The New Normal

Just when I think I am in a routine at home that works and I feel comfortable, truly happy, and feel like things are flowing along smoothly (for the most part), my boat starts to get a little shaky, something different gets in my path, and BOOM, I'm off course again.

I feel it. I start thinking, "Boy, this week has been busy, and so out of the norm. I'm sure next week will feel differently." But, it doesn't. I find I'm still a little shaky, and things aren't quite, well, "right".

An example of this was when my son started having sleep issues and monsters. We bought him a twin bed and he'd be up a million times during the night, and sometimes up for good at 3:45 AM. I ended up having to pack a "morning bag" of all my essentials that I could just grab and use to get ready in a different bathroom, since he was up. That became part of my "new normal" then, toting that bag out every morning and back again in the evening. We also starting putting him to bed later, and leaving his door open, which did not allow us to watch TV in the living room. I hated that! I wanted that "normal" back, my time to veg on the sofa. Instead, I was having to sit on our bed in the back to watch TV, and I didn't like that.

Over the last few days, we've been able to create a "new normal", of waiting until he's asleep around 8 pm, then closing his door, and we can watch TV once again in the living room. AHHH....it feels so nice, to have our dogs curled up next to us, feet up, in our space.

I'm realizing too, that something else has felt off lately. I've been needing to pick up my son later, so many nights a week, due to other obligations. It used to be I could get him by 4:30. Now, some days it is 4:45 or even 5:10. I hate it, because I know he's waiting, peeking his little (and cute) face into the window peering into the daycare lobby. I keep thinking my schedule will change, but maybe, just maybe, it too, is the "new normal". Maybe that's just the way things are going to be.

Being a parent is such a growing experience for me, for me to get out of my little shell I've been living in and realize how little control I have over every little thing.

I think I've coined a new phrase for myself, "The New Normal", that normal doesn't always stay the same, but it is normal for that time period, only, until something new steps in.

How have you seen stages like that in your life, and how do you go through them with a positive attitude?