I fixed lunches and prepped new lunchboxes and felt the tiredness weigh me down like a brick dress. I could have probably fallen asleep on my feet if I’d have tried.
I took craptastic pictures of those tasty lunches that I couldn’t share yesterday, and so I didn’t. In fact, I inadvertently took the day off. After a night of nightmares for my eight-year-old, who chose to sleep clinging to my legs (since the baby had my upper torso with breastfeeding), I let the brick dress finally take me down and nap for a half-hour with the baby and Baby Dude late morning. The thirty-minute cat-nap didn’t help me, though, but it was nice to have the option.
Immediately after waking, I sprang into action, laced up some walking shoes, and made off for the park, some sunshine, and a brisk walk to awaken my deadened legs and tired eyes. We took a few detours, being sure to enjoy the cooler-than-normal temperatures, and had fun playing on the swings at the park.
I never made it to the elementary school to have lunch with my new kindergartner. The guilt stayed with me, but there wasn’t time. Today was an unplanned day off, after all – from sleep, from normalcy, from posting about lunches, from lunching and volunteering at the school, this suddenly became Mom and Kids Day.
And then it hit me.
Why don’t I do this every week? Why don’t we take a “day off” and call it “Mom’s Monday” – where I decompress with the littles after the weekend, refresh and gear up for the week ahead, enjoy ourselves, make a plan to park and lunch and walk amongst ourselves. Where the commitments are few but the rewards are great. Why not?
And I showered.
For a long ass time.
Sweaty after a 3-mile walk, after the pushing on the swings and the fetching of almost-four-year-olds off of “Spiderman nets,” the sweat factor began to invade my smelling-nice factor, and a shower was a must. Plus, my scalp deserved a conditioning treatment, because I doubly sunburned it today and Saturday at soccer. Ow.
I Tetris’ed the dang exersaucer through the master and into the bathroom and disrobed while the kiddos played happily and I felt the hot water envelope me in a warm yet clean hug kind-of way.
And when the kids came home from school? We played. Sure, we did homework, because there was still soccer practice, but mom was CLEAN and HAPPY and “OFF” (her rocker. Ahem.) and so we freakin’ played like rockstars.
And when the kids left for soccer, mom still had to make dinner, but that’s okay! Because dinner was only empanaditas and chicken taquitos and mom loves making those, those are easy! And tasty! And unfortunately a little higher in calories than she would have liked because she ate too many and I guess mom was off from dieting, too, because OH HELLO STOMACH ACHE.
Oh, and mom totally got to talk on the phone! With a friend! (Ann Marie hooray!) Not quite the uninterrupted call she would’ve desired, but actual! adult! conversation! Like, whoa.
I’m totally making every Monday become “Mom’s Monday.” Ohh ooh, “MomDay?” Instead of dreading “yet another Monday,” what if we actually look forward to it?
What do you think? What would you do on your MomDay?
(And how cute is my teeny on the swing for the first time? AHHH!)