Playtime Can't Wait

Seven years ago I was planning my wedding.  We had just bought a house.  We had a puppy.  I thought I was terribly busy.  I mean, I barely had time to cook with all the TV I needed to watch.  We ordered take out or went out most nights.

Now I laugh at that 28 year old girl.  I wish I could go back and say "You have no clue what it means to be busy."

These days, by the time I am home from work and have both kids in the car, I have roughly 3.5 hours before bedtime to do homework, feed snacks, make dinner, straighten the house, have a family sit-down meal together, bathe children, read books, brush teeth.  Then I have about an hour to do something for myself make lunches, pack backpacks/diaper bags, lay out clothes, do laundry before I just need to collapse in bed.  Or usually it's vegging out in front of the TV because I'm too tired to even think about brushing my teeth.

I don't get to play with my kids a lot. On my drive home from work, I'm ticking through my list of to do's when I get home.  Playtime is tough to fit in.  Because all those things above are must do's.  They aren't save for later's.  Every night those things have to be done.  I can always put playtime off for another time.

Except when I can't.  Except when it's January 10th and it's 52 degrees outside.  So last night - even though I still have a disastrous house full of Christmas gifts I have no room for, even though I have 6 loads of clean laundry that need put away, even though we haven't looked at Ainsley's January homework sheet yet, even though the diapers aren't clean and I may have to send disposables in to daycare - I said screw it.  Screw the house, and the diapers, and homework.  52 degrees in January just does not present itself that often.

Instead we plotted tricks against mommy,

and slid,

and swang,

and posed,

and giggled.

Sometimes all that is worth a messy house and a quicky dinner.