Window of opportunity

Oh boy! I almost forgot today’s post!

I don’t know what it is. (Or maybe I do, but I still struggle with acceptance.) Every single task I try to plan these days is turning into one giant failure. Regular readers may remember that I was planning on making some DIY fixes to our Ford Nugget, to make it better suited to our demands. I have all the stuff at the ready. Nothing happened. Remember yesterday’s plans for pruning plants in my field experiment today? Nothing happened. And it’s not that I don’t want to. The only thing I need is a short window of opportunity. A magical moment where my son and daughter are both asleep and out for at least a couple of hours.

It is tough to stay at home and do even the simplest household tasks these days. Rafa gets too bored at home, then after some time we get annoyed and tired, so everybody is in a bad mood. We have a fantastic garden, which we love, and Rafa also loves to play in. Great solution, you would think. However, it is also a mosquito magnet, and an ant refuge. Rafa appears to be very sensitive to anything stinging, sucking or nettle-like. He literally starts to blister at every occasion. Yesterday yielded about ten new mosquito blisters on his arms, face and legs. He stepped into a stinging ant’s nest, which resulted in extra fun. So much fun this garden. So instead, during daytime, we usually try to do things that involve not our house and not our garden. So we’re on the move.

And guess what. These two little people decide to fall asleep on our drive to a lake to go for a swim. So we’re stuck in a parking lot with two sleeping muppets, and nothing to do. Well at least Heike and I talked. I almost forgot that you could actually have conversations with other adults. We just have no time… So talking to her was nice. But I still didn’t finish our van! Or the plants.

What I did finish was a due review report that I had agreed to write. It cost me all evening, but it had to be done. I don’t mind some work during parental leave, but I don’t want it to follow me when I’m traveling (which I will be from next week). At least I did something useful, I hope… But I so much wish I had more time to do stuff. I wish I could handle less sleep (I can’t).

I think the only solution is to accept that I will be a total disaster in the time to come. Why is that so bloody hard?