Back in the Saddle

I blame the naps.  The lack of naps. 

My son, who turns three in March, stopped napping (precipitously) over the holiday break.  (This photo is of the last nap I can remember him taking.  It was in January but it was inadvertent - hence his sleeping on the floor next to a box of wipes . . .)

Over the holidays, it was fine.  I was on a self-imposed break from blogging.  The agenda was to spend time with my family - great!  But when the non-napping continued into and through January, things got rough.  Last week, with the non-blizzard shutting down the subways - and preventing our Monday/Tuesday afternoon babysitter from coming - was the low point: a week of total non-productivity and an ultimate inability to gather my thoughts on any subject beyond what to feed the child for breakfast-snack-lunch-snack-or-dinner and is-it-bedtime-yet?!?!  But they say sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can turn things around. 

This week, with the return of babysitting and school, has seen a marked improvement and as we continue to adjust the overall schedule (earlier dinner and bedtime, a few more babysitting hours to make up for loosing the 10-12 work hours a week I used to have during naps - oof) I can already see things normalizing, productivity returning, my brain functioning once-again as the panic that had seized me around the lack of sleep/work-time begins to subside. 

It seems like such a lame excuse; like this sort of disruption should be more easily surmounted.  Oh well.  It is what it is.  What I wonder is how things might've been different if I hadn't stopped blogging (and newsletter-ing).  It has been surprisingly hard to jump back in and regain my momentum, and the naps are a big part of the problem but what if I hadn't broken my own stride?  Gretchen Rubin talks about this in a bunch of different ways - about how sometimes moderation is harder than just being absolute. 

Anyway, the metaphorical train is chug-chug-chugging down the tracks, picking up speed.  It feels good to be writing this - even this silly bit of explaining - and I look forward to more.

How about you?  Did your New Year start with a bang or a whimper?  What are your strategies for building momentum and getting things done?  I'd love to hear in the comments.