Sunday, April 11, 2010

So I Took a Whole Day Off

If I write down all the little things I do during the day, it may seem like a lot.  So then why doesn't it ever seem like I get anything done?  Besides the laundry and dishes and floors and garden and chickens and let's not forget four kids and a husband, I (like all parents) try to squeeze in some "quality time" with the boys.  Sometimes just making one on one time to help with homework uninterrupted has to suffice.  Yet, other times, I'm helping them sound out words and playing whack-a-mole like a crazy person.  They laugh hysterically at my antics.  Ah, if they only knew the wonderful stress relief it provides.  There never seems to be enough hours in the day.  In my defense, I do have some burgeoning physical issues that I'm working through, but I am still mobile so I do what I can. 

After days of pushing myself to the limit, and being forced by pain to watch all the work I did be undone due to a temporary lack of mobility (I have joint issues that flare up if I over do it), I decided that I wasn't going to do a gosh-darned thing today.  Well, I dried the towels that I started this morning, before I came to this decision.  Other than that, I did my basic taking care of kids thing and that is it.  I played the wii with the boys.  That was interesting.  When they got a bit too rowdy, they grabbed a shopping bag and went through the house picking up any little bits of trash they could find.  Yay me, I didn't have to bend or look at the confetti-lined floor that seems to come along with children, and they got a new and very constructive so-called time out.

It was nice not worrying about things.  I ignored my piles that need to be boxed up.  I never went into the kids' room after I heard the dumping of the toy bin.  Why get myself all worked up.  The mess will still be there tomorrow and we'll deal with it then, when I am prepared to do so calmly.  I didn't do a single dish.  I didn't unload the dishwasher.  I had a very lazy day off, sorta.  The mess grew a bit, but I so seldom get a chance to watch they boys interact.  I'm to busy chasing after them telling them not to do things, which I still did to a much lesser extent.

The only trouble is, it's scary how easy it is not to pay attention to the work that needs doing.  It would be no trouble getting used to.  I'm the only one around here who seems bothered by it.  Perhaps this is because I claim the mess as my own, though we all contribute to it.  Well, I'm willing to share the blame and responsibility.  I'll get this place ship-shape, but then things they're-a-gonna-be-changin'.  I'll never be organized enough to have bins with individual names on them.  You know, the one those really anal (God love 'em) people have in which they deposit things that they've picked up throughout the house.  If I find the oldest's DS it goes in his bin, Hubby's screwdriver would go in his.  It is such a wonderful fantasy of an idea.  I am just so not that person.  I'm more the type of person that would gather up the things the kids left strewn about the house and dump it in a pile in front of their doors and tell them, "whatever is left here by the time I count to ten is garbage". Then I'd watch them come running.  Once it's gone, there are no reminder bins to look at.  But that's just me.

Tomorrow, is a family day, one of those rare moments where a few extra dollars and Hubby's day off actually coincide.  I'm hoping it will be great.  After tomorrow, Spring Break is officially over and I can concentrate on what is left to do around here.  However, that still leaves the rest of tomorrow, after we return, to do nothing but bask in the glory of my laziness.  Yeah, I could live with that.

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