My new *free* days

I'm not used to this. At all.

As I mentioned in a previous post, now that Micah, Abby, Ashley and Emily are all in school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I find myself a free woman from 9-2. Yes, I do have Mabry with me and she does require nursing every few hours and some snuggle/giggle time in between but after being used to lots of little ones running through the house all day every day... EVERY. DAY... this is freedom.

On Thursday, I was so excited about the thought of getting some things done that I couldn't decided which things to do. 1) Go to the mall and make the needed returns/exchanges I still hadn't done from Christmas. 2) Clean the bathrooms, fold and put away a mountain of laundry, and vacuum the whole house. or 3) Paint my bedroom. Hm. Tough, isn't it! I was seriously SO indecisive about which of these things to do that even up to that morning AT 9, I was calling Jake for help in my decision making. He said, go shopping. So shopping I did. :)

I made the necessary returns and exchanges quickly and then I was able to use the gift card he got me for Christmas to buy myself some clothes! YAY! It was a beautiful thing. There were no children hanging out of the stroller trying to touch the wheels. No one hiding inside the circular clothing racks causing me panic. No little voices in the dressing room loudly commenting on my underwear. Bliss. :) Then, I met my mom and grandmother for lunch, and the *free* time was over all too quickly.

So now I'm saving the other two things for my next free days. Which meant 5 more days of the kids' bathtub growing some funk by the drain and digging through a beastly pile in my bedroom to find clean socks. And at least 7 more days until the inside of the house is fully painted and ready to sell. But the way I look at it, its 2 days this weekend that I can enjoy with my husband and kids all together instead of running around taking advantage of him being home so I can get stuff done.

What I'm learning:
~9-2 twice a week flies by and isn't as much time as you'd think
~its still enough time to regather myself into a beautifully sane state
~its still enough time to get a few things done that there's no way in the world I could do with 4 children during the week
~i need to plan these days in advance or they will be sadly waisted
~i find myself thinking about the kids the whole time... wondering if they're obeying at school or eating enough for lunch
~i'm grateful for this time but i'm hopelessly in love with my children and miss them desperately when they're not around