Looking For Some Me-Time

There are days when I am itching to do the things I love.  Yesterday was one of those days where I spent the whole day trying to find quiet moments of time in which to sit down at my laptop and write

To blog about what is happening with me.

To write some articles for the magazines I write for.

To work on the wonderful project I have been working on with my sisters

To practice my Arabic vocabulary (this is becoming something of an obsession with me).

To mix up the beautiful, hand-crafted little batch of papers that my sister-in-law has just given me.

To respond to some sisters who have e-mailed me and I am dying to write back to.

The sit and stare at the new beads that I have just bought and see what my mind creates.

But some days it just doesn’t happen.

There are the dishes

The cleaning

Hosting various sets of guests.

Keeping my mother-in-law company

The dishes

Cooking for a big family

Keeping up with boys who are endlessly hungry.

Overseeing the half-term school projects that got left for the last day of the holidays.

Enough laundry to wash, dry and fold to teach me not to let it pile up.

Four kids to bathe, harass into brushing their teeth and chase back into bed.

Did I mention the dishes?

By the end of yesterday I had a clean house, plenty of food in the fridge and clean kids who had their school projects ready and finished.  I also had a deep frown and felt a bit put upon.  It all felt so unfair!!

I let myself wallow a little and then reminded myself to get a grip and to thank Allah (SWT) for giving me days and hands that are full to overflowing Alhamdulillah.  The work we do as women and as mothers is not unimportant or lacking in value.  It doesn’t mean we can’t be creative in the way we parent or run our home.

Still, we shouldn’t undervalue the need to do things we love and enjoy and the ability of these to refresh us and help us to grow.  We can’t invest in others unless we invest in ourselves.

So today, I hope to get an early start.  I am spending the day out with the children somewhere fun before they go back to school tomorrow and then once they are sufficiently tired out enough I will sit and stare at those beads for a bit insh’Allah.

"By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh