Day Off Dilly Dallying

I have a confession to make: I took a day off from work this week and I spent it all by myself. I didn’t keep the kids home from daycare to spend some extra time with them (that’s what the three-day Fourth of July weekend was for, right?) No, this was a day just for myself. Now that it’s over, it’s kind of a blur, a mishmash of tasks accomplished and mild decadence.

In the tasks accomplished category, I waited for the landscaper to come and plant some bushes and annuals – I guess this isn’t actually anything I personally accomplished; I was grateful to not have to do any of the digging and mulch spreading myself. I also went to the grocery store and fought the pre-weekend crowd to stock up on kid food for three days at home together. And I threw the weekly mountain of dirty kids’ clothes into the washer.

In the decadent category, I went to a yoga class on a weekday morning, getting the kinks out and decompressing when I would normally be hunched over my desk at work. I followed that with a trip to the Cockeysville WalMart, where the big indulgence was two pair of $5 sunglasses, one to keep in the car and a back-up pair for my purse.

I balanced all those accomplishments with some uninterrupted reading time, followed by a nap, which normally would qualify as decadent, but in this case did not because it was interrupted three times by our ever-vigilant dog, who wanted me to know that the UPS truck and the mail truck were making their appointed rounds.

It was a great day of random nothingness, though in taking inventory, I’m bugged by the things on my lingering to-do list that didn’t get done. I didn’t clean any number of dirty corners of our house. I didn’t call Verizon to see what our wireless options are now that we are nearly four years into our two-year contract. And of course, like any working mom, I feel guilty about not spending this day with my children, making some memories with them. But I’m telling myself that every working parent – including those whose job is staying home with their children – needs a few hours away every now and then.