Time Out

I am a busy mom.  This week, like every week, was filled with running everywhere, getting this kid that way, and that kid this way. Sports, school, homework, showers, pajamas, reading, cleaning...all after a monotonous day of work.

Only this week is PMS WEEK, which is a special type of crappy.  If you are able to read between the lines, you would have already figured out that I cried (honestly) 3 times this week...?  That sounds about right.

Every night while the kids are taking showers or winding down for the night after whatever nightly activity we had planned, I round the house and clean up everything that no one bothered to clean themselves.  I wipe down the counters, again. I put the throw pillows back on the couch, again.  And chip dried toothpaste off the bathroom counter...again.
After they go to bed, if I am able to rummage up a little bit of energy in my zombie-like state of exhaustion, I open up my textbooks to do some studying.  
Admission- I went to a counselor for a while last year to handle some anxiety issues, and she said something interesting, and it certainly plays into this life that I have.  She asked me if I am a control freak, and not wanting to admit that I am, I answered that I am not a control freak, but I like my routine.  
She said that I need to start taking some time to myself; not just BY myself, but to myself.  I am so routined and regimened that I am letting the world spin around me and I am not noticing.  So-- 

I started taking "Time Outs," and it has made me a better mom.  

My kids are growing up, and I have been missing a lot of it.  Sure, I am seeing milestones and am more than present in their lives, but I was never actually watching them grow.  I was too busy keeping the house clean or switching over laundry that I wasn't seeing what amazing little humans they have become. 
Now, in my Time Outs, I am making friendship bracelets with B, sitting on G's bed while he plays a video game, dancing in the living room while singing HORRIBLY off-key to Taylor Swift.  The couch pillows that are on the floor become safe because "The carpet is LAVA!  AND WE CAN'T STEP IN THE LAVA, MOMMA!"  
They are happy kids.  They are beautiful and perfect.  They are growing up and while I have been a good mom to them, there were so many little things that I did not see until I started taking Time Outs.  
My own homework is important, but it can wait.  I can do it later.  
When they are winding down for the night, I don't need to start my
cleaning.  The crumbs can wait a few minutes.  There are worse things that could be dried to the bathroom counters.  
Take a Time Out of daily life and just be present.  I am spinning with the world now, rather than letting it spin around me.  Time Outs have an amazing way of re-grounding you.  Take one.  You need it...even if you don't know it.