Cutty

Preparing for a trip as big as what we had a couple of months ago, entailed putting our lives on hold.  What little time I had left was spent with family, sleep and errands.  So, when I got back from our month-long trip, I immersed myself on things that I put on hold:  housework, spa business, school involvement and pampering myself. It seemed that the time away from everything brought me back the focus I needed.  It was quite a refresher.   At home,  I was left with one househelp to deal with 3 kids and 1 infant, chores and cooking.  At work, I was bombarded with personnel and financial issues.  I had to deal with theft, firing an employee and hiring a replacement.  In between all those, I had to juggle chauffering the kids to school, nursing asthmatic kids and training the kids to be self-reliant individuals.  They had to help with chores, keeping the house clean, preparing their clothes and stuff for school.  We were all mult...

It has been two weeks since that telenovela drama took place.  Since then, every adult in our household has been preoccupied with chores and tending to the kids.  I do almost all the cooking and kitchen cleaning.  Our remaining yaya does the laundry and most of the dirty work (taking out the garbage, feeding the dog, poop cleaning, et al.)  We split yaya duties - looking after and grooming the kids.  When I can manage, I clean a specific area at a time.  I have sorted the pantry, the den and the master bedroom.  Next will be the kids' room.  I have put off ironing for so long, I have big piles of clothes ready for pressing. Fortunately, we still have clothes left in our closets.  Vic does his share also, to lessen our load. The kids are also becoming more involved in keeping the house orderly.  Johann has been helping me with washing the dishes and setting the table.  Javi and Bettina can bring their plates and cups to the sink....

Now that Tatlo is over, we're back to our boring lives once again. I am not complaining. After a weekend filled with activities, doing nothing and living our laid back lives are things we look forward to. I haven't gone back to the grind of being a full-time mom. Since I've been "absent" for a week, it's like were going back to step one. Putting the kids to bed, doing homework, implementing house rules and the like have taken a toll on my patience lately. It seems that everyone in this household is new to the stuff we used to call "routine." Since I have a few minutes to write about stuff, I will update you with what took place in this household during the holiday season. We had the usual Christmas breakfast at Circles and a year-end trip with the rest of the family, minus Bettina. Nope, no new bags for me even if there was temptation in every corner. EQ won. I am saving up for Paris. I'll get my reward there =P