34 Year Old Woman With A Life Crisis
Kristyn Meyer is on a journey to make herself the best human that she can be. These posts are a reflection of that. She welcomes your support via reading and through commissioned affiliate links within her posts! To stay up to date on all of her shenanigans, please subscribe to her email list! (psst…there’s a free gift involved)
Today is the first full day of my 34th year of life. That means that I have been alive for over 3 decades. That is a whole lotta years. I decided today that I need to make this year count. Count in what ways? Well for starters, I decided that I needed to commit to getting into shape. So I started off the day eating Skittles for breakfast.
Baby steps. I still have 364 more days.
But also, I just need to invest in ME. You know how life gets so busy that you find yourself just going through the motions to get through the day? I actually love most aspects of my life. I have a kick-ass job that I love. Also, I have an awesome, smart and attractive husband. My kids are quite adorable, although sassy. My house is gorgeous. I drive a Toyota Camry. What could be better?
Separated, those things are wonderful. Actually, they are a blessing. I could be driving a Ford Focus and work in accounting. But I do not, because I am blessed. But when you jumble all of those things together, it’s harder to enjoy them all because they all overlap each other and demand your energy all at the same time and then you only get to enjoy tiny pieces of each and it becomes really exhausting and energy depleting. Am I right? Of course, I am.
Let’s listen to my story about a 34 Year old woman and her life crisis.
Take for instance, the normal day. Let’s take Sunday. Sunday’s are for rest and relaxation, correct?
No. No, they are not. Not when you have tiny offspring spawn who don’t know how to control their emotions or sleep in.
6:20AM – Baby wakes up. I carry him to his crib and pile in around 20 toys for him to play with in hopes that I can sleep just a litttttttle bit longer.
6:50AM – Baby starts crying. At least I got 30 more minutes of dozing. Pick up baby and start walking downstairs.
6:52AM – Smell something weird and wonder why my shirt is wet. Baby had a mini explosion in his diaper while in his crib and now it is all over me.
6:54AM – Wiping down baby while starting the shower. Have decided that both him and I are just going to get in the shower together to deal with the nastiness that has come into existence.
6:56AM – Husband walks downstairs because the baby has started screaming. I run into the living room with no shirt on and see him on the stairs. His face registers mass confusion. I explain that we have a poop emergency, I am taking the baby to the shower, and he needs to clean the bedding in the crib.
34 Year Old Woman With A Life Crisis
7:10AM – Everybody is in clean clothes and the bedding is in the washing machine.
7:20AM – Toddler wakes up. Demands many things, toddler style.
7:35AM – Even though she has a blanket, milk, a snack and her favorite show, she now starts whining because she needs a pillow.
7:45AM – Go to make coffee. Realize that my coffee grinder is at work so I have to resort to crappy Keurig coffee.
8:00AM – Keurig coffee is not strong enough to deal with 2 kids and a husband.
8:05AM – Go back to bed. Declare that Sunday is just over.
Just kidding. My day didn’t end until about 11 PM that day, and that was after another run-in with bodily fluids that were not my own and a baby screaming off and on for 2 hours because he has learned how to throw tantrums and he very much wants to practice that new skill. I was just starting to get stressed all over again typing out my morning, so I had to stop.
And that was a weekend day.
When you take into account an actual workday that includes a full day of meetings and more work than can possibly fit into 40 hours, and then you pick up a toddler from preschool and listen to all 672 of her random questions on the way home, get dinner ready while holding a fussy baby who is tired but is not allowed to take a nap or he will be up all night, then try to muster up enough energy to play with your children while portraying the image of a calm and patient mother so that they don’t think back on their childhood memories and see a raging bitch of a mother in all of them, move along to the bedtime routine, followed by the post-bedtime routine where you find out that the first round was just a joke.
Proceed to try to get everything ready for the next day because you know that it will take every ounce of energy to just get out the door the next morning looking even halfway presentable, while taking breaks from the next day prep to help with a last minute potty break, or to get a kleenex for the runniest nose in the world, or to hold a baby who is practicing those tantrums again.
After all is said and done, you watch 24 minutes of one of your shows and then pass out on your bed with half of your teeth brushed and crumbs encrusted in your bedding from the stress eating you participated in during your 24 minutes of free time.
Most Important Things To Not Ask At 7AM
You think about how frustrating life can be, and how you feel like you can’t enjoy it because you never get any time that is 100% dedicated to just you. But then,
Your toddler starts singing “Tomorrow” from Annie in the back seat of the car.
Your baby kisses you square on the lips.
You rock a project at work.
Your husband brings you home flowers.
You have one of those perfect summer days with a torrential downpour of a thunderstorm that leaves you all cozy inside.
Your kids start laughing uncontrollably together over something small.
‘N Sync comes on the radio (during Retro lunch hour, but let’s not take a depressing turn on this)
Your coworker from Mexico brings a giant bag of amazing coffee to share.
All in all, you get the picture.
Life gets crazy, life gets frustrating, life makes you want to sit in a corner in the fetal position and bawl your eyes out while rocking back and forth. But in those moments there are times that are so beautiful and so meaningful that you have to stop and take it in. And when you are able to do that, you are reminded that you have so much to feel grateful for, and that the mere fact that you are able to wake up and be surrounded by people who love you and think the world of you, is testament enough that your life is amazing and wonderful and great.
So to that end, I am going to spend my 34th year of life basking in the experiences that come my way. I am going to aim for good work-life balance, I am going to be present and in the moment with my kids, I am going to find outlets for just me so that I can keep my sanity intact, and I am going to stop eating Skittles for breakfast.
Also, I am going to buy blackout curtains for my children’s rooms so that hopefully I don’t have to see the pre-dawn hours on the weekends.
