What have I done

for me lately?

First, I’m sending up prayers for McB and her Dad, and the family, and the docs. I can’t imagine what she’s going through, but I know that she’s in my thoughts.

Second, I’m posting today, out of order, because I was supposed to post last week, but ZaZa took care of that for me. Thanks ZaZa. Then I was going to post on Monday, but I got sidetracked (more on that later!) and OH posted. Thanks OH. So, since nobody is on the schedule for the 5th Wednesday of the month, here I am.

Wapakwoman (the one I affectionatly think of as Wonderwoman, or WW for short) had a great last post. She brought out the truth that we all do many things, and many times we don’t give ourselves credit for all that we accomplish. I mean, take me, for instance. A typical day includes waking up, getting the six kids up, making sure they straighten up the house, starting a load of laundry, deciding on dinner, checking e-mail, finishing up a book and posting a review, working on one of my three stories, making sure the kids do something that resembles school, going to work at the restaurant for 4-8 hours, coming home, picking up the house, starting another load of laundry, checking e-mail again, and starting a new book that needs to be reviewed sometime in the coming days. Then there are the other days, that can include anything from mucking stalls for our ponies, to going to the feed store for 10 bails of hay, to building a website (I freelance, for friends), or cooking breakfast for 100+ people on Sunday mornings, or grocery shopping for my brood of 8, or taking care of two or six sick kids and/or a husband, or chaperoning a youth group trip, or helping someone deliver a baby, or, you know, any one of a half million other things that just pops up that needs to be done RIGHT NOW OR THE WORLD MIGHT POSSIBLY STOP SPINNING ON ITS AXIS. Yet every day, I feel like I do very little. My husband laughs when I call him from town (we live about 20 miles from civilization) and go over my laundry list of things I’ve done or am doing: buy groceries, go to the bank, go to the other bank, pay the power bill, pick up the dry cleaning, and oh yeah, I had to take the kids to the book store, because you know, we NEED new books. He always asks if I remembered to have my cape dry cleaned. Cape? Yeah, like the superhero cape. To him, my days sound crazy. He gets up early, drives to the train station, rides a train to his job, works 8 (or 10) hours, comes home, eats, does homework, and goes to sleep. His day sounds like a dream to me!

So that WW post, where we all actually got to share how much we do, really made me think. About the things I do, for other people. And the things I (don’t) do, for me. And I thought about the Indulgences of 2007, and how I’d never made my list, because really, who has time for that sort of thing? Well, with WWs post in my head, and Jenny’s words in my mind, I decided that I needed to start doing something for myself.

Monday, I took the day off work. I stayed in bed until 11am. I let the kids fend for themselves for breakfast and lunch. I took a long, hot bath, and read a book just because I wanted to read it, not because it needs to be reviewed this week. Then I got dressed up and met my friends at The Melting Pot (fondue, in case you were wondering) and had a wonderful “Girls Night Out”. I even turned off my cellphone. I ate strawberries dipped in amaretto white chocolate, and didn’t even think about how many calories were crossing my lips. We stayed well past the 2.5 suggested hours, and had fun just talking to each other. We spoke of friends and husbands and being moms, and all sorts of other things. The conversations weren’t nearly as important as the idea of just being there, four adult, married moms, getting together over good food and decent wine, enjoying the freedom of just being women. And when I left, I continued the evening with a different set of friends at a local tavern. I had one beer, three glasses of water, and more fantastic grown-up conversation. I came home very early in the morning, feeling a bit tired, but INCREDIBLY refreshed.

It’s not something I could do every day. It’s not something I’d want to do every day. Or even every week. But you know, once a month, I could get used to that. Couldn’t you?

So tell me… what have you done for you lately?

71 comments January 31st, 2007