Budgeting, Babies, and Pneumonia for Good Measure

This week was a whirlwind of MedExpress visits and thinking outside the box with childcare, work, home life, and sickness. No one prepares you for the times in motherhood where that funny looking masked guy with a stethoscope says to you, "Yeah, you have pneumonia." Then two little girls simultaneously look at you like a milk dispenser. It's just a little harrowing... a LOT of character-building.

HOWEVER, I have the help of a wonderful mother-in-law and father-in-law that took my oldest under their wing lately. Without that, I know I'd have withered long ago like a little pathetic dandelion that my childhood neighbors used to like to kill so much.

Now that I'm actually sleeping a few hours at a time again when the baby sleeps, I don't feel as feral anymore. I feel like I could climb Mount Everest, or at least that stack of laundry that needs folding now, but let's be honest, probably around the same height.

Knowing that my recovery was all but starting, life decided to throw another curveball and give my oldest the cold that started it all for me. Say a little prayer that it does not become the HAIL storm that rained furry upon my lungs, too. So far she seems that she is handling herself well. When she's sick like this, she craves all the extra cuddles, which this cuddle-deprived toddler mom is NOT complaining about.

It just comes down to the intricate juggling act, doesn't it? We really can't pretend to know the load of another mom, because we just have things so DIFFERENT than each other. Everyone has children with different age gaps. They have different homes to upkeep. They have different church schedules, school schedules, sport schedules, WORK schedules! But there they are in the midst- riding those storms.

There are personal wins to parents going through and surviving those waves! Sometimes they feel like the smallest wins, when in actuality they're very big in the grand scheme of how much we are juggling. Celebrate those actions you're doing to keep your home afloat!

This week I used those calms in between waves to do some more forward-thinking budgeting. I've found that I actually really love doing business math things like that, which if you would have told me any number of years ago that I'd enjoy doing ANY math, I'd call you an undercover math teacher and probably hiss at you. It calms me and adds some rationality to the mix, which is always good with two babies and a thirteen month age gap.

I've also worked at gaining some traction just posting about everyday life on my author and personal Instagram @hanniebanderson . Finding a balance with this was instrumental for me, as someone who usually gets sucked in by social media. Now, I make my reel for the day, interact with my follower friends a little, and try to keep my social media time limited. I have another post on that hopefully in the near future.

Either way, I just wanted to give an update and share a little wisdom that even when you're in the "trenches" of life, wherever it finds you. Make sure you keep your wits to take it one day at a time. I'm the last person who likes to accept help from others, but without accepting help these last few weeks I'd probably be propped up somewhere right now like Norman Bates' mom (okay, admission- I've never actually watched the movie, so if my reference is skewed. That's my horror-hating self's fault).

This is your reminder to "do the next hard thing" as they say. You may be kicking and sceaming along the way, or in my case, coughing. But you'll think back on how you survived and be like, "HOW?"

You might even have some good, or at least FUNNY, memories highlighting the road along the way.

Some of my memories

-My mom coming over and helping the days she got off work early

-Our six-month-old gaining the confidence and momentum to crawl more

-Our six-month-old proceeding to get impatient with said confidence and momentum and wanting mom to carry her so she can be active and grab stuff without doing the work

-Receiving a box of food from an old friend from my childhood church

BIGGEST HIGHLIGHT?

My mom coming over today to help with the girls and texting before,

Do you want something from Dunkin?

Worth it all.

It was good catching up a little, friends. Here's to a new week, and prayers to z lessened pneumonia!