Organizing Thursday: Maze Wide White Geometric Bookcase

I’ll be on maternity leave most of the summer with twins. With my first, I was on maternity leave in the fall/winter and I lived in yoga pants, nursing tanks, and cardigans or zip-up hoodies. I plan on spending most of my time in nursing tanks again, but I’m assuming the cardigans/hoodies will be too warm, and going without would make me feel pretty exposed (38H right now). I’ve seen a few short-sleeved zip-up hoodies, but otherwise I’m thinking oversized tshirts over the nursing tanks. Other suggestions?

We had our daughter’s annual IEP meeting this morning. I read the report last night, so there was no “news” at the meeting, but, man, those meetings are draining and tough! I’m working from home today and just want to do exactly nothing.

I could use some words of encouragement: She is getting ready to enter K. Her speech delay last year was moderate, and while her speech has not worsened, it is that she has made little to no progress. As a result, her speech delay is now considered severe. They are increasing her speech services. Her challenge is articulation, not understanding language.

At the meeting, they asked whether we (her parents) noticed or had trouble understanding her. I said that I do have trouble, but I don’t notice it very much because I am used to the way she speaks. They asked us to start practicing with her at home. I can absolutely do that, but I feel overwhelmed at taking on that role with her and balancing that with the limited time I have with her. I just want to call the day a loss and watch mindless tv/escape, but I know I should be working.

I just started a new job and everything I do seems to annoy my manager. I wrote last week – it’s a very trying time (we’re undergoing an audit that she’s unexpectedly leading) and so my tasks are very different, very administrative, from what presumably I’ll be doing once it’s over. I’ve had a good attitude and have been trying to be helpful and doing everything that’s asked of me.
Without going into detail – I just seem to have gotten on her bad side. She’s snappish with me in a way she’s not with other people. Questions that would reasonably be perceived as neutral and even reflecting that I’m trying to help are instead registering as annoying. And I’m not asking a lot or anything unreasonable. For example – I was tasked with something yesterday that included a folder with samples. I don’t have access to that network folder – it’s sensitive- so I asked today by email if I could request permission to access it. The response was general irritation at being interrupted (there is a huge deadline today, and the task I asked about doesn’t start until next week ). I honestly think now that basically anything I do is going to be seen as annoying. And I’ve never experienced this! I’ve seen it with other people in other jobs/capacities– where they’re held to an unreasonable standard, or the threshold of annoyance is just lower – and always felt bad for them, realizing even then that such things are arbitrary, generally. Now it is me and it feels terrible. Any advice? There really is a difference in how I’m treated versus other people, so it’s hard to attribute it to just the stress of the moment.

To the anon poster from yesterday inquiring about paying off student loans and looking for sample budgets… I posted a very brief breakdown of our monthly household budget on the thread.

I love seeing these things too if others want to share. I often feel like we can’t afford our lives even though we don’t live frivolously. Our daycare bills kill us.