Hamster Wheel Days

You have those days, don’t you?  Where you try to pack everything in, speed up faster and faster and somehow think you CAN do it all!  Make three meals, check.  Homemade tortillas too, check.  Chisel away at that messed-up cast iron pan you picked up for cheap, check.  Homeschool (sort of), check.  Run for half an hour, check.  Make a shoulderbag for your swap buddy, check (but not too closely!). Fix the fundraiser ticket-ordering on your son’s preschool website, check.  Grocery shop, check. 

These are the days that I foolishly try to ‘compensate’ for thinking I’m lazy the other days.  Most days I just take care of my kids and my house.  That “just” is rather telling, isn’t it?  I find myself (ack) comparing myself to working moms sometimes, and feeling inadequate.  I pack a day full without a moment’s rest, and pat myself on the back for all my accomplishments.  It makes me more valuable, doesn’t it?  Multitasking mama, right here.  How is that a measure of my worth?  My list of what I’ve done = me.  Somewhere along the line I bought that argument hook, line, and sinker.  I occasionally choke on that sinker, however.  It’s a bit of a drag, this thought that I must do more to be more.  My rational mind rejects it, and thinks that enjoyment ought to move up the list!

The other side of the argument is that days like this do serious damage to the to-do list, and that IS a sweet thing at times.  I think there’s something to the fact that my Fridays are most often Hamster Days, so that I feel ready to relax a bit more on the weekend.  It’s not all bad!

Happy Friday, and … enjoy :).