Mat Leave: Day 1 — it's hung.

Oh god, the time has finally arrived and now it’s the first official day of my mat leave. I’m not going to lie - it’s a mixed bag of emotions: super happy because it just feels like an extended long weekend right now, but partly terrified and panicked because it means the baby could actually come at any time now (safely) even though I’m not technically due for another 2-3 weeks now. So far I’ve compiled a list of things to keep me busy so I can take my mind off the waiting game. I’ve also mentally committed to updating this blog everyday - even if it’s a quick update that says NO BABY YET. That way if there’s a blog update missing, you’ll know what’s up and why I’ve dropped off the face of the earth (i.e. more important things going on like trying to birth a human and then figure out how to keep it alive)

Here’s my list in no particular order:

Clean, vacuum and get house + home in order: this one is quite lame and I’m mostly going to get my mom to help me do this since she’s living with us part time now during the week. Now I understand why people have nannies or maids, that extra pair of hands helps and goes a LONG way. Now I can’t judge Corinne on the new season of the Bachelor who is an adult but has a nanny to cut up her cucumbers… because my mom helps me cut up my apples :D

Continue with style + design of our house: Dan and I moved into our new house on Oct 1st, so essentially it’s been just over 3 months. I would say we are 80% done in terms of major installations and furnishing, but it’s that remaining 20% in style and design that can really transform a place but can take FOREVER to do because it all relies on the little details. Case in point - Dan lived in our old condo for almost 10 years, half of that duration we occupied together and we NEVER put up any art work or tried to make it look put together.

Today I’ve been searching for the perfect round baskets to put underneath the side tables I got for our master bedroom. It took me 4 days to source something I liked (see below). Why did it take me so long? Because it had to be the perfect colour to match our room, the perfect straw aesthetic I am trying to go for, and also the perfect dimensions to fit underneath the table. This is my life now, spending hours upon hours sourcing the most mundane things.

Life stuff: this one is lame as well but absolutely necessary. I have to do a bunch of administrative things like apply for EI, get my hospital bag + health info in order, or as Dan calls it - prep our “bug out bag” which is a term used for some sort of zombie apocalypse or the world ending. It’s a bag that has your essential items that you can quickly access because you need to run and evacuate out of the house asap and allow you to survive for a good few days.

Meditate: this one is quite important and will definitely help me during my next chapter in my life - because lord knows I will need the internal strength and resolve to keep my sanity while trying to figure out how to keep a tiny human alive.

Hone my online shopping prowess: now that I’m exiled to the burbs without the easy access of the Eaton Centre at my doorsteps, I’m getting really good at scouring the Internet for online deals. Even though I’m off on mat leave, I vow to continue to stay abreast of all the sales still going on and alerting the appropriate people of these steals + deals.

Spend time with Frankly + Dan: Dan is still working (but phasing into part time now) and I want to savour the time I have right now where I can devote my attention to just Dan and Franks (mostly Franks). Here she is right now sitting with me as I write - I have to push her back a bit to make room for me to sit but here we are, just two snoozy girls wearing adorable sweaters because it’s cold as eff outside.

Vigilant neighbourhood watch monitoring: The street we moved onto is mostly an older crowd, and I would say almost half of them are retired. Now that I’ve entered a similar stage where I’m mostly at home, I’m committed to vigilant neighbourhood watching so I can a) stay up to date with street gossip and b) monitor any shady characters coming and going. This morning I was panicked because I saw a stranger next door coming and going on our driveway (that we share with our neighbour) and thought he was trying to break into our garage… but it was a false alarm. He was going into our neighbour’s backyard… and after 10 mins of secretly watching him, turns out he knows our neighbour because they ended up getting into a car and driving off together. When you’re home all day like I will be - you are allowed to be paranoid and have your imagination run wild like this. Totally normal.

Styling my bookshelf: I’m trying to target area by area of the home to make it as zen and organized as possible. First area I’m committing to is the book shelf. I know this will all disintegrate when the baby comes and this house will be turned into a war zone, but in the meantime - I might as well direct my energy to making it as zen as possible while I can!

Bananagrams: I got the double pack as an xmas gift and I tried playing it once and realized my brain has decayed and I couldn’t think of any good words to string together. So best to take the time now to sharpen the mind with a healthy solo game of Bananagrams.

Channel Ina Garten: continue my descent into the wonderful recipes of Ina Garten. Here is my lunch right now inspired from her sausage fennel rigatoni in her Cooking for Jeffrey cookbook:

Continue to monitor all the buy/sell Facebook groups I've joined - mom and or neighborhood related. Some of the stuff people post are HILARIOUS, case in point this gem below:

Not going to lie - was very tempted to bid on this. Why would someone need this? I have no idea - but I am pretty confident that in the near future there WOULD be some need where someone in my life would want to be gifted with an ironing board that has an almost naked man on it, in which his bikini disappears when heated. Just sayin'

As you can see - I have VERY lofty goals during the waiting period of my mat leave. This kid is going to be really proud that their mom is so damn ambitious :D