Swimming in a Hurricane

My husband's current 'job' requires really long hours- a major investment of time and energy that will hopefully pay off with a traditional job that has more normal hours, a steady paycheck, and a cool project to show for it. Meanwhile, we're relying on savings and my energy to keep the household going.

What I'm trying to say, it I have yet to take the kayak out. However, thanks to skate-skiing, I recognize what is going on below the surface: I'm learning to swim in a hurricane. Much like when I added skiing to my life this winter, I am building my stamina to a new level. I get up and take care of our little farm, I clean the house, prepare many meals, run the errands, and parent the kids. All day, all night. And then get up and do it again.

Typically, I'm up at 6:30am and don't go to bed until 11pm, in order to get all the dishes done each day, laundry folded, bills paid, meals cooked and stored for my husband's dinners at the office. I'm hoping that I will have built up a tolerance for this level of activity by next week, so that I can start getting up at 5:30 to sneak in the paddling. I'd really like to start going to bed an hour earlier, though. I don't think I'll last very long on less than 7 hours of sleep per night.

I tortured myself on a friends 'ab roller' yesterday, and it feels so good to be sore. I'm looking forward to paddling a couple days a week. I'm not upset at not paddling yet- I see the progress happening in other ways, and am confident that this will all pull together. I have to look long-term. This is going to happen. All of my greatest physical challenges have had a huge mental component, and I feel like I'm getting the mental conditioning going strong these days, so the physical will naturally follow.

Life just got trickier

Oooo boy.

Life just gets more exciting every time I look up. Just when I'm finding my stride, I get to add something more into the juggling act.

My husband just got recruited for a job he simply must take. It's a three month gig, with almost no real pay, but the training, mentoring, and chance of making it big are huge. It's a start-up type of opportunity that many wish for, and he's worked really hard- he deserves a chance to bust ass.

The trick is, it really is busting ass. It's 7 days a week, all day and night. He'll be home for dinner and bedtime rituals with the kids maybe twice a week, and that's it. I'm on my own the rest of the time. We won't really see him at all. He'll be lucky if he clocks enough sleep to keep going strong. It's a major deadline push for him.

So for 3 months, I will be winging it alone, and if I want to take advantage of the warm season for paddling, I have to make it all happen before 8 am, and somehow have the energy to tend to the kids for another 13 hours after that, when they finally go to bed around 9pm. I'll have to scale back my tai chi attendance, sadly, to only once a week, and find someone to watch the kids for those couple of hours. (Did I mention that the in-laws are out of town for the next 2.5 months too? No grandparents to help out!)

I'll certainly get to explore another facet of endurance! Stay tuned....