Always stay focused. Stay in control of our lives and the routine that comes with them. Go to bed at the same time, wake up to an alarm or to the little one playing in their room since 5 a.m.—whichever applies to your situation. Leave the house at the same time, take the kids to daycare, the bus, or school. Make breakfast pretty much the same every day. In short, no matter what our situation, we have to go with the flow and turn it into a healthy, routine way of life for our kids. That’s how it goes, day after day, coffee after coffee. When school starts again, we get a little energy boost—thanks to the summer break. Our TV shows start up again, but—because there’s always a “but” to everything—homework, evening classes, and weekend school are back for the kids, a joy for some and a nightmare for others.
Our minds don’t have enough compartments to hold everything we have to do on one side and all our thoughts on the other. Who drinks more than one cup of coffee a day? Or a little glass of wine every “wine Friday”? Don’t raise your hand—I can see you. Seriously, it’s not easy to stay on top of it all: work, housework, meals, laundry, homework… 24 hours just isn’t nearly enough!
We all have our 15 minutes of daydreaming each day, when we picture ourselves somewhere else—in front of the hollow rock or on a beach in Cayo Coco, depending on the budget. One thing’s for sure: we all feel that urge to escape, to break free from the routine, at one time or another. At the end of the day, what keeps us going is when our little ones smile at us and whisper in our ears, “It’ll be okay, Mom, you’ve got this!”
Here are a few simple solutions to break up weeks that all feel the same:
1 - A night out to take the stress out of dinner.
2 - A walk in the park, just to spend some quality time together.
3 - A mini road trip on the weekend with no specific destination, just for fun, to get some fresh air. Sometimes you discover museums, beautiful scenery with hiking trails—anything is possible.
That’s it—solution 3 is my favorite. Through it all, it’s important to remember that we’re not alone. Same boat, same team. Let’s stay the course and remember that we can veer a few degrees without losing our direction. Here’s to our next vacation! Just one small detail—we just have to wait for it...