What a Day Off Looks Like.

Someone once told me, as we were commiserating over our busy schedules, aka our children's busy schedules, that even if her entire day off is spent speeding around with her kids and participating in their lives, it still felt restful, because it was different than her daily grind.

My daily grind, as mentioned before, involves a full-time out of the home job.

I agree with this entirely. Our Saturdays are usually so jam-packed that I don't even have time to take two ten minute breaks like I do in my professional life. Yet oddly enough, on Saturday night I am still refreshed as if I had been lounging around all day in my pajamas.

I believe it is because I am: A. doing something different, and B. doing something I love.

And this is what my Saturday looked like this week:

7:45 am: woke up, plodded out into the house, logged on the computer while the girls were getting up and ready, and feasted my soul on this beautiful baby boy:
8:45 am: With 3 and 4 in tow, dropped 2 off at her job for a two hour morning shift. I think I am the only parent there taking a picture of a coach instead of a participant. I don't care. This is 2's first job and I am her mother and I am just so proud! Plus she looks really, really, really cute in her coach t-shirt.
10:05 am: Cheered on 3 at a dance performance at one of the Snowbird community centers here in Mesa. It was a great performance, the retired people came out in droves and loved every minute of it. And who wouldn't? Look at these girls!

11:15 am: Collected 2 from work.

11:45 am: 4's Ice Skating Lesson.

12:30 am: A lazy lunch at Paradise Bakery with 3 out of 4 of my favorite girls. We missed 1. We all wish 1 lived here so she could do lunch with us on Saturdays. But 1 lives with her husband and her husband lives in Utah so we will just have to live through it all. But we really really miss our 1.

1:30 pm: A trip to Target to purchase another set of sandals on sale for 2. The same sandals I had purchased the night before for 3, and 2 wanted. Drives me crazy. I TRY to buy 2 things and I am so ridiculously off base she is mortally offended. I DON'T try to buy her things and then she loves what I buy and is mortally offended I didn't buy her any. One day I will figure this out. Maybe when they are all 30 something.

2:15 pm: Took 2 to Wells Fargo Bank with her first two paychecks for a mother-daughter banking tutorial. We made an ATM deposit, conversed with a teller for a few minutes and discussed banking days and hours. It was a very stimulating conversation, believe me.

3:15 pm: Arrived back at home for the first time since we left that morning so the girls could do some Saturday work. I worked on my taxes (nope, still haven't filed.) (And I'm getting a refund! Crazy I know.) And wrote out our grocery list for our weekly grocery shopping trip.

5:00 pm: The Husband leaves for dance practice. A VERY funny story that I will tell at a later time. Right now, there are only two things you need to know: 1. He has NOT, I repeat NOT, started playing for the other team, and 2. He is doing it soley for 3, to make her happy. Because that's how he rolls......

We will explain more later.

5:45 pm: FINALLY. The Husband and I are together. The girls are done with their work, 2 is getting ready for a date, 3 and 4 are playing outside in the late afternoon/twilight hours, and The Husband and I are together. Did I already say that?

6:30 pm: The Husband and I go to Dinner and then on a fun outing.....

11:00 pm: The Husband and I arrive home, he promptly falls asleep, I sit on the couch watching Modern Family until 2 comes bouncing through the door at about 11:50 from her date. We talk, we hug, we wake up The Husband and we all go to bed.

The End.