The Weekend

We made it! Yes, that's right. Made it to September. Single digit weeks to go....and the LAST (praise Jesus) major project To Do list weekend done, finis, checked off and completed. (See pictures for latest update - the BABIES ROOM!!)

I had to completely revise my RTWL (Richardson Twins Work List) on Friday night to prepare for the weekend because I realized almost everything was already crossed off! Instead of pages and pages of house projects and serious To Do's before babies, it now contains a page of baby room random miscellaneous stuff (which was just one LINE of the original 3-pager) and another page of delivery/hospital prep. What a difference from several months ago when it seemed like every single weekend we were tackling big and expensive projects! Even with this updated list, we crossed off so many things over the weekend I cannot even tell you all how thrilled this makes me.

I intended to title this post something like "The Nonprocrastinating" (which by the way is not a real word) or "The Planning" or something equally relevant, but the truth is it was just a LONG, but extremely productive, weekend after a LONG, but equally productive, work week. And I am exhausted!






If you have been following this journey, and if you know me, you are acutely aware of my dedication (oh okay, obsession) with NON-procrastination. I am a planner like nobody's business. Lists are my guide and I feel marvelous crossing stuff off. I am the person who gets every aspect of an event planned days in advance just in case something happens at the last minute. I'm the person who, especially with my job, likes to set deadlines a week ahead of the "real" due date just so NOTHING can get in the way of meeting the goal. Yes, yes, I know. I am a freak. Being a planner enables me to stress less. I am a methodical and organized thinker, and I just like chugging away at a goal without the last minute, insane, stressful and frustrating down to the wire nonsense. YES, I agree...stuff ALWAYS comes up last minute anyway, but I've found that showing up with everything I can possibly prepare for under wraps, it is a heck of a lot easier to deal with the unexpected. Equaling...less stress. For me. For everyone.

So, as you can imagine, when I set my RTWL completion goal back in May, I purposely planned to finish by the end of the summer. I wanted to be "done" as much as I possibly could be. In case I had to go on bedrest. In case I had to go in the hospital or there was an issue. Or geez, in case I was just too plain tired to move...in short: I wanted to be finished with the long list of To Do's before I got too big to help and too far along to risk the babies coming early and something not getting done. And yes, I knew full well this would leave me with a good 2 months of....well...being DONE! Which means two months of spending precious time with my family instead of working all weekend. And two months of resting more to help prevent third trimester twin issues. And two months of NOT stressing about preparations and enjoying the babies about to arrive.


Elated would describe my thoughts this evening. It is Monday night, Labor Day, what I could call the end of the "summer," and we are done. Yes, done. Done with the original To Do list. Done with baby room painting and preparation. Done with home decor hanging around the rest of the house. Done with baby gear assembly and vehicle cleaning. Done with house fixer upper projects. Just plain done. With 9 weeks to spare. You are thinking I am ridiculous, I realize this. We have spent a good many of our treasured summer weekends outright attacking this RTWL (with the generous and much appreciated help of family). But now, we are done. Sure, we have the revised baby prep items still on the list..like sterilize the feeding stuff, purchase things on our random needs list like a humidifier, pack a hospital bag, and put pictures in frames...but the reality is that IF the babies came tomorrow (and yes, they would be in the NICU for a long time so I do not wish for this to happen) but IF they did, we would be good and ready. Amazing!

This is all compounded by the fact that Friday I officially had my work "maternity leave meeting." That's right - I spent bits and pieces of days for several weeks before writing out every random aspect to my job that may come up and what to do about it. These are the things you cannot really teach someone by working side-by-side. They aren't things that are technically duties on my job description at work. These are the sporadic pop ups that I just take care of. They have never been written down, not even necessarily talked about. I just generally take care of it and move on in the course of my day....for five years. All well and good until you think about me leaving work for 12 weeks...in more scary terms...3 WHOLE months. My awesome employee is going to do a fantastic job in my absence, but the task of getting inside my head and figuring out how to handle a seriously random situation can be daunting I know. Especially given that most of this stuff was just knowledge in my head. So.....I wrote it down. Typed it out and held a meeting Friday morning to go over every word in the 4 page (double sided) document. May seem (again) ridiculous that I would spend time on that AND make sure it, too, was finished by the end of the summer, but I just didn't want to be a burden on my staff or my work in case I just have to be gone all of sudden. Even if I can keep working (as planned!) for another 7 weeks or so, I just wanted to make sure there was a peace about things in our office. Yes, I am leaving for a long time to care for these twins, but I don't want anyone to feel like I dumped on them by leaving. Nor do I want them to have to worry about the "what do I do if???" questions. I managed to get my files in order and my desk clutter-free as well. The weight lifted off my shoulders when I left work Friday afternoon was tremendous. Another win for preparation!

So now what? Haha. Seriously. Now WHAT? What do I do with my time? What do I do without a monstrous, weighty, and neverending mountain to hurdle? I know. I rest. :) I plug away at work for as long as I physically can. I play Toy Story with my child and watch Top Gear or Million Dollar Homes with my husband and enjoy the precious FEW weeks we have left as a family of three. I'm getting teary (seriously!) just thinking about how soon it will be here. And I am so VERY thankful that this weekend marks the end of the work. Now, let's all get ready for some FUN! Because really, what else do you call twin boys...but fun?!?! :)

(Post confession: I had to add this after posting. I read the post out loud to Ben like I usually do and ended up choking up at the last paragraph. Just another insight into me. I haven't cried ONE TIME during this pregnancy, hormones and all. But I seriously shed tears of joy over being prepared and meeting my goal. I am a FREAK! At least a happy pregnany one though... right?)