Monday
It’s the first of the month, so I’m barely even out of bed before I’ve been billed for a series of subscriptions: Stronger by the Day ($10.69), a workout app I subscribed to back in January, have yet to use and must unsubscribe from; our family YMCA membership ($85), which I renewed last month and (are you seeing a pattern?!) have yet to use and am wondering if I should unsubscribe yet again; and the New York Times ($7.48), a subscription I cancelled when Brandin lost his job but really missed, so thought it was time to reinstate.
Atlas is at daycare today, and it’s the first day of our new tactic, where I’m to say goodbye at the door, assure him that I’ll be back and leave him in Robin’s capable hands and it goes… well, it goes.
He starts to cry as we pull up to the door and then looks positively bereft when I hand him over, so of course I then have a little cry in the car before I head across town to Physicians Urgent Care, where I’m having the first part of my pre-immigration physical done.
As part of my Green Card application, I’ve to get a full physical, with the doctor filling out specific forms for USCIS and giving them to me in a sealed envelope – all very high-level security clearance. It’s also high-level expensive ($350), and there are only certain places that do it, and on certain days. If I miss today I’ll have to wait for next Monday, and I need to get this done and dusted so that I can get my application going!
I had checked in online and was only able to get a 12pm appointment, but I show up at around 10.15am hoping that they’ll be able to fit me in earlier, and they can. I fill out some forms and only have about 15 minutes to wait before I’m taken back to have my blood drawn and give a urine sample.
While I’m in the waiting room out front, I overhear a bit of a back and forth with a family of six who are also waiting to have their physicals done. Their total cost is $1,227, which they pay in cash, and it makes me think just how difficult – and expensive – it is to legally immigrate to the US. The application itself incurs a further $2,000 fee (and as I write this, I wonder, is that per person?! I understand how coming illegally would be the only option for so many).
I’m done by around 11.15am, and am picking Atlas up at 12.30pm, so I decide to go to Conjure Coffee for a croissant and a drip coffee ($9.02) before I pick him up. I’ve brought my laptop, so I get a few emails answered and some bits ticked off my to-do list.
I also remember to pay our cleaner ($400) for the month ahead, feeling very grateful that it’s a four-Friday month, not a five-Friday month!
When I pick Atlas up, he’s sitting on Robin’s lap, sucking his thumb and looking very unhappy; she tells me that he’s had a bit of a rough day, and spent a lot of it crying and refusing to play with any of the other children.
I ask her what the next steps should be; will he be fired from the childminders?! She suggests that we give it another week or two, saying that, as he’s only in for two mornings, it’ll take him a bit longer to get used to things, and, if he’s no better next week, we try one week where he goes for four mornings in a row, to see if that helps.
I know this is such a universal conundrum, and that all children struggle with change and being away from whoever has become their primary caregiver, but it’s just so hard! I feel incredibly guilty for leaving him there to be miserable all morning, even if I, too, was miserable, having my blood drawn and peeing in a cup (and, I confess, all over my own hand).
When we get home he goes to bed pretty much immediately after a cuddle and a feed, and sleeps like a log for three hours, during which time I put up one wash and put on another, then sit down at my laptop and finish a content piece that’s due tomorrow, as well as planning out my workload for the rest of the week.
I’ve been trying this whole time-blocking thing on my calendar, but honestly, even when I have certain time slots allocated to certain things, I inevitably end up doing other things (lots of clothes-washing) in those slots anyway. Must be more disciplined.
When Brandin gets home with the boys, I make them hamburger helper (lol, another thing I swore I’d never make) and then head over to Bea’s to grab Finn’s sling, which we left in her house yesterday. He has a buckle fracture on his left shoulder from being thrown too roughly (by his Dad) on the trampoline, and though it doesn’t seem to be very painful any more, he should still be wearing his sling.
On the way home, I go through the Dairy Queen drive-thru and get ice-creams for us all. ($20.69)
Then it’s time to give Atlas his bath while the other two have showers and we tag-team bedtime (I nurse Atlas to sleep while Brandin reads books with the boys) before heading downstairs to make some decaf and watch the final Mandalorian episode.
(My burning question, from this whole show, is: do you think it’s really Pedro Pascal in that suit, all the time? Or does he just do a voiceover? I mean, it could be anyone in the suit!)
Daily total: $882.88
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