26 Jul
I’m bone tired. The kind of exhaustion where you sit and look at all you have to do and then just sit some more. After seven rough vacation nights full of nighttime nursing and a full day’s journey back from the East coast, I can’t seem to get anything done.
And green parenting requires us to get things done! There’s a garden to water, cloth diapers to wash, food to prepare and summer produce to pick and preserve. How do we keep up with all this while so very tired?
And when will my baby resume sleeping through the night? For now, I have just resigned myself to serving my family pantry food and scrambled eggs so that I can avoid grocery shopping or intensive cooking. I’ve watered enough to keep the garden alive, but the berries will have to wait.
Are any of the rest of you facing the battle between your green ideals and your need for rest? Did you get a nap today? Please feel free to give yourself regular breaks. This green parenting gig is a marathon, not a sprint!
7 Responses for "Exhausted Eco-Friendly Motherhood"
Yes, I hear you! I always fall into bed totally exhausted every night.
On a side note, do you have any tips for traveling on an airplane with a 1 year old? We have a big trip coming up soon and I figure it will be more challenging now that she isn’t a small, cuddly baby anymore.
It took me 90 minutes to get B to bed tonight. I remember when it would take under 15. I am exhausted and there are never enough hours in the day.
BB,
I do have tips for traveling! We just braved a nine hour journey on two different planes there and back and found it surprisingly easy. For both our four year old and our one year old, we hit garage sales and grocery stores for small prizes and then wrapped all of them in comic papers. (I suppose this could have been a problem with security, but it wasn’t for us!) For the edibles, we chose things that were tough to eat, like fruit leather and small crackers that would take up some time. Our prize bag included mini books, small vehicles, a mini Etch a Sketch, and several other thrift store scores.
Hmm… What else? We also packed extremely lightly. Each of us got one gallon sized zip lock bag, so all our clothes fit in one carry on duffel. That may sound extreme, but it was nice not to have to check on bags. We just did laundry at my in-laws house nightly so it wasn’t a problem. In addition we had the diaper bag, a food bag with stuff from Trader Joes for all our meals, and my husband’s small backpack. We loaded the stroller up with all our bags and wheeled our way through the airport without a care! Good luck!
I hear you. I still have green beans in the fridge from almost 2 weeks ago that need snapped and frozen. There are a bunch of onions on the porch waiting for the dehydrator. We’ve been out of bread for about a week and I keep forgetting to make it until I don’t have time to see it through. It doesn’t seem like there are enough hours in the day to get everything done and spend quality time with the kids (the whole reason to stay at home).
Joy, did you not have to check car seats through? We have been checking bags since Audrey was born, just because we have to check the car seat anyway. We actually ended up liking this, as it leaves us really unencumbered in the airport and on the plane. They don’t charge for car seats, and I’ve usually been able to check the bag for free because it contains baby/kid stuff.
When I brought a car seat for my child, I used it on the plane (when he was a baby, my mom insisted on buying him his own seat, which was awesome).
As for some of the other questions… I frequently get my groceries delivered, and since my past purchases are saved online, I can checkout in about 10 minutes and I can do it in my pajamas after my son is asleep, and the groceries are there when I get up in the morning (Amazon Fresh, currently only an option in Seattle area, though before that I used Safeway and it was OK). Yes, I sometimes pay more than if I went to a store myself and bought store-brand items, but as a mom who works full-time, my time is worth the few extra bucks I spend on this.
I try to multi-task around the house as much as possible, but I’ll frequently find myself with 3 or 4 loads of clean laundry on the recliner, waiting for days to be folded.
And Joy, huge kudos to you for packing so lightly! I thought I was being good with one medium-sized checked bag for me and my son.
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