The Grind

Sometimes I hate my job.  My husband and I are small business owners of a real estate company.  He handles the day-to-day job full-time and I handle the paperwork.  When we go on vacation the Property Manager does my husband’s work, but my work just piles up.

So today I’m playing catch up with office stuff.  I’m also still working on my mother’s estate.  Just when I think it’s done another medical bill arrives.  Also I’m doing the mundane chores everyone hates – laundry, dishes, cleaning the toilets and other sexy things like that.

This is the last week of summer vacation for my kids, so I’m trying to get them reacquainted with the grind.  They are waking up a little earlier each day and I have them doing XtraMath.org and a few pages of Kumon workbooks every day so they don’t go into total shock the first week of school.

Mostly, though I’m making a concerted effort to have fun with them because life is short and school lasts forever when you’re a kid.  This has been a truly wonderful summer, one of the best ones I can remember.

That’s the plus side of being a small business owner: I make my own schedule.  So I’ve been able to enjoy taking my kids everywhere – parks, museums, the Minion movie and the lake – during the day and do my accounting work while they are playing.

In case you’re wondering, I do my workouts predawn.  Right now I do fasted cardio 3 a.m. – 3:45 a.m., shower, eat and then go to the gym to do strength training at 5 a.m.  I get back around 6:30 a.m. and fall back asleep until 8:30 a.m., when my husband leaves for work.  I’m in contest prep right now for my next bodybuilding competition, so that means I have to do a second cardio session at some point during the day.  Sometimes it’s in the afternoon in the garage while my kids play on the computer and sometimes I wait until my husband gets home and meet my friend at 24 Hour Fitness.

Of course, that schedule will change once school starts.

Did I mention I’m planning a Zombie Run fundraiser for my kids’ school?  I’m going to get local businesses to sponsor each obstacle to raise money to buy study aids for STAAR  testing.  The first meeting is tomorrow.  I think I’m going to market it, ‘Save Our Kids’ Brains’.  I’m actually really looking forward to planning this because it supports two things I’m passionate about: fitness and academics.

My competition prep is grinding on too.  I’m three weeks out and Robin, my coach, just gave me my target weight for show day, which is about 8 lbs. lighter than the last show.  I can’t even imagine what my expression was when he told me the number, but I know it wasn’t pretty.

I’ll get everything done though because I believe in the power of coffee.  Also, I’m a Type-A personality.  Give me a cup of coffee and a deadline and I’m your gal.

How about you?  How’s your Monday going?

Lisa 😉

Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two.  Her book, “She’s Losing It!”  is available at Amazon.com. ShesLosingIt.com (c) 2015 Lisa Traugott. All rights reserved. No portion of this blog, including any text, photographs, video, and artwork, may be reproduced or copied without written permission.