A Mom's Day Off

Image by delphaber via Flickr

I love what I do in my life right now. I have the privilege and luck to be able to stay home, take care of the kids, homeschool them, and be able to schedule my own day (most of the time). I also write for a few blogs, mostly not for pay, and I do a little other paying work here and there. I wouldn't trade it for any of the regular 40 hour per week paying jobs that I've had in the past. I would miss my kids too much, and I never liked anything enough to do it for that many hours per week.

Spending all of my waking hours being on call, though, being the go-to person for everything for everyone in my household, tends to wear on you after a while. Having the constant possibility of needing to do something for someone, or listening to what someone else is saying, it doesn't allow for any quality time inside my own head. It makes me go quite mad after a while. It's hard to get much done when you have to put it down every few minutes. Especially writing.

Most weeks I get a couple of hours off one night a week while my husband takes the kids swimming (thanks, Ed!), but that is usually it. As time goes on, it's not enough to get me sane and keep me there. Today, however, I asked for the whole day off. Not so much to do things that I don't have a chance to do otherwise, just so I can do them without interruption. Naturally the dog takes this opportunity to be high maintenance, but her needs are simple.

I'm only a small part of the way through my day, and I've already done some writing (see what I did there?), some crafting, and a little Netflix watching (Mad Men Season One Disc Two). Later on, I plan to do some reading, some exercise, some more writing, and perhaps some Beatles Rock Band.

I had better get going, though, because the one thing that is inevitable for time off, is that I always have more things that I want to do than I have time for.