As a full time house mom, finding time to relax is often difficult.

Vacuum

This is going to sound so demented. I decided yesterday to "take a day off," by just being lazy and waiting to do everything till I felt like it. I never even started cleaning the house till 4 pm. This is a pretty big deal, because most days the house is clean by noon and all 4 children are well into lessons. We didn't do school, we all just relaxed together. I puttered around at answering email, and checking into documentation for my oldest daughter's high school stuff. We went to the grocery store and wandered around a while, deciding what to get. This is important because my husband usually gets home from work between 5 and 7 pm. Last night he didn't get here till 9:30. I still managed to get the entire house clean, and it was a real disaster. I know, cleaning the house. Yeah, but if you are in my shoes, meals, lessons and a clean house--that stuff makes your day. By the end of the day, I didn't feel like screaming, or pulling my hair out. Maybe I should take a day off more often.

A fitting use for the powers I was given

pig outside

Honestly, I was drawing a blank. Often, in life I just take everything I do as a given that somebody somewhere else can do it better. So, I asked my kids. One of my girls said, "Don't know many people that can make up a story like you and hold a room of 20 or so kids captive for an hour, dying to know what happens in the end." One of my girls said, "I don't know many kids who know what Kim Chee and Pho are, or have tasted them home made before. I say cooking." My other girl said, "Mommying." And the more I think about what I do all day, the more I wonder if she isn't right. I make sure everyone eats. I teach 4 different level school lessons. I make sure the house is totally in order before 5 pm. I pay bills. I make sure all the pets are cared for. I plan and generate interesting topics of study. I make sure we get to all of our appointments and classes. And generally just see to the welfare of all the people who live here. So I guess she might have something there. I asked my son, and he said, "Find my missing toys." Turns out I can also poof missing toys from thin air. So all of this makes me what? I need a really cool name for this. I keep thinking of that line from the movie,"Babe," where Hoggett decides that Babe really can herd sheep, and the mouse choir chimes in, "Pig of destiny." I think that that is what my super powers are. So I should say that I would be called, "Mom of Destiny," because it is obveous that this is what I am supposed to do with myself and my superpowers.

Tell me how much clean up is involved later?

Shadow patterns on drifting sand dunes before sunset on Morro Strand State Beach, Morro Bay, CA. Also characteristic of Montana de Oro area to the south.

I like the beach better for just me. It's nice to sit and listen to the surf. The beach l live closest to has hundreds of little tidepools with small animals in them. Sometimes you can even dip net fish. I find sunbathing to be an absolute waste of time. So, I never go in a bathing suit. But, if I am going with the whole gang, I like the pool better because there isn't as much gunk tracked into the house that I have to deal with later. So my main issue for prefrence then lies in the amount of clean up involoved later. Sand is my nemesis.