10 things #1

10 things I could be doing in the 45-60 minutes it takes my daughter to go to sleep.

My daughter, bless her heart, has recently taken to fighting bedtime like it hurts. There are times when she lays down, no assistance or intervention needed, and just goes to sleep. These days are rare. Usually we do a sick twisted tango of crying, negotiating, stalling and humiliation, that almost always ends up with me rubbing her back singing the Frozen soundtrack a few times over.

Somewhere during my 3rd repeat of “Let it go”, I start to think about all the things I could be doing in this time. They often include the following:

1- Workout DVD. Insanity? Tae Bo circa 1992? Hell, I could even swing two T25 DVDs. I’m not sure I would actually do these given the free time but I like to think I would. I would have rock hard abs and an ass that doesn’t quit (whatever that means).

2- Cook a gourmet meal — Maybe not gourmet but I could prep a mean casserole or even some chicken taquitos in this time. If I multitask I could even squeeze out a nice salsa.  

3- Dry and flat iron my hair.  Oh…. the simple luxuries of my “old’ life. I now feel like I didn’t appreciate the freedom of my pre-kids days to its’ full potential. Time wasted. It’s like the say, you don’t know what you have till it’s gone. And my time for beautiful sleek hair is gone.

4- Quick clean of my bedroom, living room and kitchen. Because let’s be honest, these rooms always need a spruce up nowadays.

5- Self mani/pedi. See #3 for reasoning.

6- Watch 2, or even possibly (gasp!) 3 episodes of Friends that are backlogged on my dvr, while enjoying a snack. Could I BE any more relaxed?

7- Learn how to play La Bamba on the guitar I never use. I once watched hubby do this while I nursed the baby and played dolls with my daughter. It seemed fun. Sigh…. Dad time is an entirely different thing to Mom time.

8- Update the software and antivirus stuff on my pc. Because eventually I would have so much free time that I would actually wanna do something boring that I keep putting off.

9- Write thank you notes, and return emails and phone calls. Also stuff I keep putting off until I have “free time”.  I’m probably pretty behind on all of these. If you are an acquaintance I owe one of these too: Don’t worry…. It’s coming.

10- Sort through all the bins and piles of outgrown baby clothes overfilling the garage and closet. This is the most dreaded and needed thing. Everytime I look at it I fear I will become a person qualified for Hoarders. Everytime I start to sort it I confirm my own fear by NEEDING to keep everything. I need help.