Chipping away at stressors.

[rivka]

I'm making some progress towards managing the killer stress.

I signed up to make a freezerful of dinners at Let's Dish, which I've done several times before. It will cut down on the overall work of planning, shopping, and cooking; make it easier for one person to cook and supervise Alex at the same time; and allow more of the cooking to be transferred to Michael if necessary.

Through our church, we've found someone who is interested in taking over as Alex's nanny. Right now, we'd like help with Alex a couple of days a week. If Michael gets one of these jobs he's been contacted about, that will jump to either three or four days a week, depending on whether or not they're open to having him work a compressed schedule. The young woman I'm talking to right now is fine with two days a week, and may or may not be able to do more - but her twin sister is also looking for work and experienced with childcare, so we might wind up using them both in combination. She's going to come for a couple of half days this week, to see how it goes.

I at least got started on some of my backlog of committee responsibilities, and it's not as bad as I had feared. A good hour or two of effort should clear it out... if I can only find an hour or two in my schedule somewhere. But the job automatically looks smaller now that I've actually gotten it started.

After spending nearly two hours with my coworker on Saturday, I didn't go to the hospital at all yesterday. I felt a little guilty, but I think I needed a day to just do normal things. I'll go back again today. Fortunately, Lydia is totally cool with having me leave work a little early to go by the hospital, so working it into my schedule isn't a total nightmare.

Comments

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

Good for you for taking such positive steps towards making your life more manageable. Those sound like excellent choices.

You're an inspiration to the rest of us. Seriously. I know how much "start up" energy it takes to just initiate that kind of improvement.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

That's great progress in a short amount of time. Go Rivka!

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

the job automatically looks smaller now that I've actually gotten it started.

This is good news.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

Sometimes contemplating the mountain of tasks ahead of you makes it all seem impossible and too daunting; only once you jump in does it start to sort itself out and become manageable. I'm glad this is one of those times.

[livi-short.livejournal.com]

I signed up to make a freezerful of dinners at Let's Dish,

That sounds like a fantastic idea, i wish they had a similar pragram in England, i'd do that every month.

It is good that you are reducing stress, recognising that you need to reduce the stress is a good thing too.

I hope that the new nanny/nannies work out for you.

[zencuppa.livejournal.com]

Congrats on those great chips flying off the stress pile :-)

[kate_nepveu]

I missed your initial post on my quick post-Boskone skim, so let me say now that I'm sorry to hear about all this and glad that things are becoming more manageable for you. Best wishes for all involved.

[redbird]

Yay for good news.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Good job!