filling the time

The days slide by... and if I'm not paying attention, I have No Idea what I've done with them. Partly, that's a curse of Mamahood, and partly, it's about me not being a very good steward of my time.

I have a budget for our money... and I usually think of myself as a pretty good time-manager. Except that I haven't really sat down and thought about how I want to be spending my time. I'm not sure that I view it as the incredibly rare and valuable resource that it is...

Lots of people have lots of opinions on how you should spend your time. Full-time work, stay-at-home-mama, housekeeping, exercise, girls-night-out, date-night with the hubby, playing with your kid, taking a nap, reading a book...

The thing with opinions is that they really usually work best for the person who is giving it. Not to say that sharing opinions is a bad thing, or that I don't OFTEN find value when someone shares theirs with me... it's just that at the end of the day, no one is responsible for me but me. And I don't want to look back and wish I'd spent my time differently.

Mark is out of town this week - and I'm trying to keep our schedule relaxed but productive - full of things that I might normally push aside for less meaningful, more mundane tasks. Because really - I'd rather eat dinner at a friends house and enjoy wonderful, supportive, loving company for a few hours than fold clothes. And I'd rather spend a few extra bucks on lunch to have some 1:1 time with a friend than stick like glue to my budget for the month and eat alone at home. Mark's only been gone since Sunday - and we miss Daddy A LOT, don't get me wrong - but I'm glad that I seem to be doing a better job of spending my days this time.