#but it also means i get up at 6 oclock and my house is loud and i dont sleep before midnight soooo

[aliengirl]

Thank you guys so much for the color suggestions, im already inspired 🩷✨️just be patient with me pls

[30something-workingmom]

You can leave your hat on...

In the last 6 weeks the pile of hats on my head grew, my knowledge on various subjects have been updated immensely and I have even learned new skills I did not know I could do. As a (working) mom each and every day I am used to wearing different hats though lately the pile of hats is getting bigger and bigger... 

Sitting at the kitchen table early mornings trying to get my inbox empty before the kids come down. Just me, a cup of tea, my laptop and occasionally a cat who also wonders what happened to the peace and quiet during the day. The clicking of my keyboard, a car driving past on its’ way to the office (yes some of them can…) or the kettle for yet another cuppa are the only sounds during my ‘stolen hours’.

Soft feet above my head indicates one of the three men in the house wakes up and is on its way down… Which can mean two things: 1) The sound of the coffee machine and then nothing as the tallest man leaves for work (something with vital services…) or 2) Breakfast service, Spotify on (too loud) and a flood of questions, useless information about computer games and other noise that comes out of their mouths. The three of us start our morning work routine around 9 oclock checking the tasks and the order they prefer doing it. While helping them I learn about Dutch grammar I was supposed to know already (one of the reasons I work internationally) and I face my own nightmares about calculating during my school days…. Learning my youngest how to write the letters correctly and crafting all sorts of animals makes me realize I am not only one teacher, but also the music, gym, kindergarten and 5th grade teacher (sometimes even 6th grade teacher as we, by accident,  received a wrong schedule somewhere in the chaos).

In between calculating, crafting an Easter egg and Dutch grammar I quickly participate in one or two online team meetings where I hear my colleagues talk about how quiet and peaceful working from home is… 🤔 After the meetings I check how the cookies & candies supply survived the raid of the boys while I was working and clean up the breakfast mess to prepare lunch (= re-use the breakfast mess for lunch). Afternoons in general are for outside activities… at least for the boys. I stay behind my laptop trying to get some work done.

Working on some new projects in between getting ice cream, be a police officer for yet another fight, team meetings, making lemonade for the gang of boys that suddenly appear in our backyard or sticking patches on bloody knees or arms.  All in the middle of this chaos my youngest turned 6 therefor the “corona proof - party planner-hat” was added to the pile as well. All in all when I use one of the many calculating forms I have learned from my 5th grader I had too many hats on like all of us do at the moment…

Hearing schools will reopen soon and sportclubs can pickup activities (for kids only) we slowly can move forward into a new post-corona lifestyle. This gave me joy though this will probably give us even more challenges than before. I hope the teachers, coaches and others will pick up the hats I left behind when I gave up somewhere along the way... 

While I just wrote my short story of the many hats I have been wearing for the last 6 weeks, I know we are lucky enough to live in an amazing country where many things are taken care off, excellent health care is available and the welfare system is good. We, the Dutch, can enjoy the outside, go to the store when we want, switch to a full digital office or meet others in very small groups taking the 1,5meter distance into account...  This weekend I will only have one hat on…A hat that gives me comfort, a hat that symbolizes a lot for me, a hat with many sweet memories of my friends around the globe who do not live in countries were there is an “intelligent lock down” like here.  

Hopefully in some months we all can wear that one hat of victory in a new world where we have beaten the virus together!! for now try to enjoy the little things in life because one day you realize that were big things! 

#staysafe #stayhealthy #thinkingofyou