Max Leave and Projects
Last night, I talked to Frederick about taking today off. The week between Christmas and New Year's, his company encourages their employees to use their annual leave and take time off to spend with family. This is called Max Leave. It's not mandatory to take the time off though. I had asked Frederick to take just today off of work, as a bit of a recoup day from the holiday and he did. I told him that he didn't need to take the whole week off of work - just the 10 hours, not the 30 that he would normally work this week. He agreed to it.
We had a good morning, he worked on restoring order to our home while I slept in a little bit (which is actually just me getting the remaining sleep that I miss out on when Arabella wakes up so early and wants to nurse.) When I got up, Frederick, Orion and Arabella were just finishing up their breakfasts. I joined them for my breakfast and then we spent the remainder of the morning together and Orion finished opening up his presents, which included his big present from us. Before we got to that point though, Cephas and Nhan showed up to get their guitars because they were going to the music store and they wanted to look at getting a guitar repaired. Orion was so happy to see the boys and begged Frederick to take him downstairs with him.
Later in the day, Frederick and I put together Orion's big present (it was a Peg Perego motorized tractor) while Orion and Arabella took their afternoon nap. Once nap was over, we took them outside in the frigid cold weather so that Orion could try out his tractor without running into the furniture. Arabella and I sat in the garage while Orion tried out his tractor and Frederick shoveled the snow off of our driveway. We were outside for about 20 minutes before Orion said he wanted to go inside because it was too cold outside. I'm surprised he lasted that long, to be honest. It was about 10 degrees outside, with a windchill of -5 degrees. Brrrrr! After that, since we were all still bundled up, we headed out to the store to attempt to get tech help on a present that Frederick gave me. Long story short, the box was incorrect and the speaker he got for me was not truly compatible with all bluetooth devices, though it claimed to be. In the end, we returned the speaker, then went to another store, checked out speakers there and ended up getting me a different one that we know will work with my phone. We also picked up a fireplace media console. We have been wanting one for a short time and the one we picked up tonight was already about a third of the price of the other ones that we have been looking at that are comparable to it, but then on top of that, it was on sale for another 75 dollars off, so it ended up being extremely affordable. Which is nice, given that it's just after the holiday.
This weekend, Frederick and I will celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. He has plans to do something special for our anniversary and while I don't know exactly what it is, I do know that it will take time away from a few involved, time- and labor-intensive projects around the house that I was hoping to get done this week/weekend. We aren't going to have time to get these things done unless Frederick decides to take the next two days off of work for Max Leave and he isn't going to do that. He knows that he has a knee surgery coming up in the next few months and will need to take a little bit of time off for that. However, I think that the thought of going to work and relaxing is also what he is looking forward to. Because his work environment compared to home most days IS relaxing. I think he goes to work FOR a vacation! :) I'm half-kidding.
I'm trying to be okay with his decision to not take the time off of work, but I'm struggling with it. The major ways that I feel love from another person is time and touch. Which, when I want to get a project done that requires time and he plans something else (knowing that I have these projects in mind) and then is also not available to reschedule for the projects, it kind of takes away from the time aspect of things. But I have to remember to be grateful. There are many spouses who don't remember or plan or celebrate their anniversary with their spouse. Mine does, so I'm working on gratefulness.
I just need to figure out a different method to get the projects done that I want to accomplish, since I won't have Frederick here during the day to help me with them. I could ask his mom to come over and give me a hand with the babies, but she isn't very able to do that for the most part. I could ask Orion's previous daycare provider if I could bring Orion and Arabella over to daycare for the day (she has open spots, as she is closing her daycare next month), or just try to break it up into small bits that I can do while not creating more work for myself and also not getting overwhelmed by.
So, for tomorrow, I'm going to go through some cupboards in the kitchen and find some things to donate to SheaLynn's mom, as she moves into a new apartment on January 2nd after being homeless for almost a year. Obviously, she doesn't have much of anything, and honestly, we have an abundance of things that we have been blessed to be able to buy, so it only seems fitting to share that abundance with her. I talked to Frederick about it tonight and he agreed to it, so I want to do it soon so that SheaLynn's mom doesn't try to go out and buy things that I can provide for her.
If I get that done, I'll also go through my cleaning supplies and see what I can donate to her in that department as well. Frederick will probably be a little more resistant to that, as we will eventually use all of our cleaning supplies as well, but I'd like to help her out, we won't miss them as we have an abundance of those as well (I had a cleaning business before Arabella was born and I haven't started that back up, since it would require us to have two kids in daycare and I would barely be covering the cost of daycare while I was working.)
After that, I will look through our bedding. I know we have a space saver bag on top of Frederick's shelf in our bedroom closet that has blankets in it that I also know we don't need because they have been up there for over a year - probably more like two and a half years now - completely untouched. I would have gotten rid of them sooner, but Frederick doesn't like to get rid of stuff because we bought it or because we might need it or whatever. Meanwhile, I'm in purge mode for our house. I prefer things to be a little (lot) less cluttered and so we are coming from completely opposite sides of this equation.
Well, that's it for tonight. I'll type more tomorrow.
We had a good morning, he worked on restoring order to our home while I slept in a little bit (which is actually just me getting the remaining sleep that I miss out on when Arabella wakes up so early and wants to nurse.) When I got up, Frederick, Orion and Arabella were just finishing up their breakfasts. I joined them for my breakfast and then we spent the remainder of the morning together and Orion finished opening up his presents, which included his big present from us. Before we got to that point though, Cephas and Nhan showed up to get their guitars because they were going to the music store and they wanted to look at getting a guitar repaired. Orion was so happy to see the boys and begged Frederick to take him downstairs with him.
Later in the day, Frederick and I put together Orion's big present (it was a Peg Perego motorized tractor) while Orion and Arabella took their afternoon nap. Once nap was over, we took them outside in the frigid cold weather so that Orion could try out his tractor without running into the furniture. Arabella and I sat in the garage while Orion tried out his tractor and Frederick shoveled the snow off of our driveway. We were outside for about 20 minutes before Orion said he wanted to go inside because it was too cold outside. I'm surprised he lasted that long, to be honest. It was about 10 degrees outside, with a windchill of -5 degrees. Brrrrr! After that, since we were all still bundled up, we headed out to the store to attempt to get tech help on a present that Frederick gave me. Long story short, the box was incorrect and the speaker he got for me was not truly compatible with all bluetooth devices, though it claimed to be. In the end, we returned the speaker, then went to another store, checked out speakers there and ended up getting me a different one that we know will work with my phone. We also picked up a fireplace media console. We have been wanting one for a short time and the one we picked up tonight was already about a third of the price of the other ones that we have been looking at that are comparable to it, but then on top of that, it was on sale for another 75 dollars off, so it ended up being extremely affordable. Which is nice, given that it's just after the holiday.
This weekend, Frederick and I will celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. He has plans to do something special for our anniversary and while I don't know exactly what it is, I do know that it will take time away from a few involved, time- and labor-intensive projects around the house that I was hoping to get done this week/weekend. We aren't going to have time to get these things done unless Frederick decides to take the next two days off of work for Max Leave and he isn't going to do that. He knows that he has a knee surgery coming up in the next few months and will need to take a little bit of time off for that. However, I think that the thought of going to work and relaxing is also what he is looking forward to. Because his work environment compared to home most days IS relaxing. I think he goes to work FOR a vacation! :) I'm half-kidding.
I'm trying to be okay with his decision to not take the time off of work, but I'm struggling with it. The major ways that I feel love from another person is time and touch. Which, when I want to get a project done that requires time and he plans something else (knowing that I have these projects in mind) and then is also not available to reschedule for the projects, it kind of takes away from the time aspect of things. But I have to remember to be grateful. There are many spouses who don't remember or plan or celebrate their anniversary with their spouse. Mine does, so I'm working on gratefulness.
I just need to figure out a different method to get the projects done that I want to accomplish, since I won't have Frederick here during the day to help me with them. I could ask his mom to come over and give me a hand with the babies, but she isn't very able to do that for the most part. I could ask Orion's previous daycare provider if I could bring Orion and Arabella over to daycare for the day (she has open spots, as she is closing her daycare next month), or just try to break it up into small bits that I can do while not creating more work for myself and also not getting overwhelmed by.
So, for tomorrow, I'm going to go through some cupboards in the kitchen and find some things to donate to SheaLynn's mom, as she moves into a new apartment on January 2nd after being homeless for almost a year. Obviously, she doesn't have much of anything, and honestly, we have an abundance of things that we have been blessed to be able to buy, so it only seems fitting to share that abundance with her. I talked to Frederick about it tonight and he agreed to it, so I want to do it soon so that SheaLynn's mom doesn't try to go out and buy things that I can provide for her.
If I get that done, I'll also go through my cleaning supplies and see what I can donate to her in that department as well. Frederick will probably be a little more resistant to that, as we will eventually use all of our cleaning supplies as well, but I'd like to help her out, we won't miss them as we have an abundance of those as well (I had a cleaning business before Arabella was born and I haven't started that back up, since it would require us to have two kids in daycare and I would barely be covering the cost of daycare while I was working.)
After that, I will look through our bedding. I know we have a space saver bag on top of Frederick's shelf in our bedroom closet that has blankets in it that I also know we don't need because they have been up there for over a year - probably more like two and a half years now - completely untouched. I would have gotten rid of them sooner, but Frederick doesn't like to get rid of stuff because we bought it or because we might need it or whatever. Meanwhile, I'm in purge mode for our house. I prefer things to be a little (lot) less cluttered and so we are coming from completely opposite sides of this equation.
Well, that's it for tonight. I'll type more tomorrow.
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