Lately, I find myself short on time and patience. I’ve been slowly turning into “that mother” -– the one I hoped I’d never become. Think the Incredible Hulk meets Bree Hodge. I’m surprised my family hasn’t traded me in for a new model yet!
Part of the problem is that I don’t make good use of what little me-time there is. Which right now is the time when my kids are actually sleeping. Something has to change.
Here are 6 things I do (or wished I did) when they finally nod off for a nap or go to bed early:
Get on the floor and do 1,000 sit-ups and 500 push-ups.
A girl has to get her fitness on. Seriously, if lifting baskets of laundry and carrying the vacuum cleaner up and down stairs counts as working out, I’m Richard gosh darn Simmons. After I have the baby, I need to get serious in this department.
Read the latest bestseller, while enjoying a steaming cup of Earl Grey.
Dream on. The closest I get to reading a full-length novel these days is scanning my RSS feed and visiting my favorite blogs (which is awesome, by the way). And tea? Alone? I’m lucky to suck down a cup of coffee while trying to sneak into the bathroom in the morning.
Catch up on the latest chick flicks.
Does 26 back-to-back episodes of Dora the Explorer or watching The Wild Thornberry’s Movie over and over again count? Those are about as chick flickest as it gets around here lately. On the plus side, Aless is enjoying herself.
Play in the garden.
Oh, how I wish. Unfortunately, the only dirt I’ve been playing with is in the form of dust and whatever the peeps carry in on their shoes. I MISS gardening!
Prepare a divine 5-course meal complete with appetizers and an exotic dessert.
Ha! I’m a time-starved mother. I crock-pot, people!
Sleep.
This is probably the most laughable on the list. I never nap. Never recover the hours of lost sleep I face every day. I just don’t have that luxury. When the kids are sleeping, I am getting a lot of shit done. It’s just not the stuff I wish it was.
To sum things up, as you might have guessed, these are NOT things I do while the kids are sleeping.
What I’m really doing is working, blogging, folding laundry, sweeping, throwing a crock pot meal together, paying bills, and so on and on forever.
What do you do while your kids sleep? Do you catch up on housework and work in general? Or do you use this time to treat yourself? What do you wish you had time to do?