SWING

4 a (1): to influence decisively (swing a lot of votes) (2): to bring around by influence

It's amazing what a few chores left undone can do to swing my mood. Today was fairly exhausting. Not a bad day by any means. I started with a bit of alone time after dropping all of my girls off at school and then met a friend at Sweet 16th for breakfast - in my book, that's a great start to the day! Then after a few quick hours at work, I met a friend for lunch. Both of the breakfast and dinner were with people I truly enjoy, so it was fun to get time with them with no distractions, even if it was partially work related.

BUT, I have a ton of work to do this week. I'm working on a mailing to our donor list to help offset costs for the upcoming spring dance recital and banquet. (While we have historically asked parents to provide food for the banquet, we really want to honor them as well - by not asking them to cook - so we need to raise money to do that.) It's always a bigger project than I recall to write an articulate letter, create an insert, affix mailing labels and stuff 500 envelopes!

After a day chock full of work, friends and food, B had art club and A had ballet, so I dropped them off, headed home to the treadmill and then started the pick-up circuit, with B first, then K and finally A. Did you notice a lack of time spent cooking? I opted for macaroni and cheese for the girls and left-over breakfast burrito for myself.

Around 5:00 today, I had a headache and was daunted by the evening stretched out before me (J is at a Predator's game). But letting myself off the hook and not making dinner made a huge difference in my aching head and my overall outlook on life. After mac and cheese, the girls and I watched a bit of American Idol before they went to bed. Since they've been in bed, I watched the final hour of the show, sipped a glass of red wine and was generally lazy instead of reading for Waking Up Grey, writing for the women's retreat, reading for book club or starting tomorrow's laundry. So my lesson in all of this is that my children will not be irreparably harmed by one night of unwholesome, non-homemade food and I might be far better off having shirked a duty in favor of relaxing.