They call me Procrastination

Anyone else with the nickname out there? It's okay, I'm not here to judge...

Usually, the lifestyle works for me. I even won an award for it back in my days at Elon (in my class of Teaching Fellows I was named the "Most likely to procrastinate and succeed.") and typically I work best under a bit of pressure.

So my life looks a lot like hanging with my kids and friends enjoying myself and then a scurry at the end to get things that need to be done completed. I've even mastered the art of getting closer and closer to a deadline before one final burst of effort to be done.

Take for example getting Christmas to family outside of NC. Typically I wait until the lines at the post begin to get long before I show my face. But even I'm not crazy and I try to be done there before the days of December hit the two digit with a 2 in the tens place numbers.

And then my sweet little guy ended up with RSV. It was fast and furious coming on, going from perfectly fine in the morning, to a fever of 101.5 after nap, to a hacking cough and burning fever of 104.5 by 8pm. The on call nurse walked me through fever management to get us through the night and then I took him in the next morning. Not sure what I was expecting to hear as a diagnosis, but I know I wasn't expecting a "No, not the flu, it's RSV, keep him rested and hydrated and call us back if the cough doesn't go away within two weeks." And so we left. (Apparently while I've had several cousins and friends with infants who were hospitalized with RSV, it isn't such a scary thing in pre-schoolers).

But I digress...

By yesterday Caleb was feeling much better, not 100% mind you, but better. And I had some stuff that HAD TO GO to northern Virginia and Ohio. So on the 21st of December I loaded up my two three year olds, an arsenal of snacks, two kid backpacks of favorite small toys, the double stroller, an armful of packages, and my life savings and headed to the post office. There I paid dues for all the times I've procrastinated in life. I lost track of time at the 1 hour 15 minute mark.

Next year I VOW to have all out of town gifts in the mail by the 15th so that I don't lose another afternoon of my life listening to folks grumbling in line at the post office.

The sad thing is that the number of children in my life seems to be proportionate with the tolerance I have for procrastination. When it was just Ian and I, my mind set was that if we didn't have HANDWRITTEN NOTES inside EACH and EVERY Christmas card out the door by the first week of December then it wasn't worth sending them. Then Kylie came along and my idea changed to they must be at least postmarked by the 15th, and simply signing the card by hand was enough. Last year I at least made an effort to get "the money shot" for the card by mid-December, but when none materialized by the 20th, we decided to punt and ended up doing Chinese New Year cards (you know, to honor the kids' heritage and all) instead. And come to think of it, we ended up doing photo cards where all I had to do was address envelopes...

So with three pre-schoolers at home this time next year? Yeah, I'll be the one loaded with the same amount of stuff as above, just hopefully this time in a TRIPLE stroller.

And to the rest of my procrastinating peeps? See you there!