flea

It's been a tough week in a lot of ways, and I think I need to remind myself that it is HARD to move, to have every single routine change, and at only 3 weeks in we can't expect things to have settled down yet.

Work is tiring just because every single thing is new. I am not subject to the stress and overwork that my new colleagues are (since classes start Monday and there are a billion things happening - new grad student and faculty orientations, prepping for the first big teaching push) but their busyness means stuff like teaching me how to use the calendaring system (Oracle calendar, and if I thought Lotus Notes was wonky I have been schooled) is by necessity a low priority.

The kids have much longer days than they used to, and newness is stressful and tiring for them at the same time as having a structured routine is helpful . Casper's school starts a full hour earlier than her old school, and the adjustment to waking up in the mornings is slow. Today was a good day getting up and out of the house, but she wanted to be walked in to the building (although she knows the way) and was clingy. With drop-off at 7:40 and us picking her up from after school at 5:20, that's 9 hours and 40 minutes in someone else's care. Last year it was 8h 20min or so. Long.

Dillo's also doing a long day. He's at day care from 8:10 to 4:50 or so - 8 hours 40 minutes - and last year he was generally only at day care from 9 to 4:40 - 7 hours 40 minutes. He's most clingy on the way home - wants to be held as we are driving, cries when we stop to get Casper, wants to nurse immediately and for a long time in the pink chair. I have no idea how we'll get dinner on when mr. flea is working next week (he's been in charge of dinner this week). I forsee some cooking the night before.

I really hope mr. flea's schedule is flexible and he won't have to stay until 6 or something horrible. That would frell everything up.

I haven't been dealing well with the children's neediness this week because I have my own neediness. They whine and cry and fight and I can't take it and yell. And mr. flea and I have not been working well together. I don't feel supported by him right now, and I need that. And practically, we didn't get as much done of the around-the-house things as I wanted to before my work started. I want to finish unpacking, find places for things, start hanging curtains and the like. I don't want to do these because I care about what other people think, but because I need to make the place my own and have order and set routines for my own sanity. I'm buying a new iron this weekend, because not being able to find my iron is stressing me out immensely.