Feb 11, 2017

This post is equal parts “speaking of asking for help” and “all my dreams are about to come true.” Here’s what happened.

After I wrote this post about real everyday balance, I got to thinking about areas of my daily life that have been unnecessarily stressing me out and how I might make them not stressful.

Pressure point #1 was Olivia’s after school pick-up. While I love picking up my daughter from school and, ya know, not leaving her there forever, it has turned into one of the worst parts of the day at the fault of nobody. We’re too close for her to ride the bus and, unfortunately, her pick-up time collides explosively with Felix’s nap time every day. I have to wake him up early to go get Olivia almost every single day, which results in lots of crying and confusion and flailing around and wanting to be held down two flights of stairs and all the way into the car (and all through the pick up line), which is just plain overwhelming and physically straining for this pregnant mama.

I have friends and neighbors nearby that I knew I could ask, but I just felt guilty asking someone else to take responsibility for something that I could do myself. But enough was enough and yesterday I finally asked my friend who lives one block away and who also picks her daughter up at the same school every day if she could get Olivia too. She said yes in a heartbeat because, seriously, it was no big deal and I kind of feel like an idiot for not asking sooner. Like, months sooner. Thank goodness for fellow moms who get it. It’s such a small thing, but I’m so, so grateful. Longer naps for Felix starting this Monday. Booyah.

Pressure point #2 was dinner. As in, every single night for the past many months. At first when I got pregnant I was too sick to make dinner and now I’m just too overwhelmed by it. Bryan is awesome and is genuinely happy to come home and cook dinner for all of us when he gets home from work, but most days he doesn’t get off until 6pm, meaning we usually don’t eat until 7pm, and by then both kids (and maybe they’re mom) have already had multiple hunger-induced meltdowns. When my sister-in-law had her baby a couple months ago Bryan’s mom flew out to help and, among other things, made a bunch of freezer meals for her. And I’ve kind of been day dreaming about it ever since.

Lucky for me, Bryan’s mom only lives 40 minutes away from us, but I felt bad calling her up and asking her to make a bunch of meals for me, so I didn’t. Until yesterday when I did. Well, sort of. I texted and asked her if I bought all the groceries and planned some meals if she’d come help me cook and prep them so I could have a stockpile of freezer meals. I made sure to sound extra pitiful by saying we’d been having cereal for dinner a lot, which unfortunately is true. She was super kind and offered to come out and help me this coming Monday. And again I just kept thinking WHY DIDN’T I ASK SOONER?????

So I woke up at 6am this morning and planned a bunch of meals and went on an epic enough grocery shopping trip to go into labor (luckily I didn’t) and now I’m all set for meal-prep palooza 2017 on Monday. I even cleaned out the fridge and freezer and pantry for the occasion. And bought a freezer.

What?? Yeah ya heard me. Went to go look at puny chest freezers at Lowe’s yesterday and finally decided if I was going to spend the $200 on a super tiny chest freezer that was basically just a hole to pile things in then I might as well spend $500 and get an upright freezer with shelves and way more space and free delivery. So after I looked at them yesterday Bryan and I talked about it and this morning I called the store back and placed my order over the phone. Didn’t even have to lug my pregnant body back in. Freezer arrives Monday. (Insert fist bump emoji.)

I have ingredients and plans for about a dozen different meals (some we’ll be making/prepping multiple batches of at once) and a boatload of muffins and cookies and banana bread and I can’t help but feeling that ALL MY DREAMS ARE ABOUT TO COME TRUE! Real food! In our house! Possibly even finished and ready to at at 6pm when Bryan gets home instead of just getting started. You guys. I can’t even stand it. Except yes I can because it’s going to be so awesome.

Anyway, the Bernstein Bears moral of this story is that asking for help is the best and you should do it months before I did because: life.