Confessions of a Mother during a government shutdown Pt. 1 of 3

I'm fine. I’m good. It’s perfect.

Those were my thoughts when I received notification that I would be officially furloughed due to the government shutdown. I work for the public affairs division of a government agency in Downtown L.A.

March 2013-Was getting ready to return to work after delivering Benny

My particular agency asked 90 percent of its workforce to not to report to work until Congress reached an agreement to fund the government for the 2014 Fiscal Year.

At first, the thought seemed silly, like something that would be solved within a day or two so I figured I’d hang out at home, spend some time with Benny and finish a few long overdue household tasks (like organize my laundry room area and shred pieces of unwanted documents that contain personal information). Of course, this would be the perfect time to write a few blog entries and make a nice home-cooked meal for Paul and Benny (Benny eats table foods now).

Benny enjoys a home-cooked vegetable medley

But as the days passed and I stayed glued to the television watching lawmakers go back & forth over non-government funding issues on C-SPAN, I started getting a bad feeling about the length of time I would be furloughed. And with a bad feeling came worry and with worry came doubt and with doubt came a total lack of motivation. And with a lack of motivation, I was absolutely inefficient during my time off!

I have every intention to make the most of my time off, I swear!

Yes I cleaned the house (a little) and yes I organized my laundry area (just enough) but I didn’t blog and I surely didn’t shred the many dozens of pages that need to be shredded. On the contrary, I learned that without my structured daily routine, I take longer to make decisions, I am a genuine lagger when it comes to jumpstarting my day, it’s impossible for me to plan effectively and with all the time in the world, I simply don’t have the time to complete simple household tasks (go figure!). That doesn’t mean I didn’t do ANYTHING, of course. But overall, I learned that at least for me, to not go to work literally means NO WORK!!! With the exception of the Manhattan Beach 10K race, I didn't necessarily push myself to excercise either!

Moments after crossing the finish line

So here I am, late at night today. It’s been over a week since we were recalled to return to the office which means I’m back to being busy. For example, today I left the office at 5:00pm, I picked up Benny at daycare, took him with me to the gym, brought him home, fed, bathed and put him to sleep. I prepared and packed my lunch for tomorrow, ironed my blouse, worked on some things for my sister’s bridal shower and still made time to sit and write this blog post. But since I’m pretty much reaching the end of my energy for the day, I’ll return tomorrow to let you know more about the few (but meaningful) things that I did do, while furloughed. Good Night!