New Beginnings Boys Room
August 10, 2018
Design by fire – 72 hours to get the job done
August 29, 2018
As the 2018-2019 school year is upon us, I made a plan to work from home for the two days my kids have left for summer, in thinking about it, other than weekends and our planned vacations, we have not just been at home literally all summer.
I had this grandiose plan going into the last weekend of summer: As a mom of two girls and a husband, I am going to attend my daughters last play of the summer season, do every piece of laundry, go in the pool, perfectly pack backpacks, label everything, go grocery shopping, go in the pool, purge (re-creating age appropriate space in their playroom), make home made meals, deep clean their bedroom, do hair for both girls for the first week of school, go in the pool, clean bathroom and (this is a big AND) design a home office, for which I have no plan (like what’s-so-ever…like none…zero) from a previous guest room, which was already emptied out…not to become an office, and last but not least….go in the pool.
Sounds easy enough for all moms, right?
Whelp here is how it went as of 10:37 A.M. on Monday 8/13/18…It rained like on and off (but mostly on) for the entire weekend, with brief moments of sunshine. The girls and I did get two games of bowling in (which Nora beat us both at the age of 4) and we did see the Winnie the Pooh movie, I also packed up all things first day of school, purged and re-created space in the playroom for a VPK age and 3rd grader to not only have fun but also do homework.
I disguised these new “work stations”/desks with bookends they made at the Home Depot kids club (which I’m quite sure they did not notice they are bookends and that putting books between them is their purpose) some art they have created in the form of pencil containers and sprinkled in a few starter books for their school year, planners and motivational art subtly placed EVERYWHERE…because what kid doesn’t need to know that “not all those who wander are lost” AND “oh the places you will go” to name a few.
Anyway, I completely off railed at the playroom purge. Which by the way was a complete success, there is a monster pile of giveaways, gently used toys we will need a U-haul to get to a donation place and though the kids are somewhat upset about it they now understand (at least for now) that what doesn’t get played with, put away or properly taken care of…will be given away.
I/We started the office with painting it, creating a chalk wall for office motivation to be written weekly along with reminders and notes. We placed the desk, chairs and ART. I finally framed the piece from Dubai which is a favorite of mine as it is just beautiful to look at while creating. The other is by an artist I was introduced to by a client and follow on Instagram. Here is why I love to “plug” local artists, small businesses and creatives alike, I found/saw the piece on IG yesterday from the ever so talented Will Simpson @timelessartz, who after messaging him to buy it was actually kind enough to deliver the art to our home. The office is not done but it feels like a good start and an excellent place to work from on these long designer nights when I cannot be in the Fort Lauderdale office. It also comes complete with a view into the playroom which will either drive me nuts or help me help with homework from a safe distance with two doors between us.
Things I did not complete (or even touch): No pool because of previously mentioned rain, no home cooked meals (mostly ubereats) ZERO laundry done, still have bathrooms to clean, hair to do, and I intended to be logged in to work (testing out new office) while managing laundry, going in pool and running errands.
ENTER 4:15AM always dependable “wrench in a perfect plan”
It’s now Monday morning in my last days of summer plan. I hear from my sleep the alarms, AC and Alexa go off indicating that the power is off. I stay asleep because there is no rain or weather outside that could cause a South Florida outage and hope that by the time my actual wake up alarm goes off the power will be restored. So I wake at 8am to a dead phone, no power (which in turn means no coffee) and one four year old with remote in hand asking for Friends Dora.
USES last 3% of phone battery to order Dunkin Donuts (As a Jersey Girl we run on Dunkin) “on the go” coffee and the kids favorite DD treats.
I arrive home and settle in with the kids only to have my eight year old, understanding that the power is off, but is trying to charge her ipad. We all have a discussion about the power being off. I internally panic after checking FPL and seeing that the power shall not be back up until 1:30pm…WTH now I will not be able to start the laundry that is completely covering the laundry room floor (not literally but for sure in my head) and the kids have to play (like without any type of technology) together.
WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE
After realizing that my neighbor (like directly across from my house) has power, I drop by phone over there to charge. I came home with the plan of gathering the children and returning to our neighbors to work while the kids maybe swim in their pool but then I heard thunder.
I sat down to collect my thoughts on how to turn this day around, and while sitting phoneless I realized I could hear the kids playing in the playroom…like nicely. A book I have had on my reading chair for like a week, after I read the disclaimer and became intimidated about reading (not just the disclaimer, which was also entertaining to me, but the sheer thickness of said book) I decided now was a good time to start. I grabbed a highlighter (as I tend to do while reading Tim Ferriss books) I started Tribe Of Mentors.
HERE’S THE ENTIRE POINT
How nice, it has been, these few hours (so far) of clarity. Maybe the first true break of the summer. The kids figuring it out, I’mnot attached to my phone (as I tend to be all the time for my business) and to have time to be appreciative of all of these small wins going into the new school year and ending the summer. My kids had a great summer! I did not have the ability to spend many days home with them due to AJD’s busy summer schedule but we did, go to Cuba, to Disney, the beaches and they both thoroughly enjoyed their summer camps! Nora stayed in pre-school but with a packed summer fun schedule and Aidan continuously made us proud as she explored the arts at one brand new camp this summer and performed in two plays and sung all on her own in another camp she and her pre-school friends have grown up in over the years.
Yes, I’ll take the power outage and mandatory disconnects as they come and as I watch them play from my reading area while taking in Tribe of Mentors (which so far is a great read). I’m actually thankful for this unscheduled break, so thankful that a weekly power outage or two may need to become a routine in my fast-passed, always have to be everywhere and do everything momprenuer life!
My Take Away
Sometimes you have to turn it all off to re-charge.
** I would be remiss not to give Start 2 Fin partial credit as the owner of this brand, who I work with ALL the time, always tells me to take time to re-charge (though I mostly wrote it off because I don’t have time to do that….I now see Chad) AND he introduced me to the Tim Ferriss Podcast, which is everything and has become my new go to over listening to the radio en-route to the office.
