...her condition has been very up-and-down over the last week, but my aunt is definitely a fighter! So, if you don't mind, please throw up a quick prayer/positive thought/good juju for my aunt and the rest of my family...it's been quite the emotional roller coaster.

A more lighthearted development is my renewed love for My Little Pony...yes, I'm a 'grown-up' who still likes MLP...I don't quite remember how it happened, exactly, but I've been really looking into collecting the original ponies.

Lost her at the last second...
curse you, eBay!!

Like most girls of the 80's, I had some of these adorable ponies...but, of course, I played with them. So now, I've been scouring eBay and Etsy like crazy!

Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of MLP toys that people are selling...it's finding a particular pony that you love and happens to be in good condition that's the challenge.

It's the G1 ponies that I'm interested in collecting...these are the ones that came out between 1982 and 1995. There are so many of them, I know it wouldn't be practical to try and collect them all...so, I've decided to start with a group that might be a little more attainable. I'm looking for G1 Rainbow Ponies, Twinkle-Eyed Ponies, and a few particular Twice-as-Fancy ponies...I know these categories probably don't mean anything to you, so click here to see which ones I'm talking about...

Sooooo, if any of you happen to have some ponies that you no longer want, please let me know!!

Alrighty, I'm off to get things to prepare for a babyshower [yay.]...

Korean Food and Crafts...

I had quite the eventful weekend...

The kiddo and I went to pay my cousin a visit. She and her family moved to Alabama earlier this year, which is pretty awesome! My family on my Dad's side are all pretty nearby, nothing more than a two-hour drive or so...but, my family on my mom's side is very scattered. I've got aunts, uncles, and cousins spread out all the way from Oregon to Florida! That being said, I was glad to hear that they were moving to Alabama...makes planning a visit much easier when it's just a few hours rather than trying to plan a trip out to Colorado! [I'd have loved to have visited Colorado, but traveling that far can get very pricey...even more so when you factor in traveling with a child!]

Woohoo!!

It was a good visit...my cousin and I decided to get a little crafty...

Check it out!

My cousin had mentioned that she wanted to add some autumn-y stuff to the front of her house [she already had some autumn garland and cute scarecrows] so we stopped by her local Hobby Lobby to see what we could find.

After a few minutes of staring at the tons of autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving stuff, we decided to make a wreath...

That's the result! [The 'V' is for her last name, just in case you were wondering]

I know I'm not a professional wreath maker [is that even a thing?] but I thought it turned out rather well...I'm considering making one for my own door!

Another awesome thing about visiting my cousin? Korean food!

Donkatsu

Donkatsu is the Korean version of Tonkatsu. It's a thin pork cutlet that is breaded in Panko and fried...served with rice, whatever veggies you like, and this amazing sauce...it's a barbecue sauce, but with an Asian twist. Its hard to describe the sauce, but it tastes amazing! Here's a link to a recipe, just in case you're curious...

Donkatsu Recipe

Galbi

I also made some Galbi. Whenever we make Korean food for friends/family, Galbi is the resounding favorite. Beef short ribs are marinated and then grilled...and then you have a plate full of awesomeness!

I just read that Galbi has been ranked as one of the "World's 50 Most Delicious Foods," so that's pretty cool...

[World's 50 Most Delicious Foods]

The food pictures are not mine, I didn't think to take pictures of the culinary awesomeness...bummer.

I've got to get back to work...more posts soon!