Friday, July 10, 2009

Remember Weekends

Can you remember when weekends were something to really be looked forward to? When they were filled with adventure, sleeping in, playfulness, curling up on the couch with a good book?

My weekends now are filled with laundry, house cleaning, prep cooking for the rest of the week. They are filled with crying girls who want you to watch TV at 6 a.m. Filled with an extra two meals a day to cook.

There's a lot to be enjoyed about weekends, too.

They are also filled with girly giggles, with Polly Pocket and her amazing rubber wardrobe, with baking cookies with my girls, with dozing on the couch while Max and Ruby fight over world dominance.

I just wish I looked forward to weekends the way I used to. Am I a bad person? Is it terrible that I don't look forward to 48 uninterrupted hours of family time just because I know that the laundry pile is threatening to take over the basement and "Holy Stuck On Cheese, Batman, how are these counters filled with dirty dishes when we JUST washed dishes!!"

This weekend, I promise that I won't make myself miserable and long for Monday's sanity. This weekend I promise to do the following without feeling even a tinge of guilt:
  • Read 200 pages of Empire Falls. That should be enough to finish it and get it back to the library by it's due date. And be prepared for book club before the night before.
  • Crochet something that I like. Something for me. I will probably have to make a couple of flowers to relieve my guilt, but I am starting a project all for me, darn it. I haven't made anything for myself in about four years.
  • Have a big breakfast on Saturday with waffles and the whole nine yards.
  • Have a small breakfast on Sunday so that I don't have to think about church clothes and getting the kids ready until the last possible moment.
  • Sleep in at least one day.
  • Watch a movie. Even if it's on TV. Even if it's riddled with commercials. Even if it's something I thought I'd never watch.
  • WRITE!!! I should be able to write ten pages in a weekend, right? Right!
  • Spend at least 2 hours not caring, even a little, about laundry.
Okay, I might fail. That's a lot of time-sucking things. I figure I've got at least 10 hours wrapped up in reading, writing and watching a movie. But I'm going to try. Really hard.

So, do me a favor and use the comments section to make a promise to yourself about what you are going to do this weekend. I'm sure that a lot of you are like me and need to make yourself do something fun. Not because you're all martyr-y but because you just get so wrapped up in doing what has to be done, that you forget it's just gonna have to be done tomorrow, too. Some of you may have the opposite problem and maybe you should promise to spend two hours caring about the laundry pile. Or maybe there's just something you've been meaning to do like take more pictures of the kids or go to the park or take a walk at dusk.

Whatever. Just do it to make me feel better.

4 comments:

Jenn-Jenn, the Mother Hen said...

I promise to read for two hours this weekend. I also promise to spend twice that working on getting the old house ready to turn back over to the leasing company. So there, a promise to work AND play this weekend!

Strangeite said...

I will do you one better. I am abandoning my wife, daughter and son, so that I can spend the weekend deep in Eastern Kentucky living an Elmore Leonard novel, complete with Mountain Mafia controlled racetrack.

Do I feel guilty?

Yes.

Am I going?

Yes.

Suze said...

I'm hoping to do some painting. Like walls, not art.

Jamie Roberts said...

My promise is a little backward...like me :) the last few months have been chaotic with baseball, soccer, work and just generally having fun...so my promise is to find my house again. i'm going to wash that mountain of clothes and file those papers away that have been piling up since april. i'm actually going to take the time to read the sunday school lesson before i get to sunday school..lol
it sounds like a lot of work, but it's selfish because i'm a creature that needs order in my life to relax. good luck to everyone with finding their joy this weekend!