Monday thoughts

By Gaby -
Hi! How was everyone's weekend? It rained constantly here in Columbus, thwarting Ryan's plans to go bike riding with a friend who was visiting from Cincinnati with his family. Instead, we all just went out for a late lunch and had ice cream afterwards. Just lazily hung out before they left Sunday evening.  We really do love hanging out with friends and family, but there's nothing quite like having the house to yourself again, just being able to breathe and relax in the quiet and normalcy of your family's old routine.
Today, the only thing on the agenda is teaching my two students who come to my home on Monday afternoons. Pretty soon we will switch to Saturday mornings when school starts. I can't rave enough about how much more pleasant teaching from my own home is. No wasted time driving to a studio, no more pay cuts (plus my students still pay less and I get more since I have no overhead like a studio does) and things are just more laid back in my home. My students' and their mom also like playing with Maddie while I teach one sister, and then they'll switch off. So far, the system works! And although we're at the point, I suppose, where it's not necessary for me to bring in a second income, I really do miss "contributing". More than that, I miss interacting with other people and feeling like I have more to offer in addition to my motherly duties and responsibilities. Not complaining at all about being a mom to Maddie. Not one bit; but is it wrong to want a little more?!

Besides my tenosynovitis, which is the last of my post pregnancy symptoms to make its exit, I am back to feeling"normal". Pretty soon after I stopped pumping for good my cycle returned. I never thought I'd be so happy for my monthly"friend" (too much TMI, I know...sorry!) but it was just another reassurance that nature resolves itself and all is fine.

I'll leave a picture of the babe eating some ice cream on a very hot day last week. There was a food truck festival downtown this weekend. We tried out an Argentine truck with the grandparents (my mom is Argentine), rode the carousel twice, and ended it with Graeters ice cream.

Have a great Monday!


Comments

Shelley said…
I got to play with a 10 month old baby over the weekend, so fun! Although, as I watched the mama continually have to check on her roving, almost-walking baby, I was reminded of how much work goes into being the mom of a little one; I'd say you are contributing WAY more than you realize. Have you heard that saying "if the kids are alive at the end of the day, I've done my job"? - yep...so true!
August 15, 2016 at 3:01 PM
Gaby said…
Lol, thanks for that reminder, Shelley! I guess it's easy to get sucked into today's mixed messages from society on moms and just women, in general. When my husband watches maddie for, say, an hour while I do something else, as he hands her back he'll mutter back something about how tiring that hour was. I just have to laugh :p
August 15, 2016 at 3:53 PM
Leslie said…
It sounds like you have a great schedule going on for your teaching! I also agree with Shelley's comments about contributing. :) Also, so glad you are feeling more normal. It definitely takes time, doesn't it?!
August 25, 2016 at 10:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I can't wait!!

By Gaby -
Today, I opened up my laptop to catch up on my blog reading, and came across Puttin' On the G.R.I.T.S' blog with pictures of her Aspen trip...and it totally reminded me that in just about two weeks or so, I'll be GOING TO ASPEN!!!!  Can't believe how close it's getting.  Ryan and I have been patiently anticipating this trip since January.  Poor Ry, he needs to get away so badly.  New position = new stresses. But before that, I'll be going to Lexington, KY and Nashville, TN w/ my parents and two doggies.  Lexington is first to meet a 2nd (or 3rd?) cousin that I've never met before on my grandfather's side.  This is exciting for me b/c I never got to meet my grandfather as he died 2 months before I was born. After that, we'll be moving on to Nashville to see some old family friends.  We'll be there for most of the week, so I think I may take my violin with me as it'll be two retired couples + me.  I suspect there will lots of down time.  I ...
Read more

Warning: Do not read if you dislike feeling depressed:/

By Gaby -
This summer will have been my fifth year living and working in Columbus, and as I experience a turnover nearly every single year, I've been pondering more and more in recent weeks that I need to change some things.  I don't think any violin teacher or artist out there ever thinks they are doing the wrong thing or teaching their students incorrectly--don't we all tend to like the way we think and/or do things?!  But, even though I come to expect turnovers in students as a regular and normal thing, this year has just been so...weird.  I thought that I had matured enough and was experienced enough to get over those humps and not take it so personally when students left or quit as I did when I first started teaching, but I really have to admit--I've been shaken by particular students leaving, and with specific experiences w/ some parents.  Feelings of doubt--even incompetence--have washed over me, and that quickly turns into anger and defensive reactions when I can't pu...
Read more

Life lately

By Gaby -
Image
There are good days and there are bad days.  The good days are when I'm distracted from all things concerning my mom, or the times I see her in person or over Skype and catch her smiling or talking normally and it calms my soul;  the bad days catch me by surprise and kind of piss me off, quite frankly.  Like yesterday-- I was doing just fine, as I think I'd been for the past week, until I sat down last evening and opened a book I picked up from the library that I'd seen on someone's recent book list:   When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi.  I am not sure what I was thinking, reading a book written by a man around my age who died of terminal lung cancer shortly after writing it, especially in the midst of my own mother's terminal cancer diagnosis. I guess I thought it would help me come to terms with the concept of death and dying.  And it IS a good book--Kalinithi was a good writer, a neurosurgeon by training, but writer and philosopher at heart (he al...
Read more