Things I Have Done Today of Which I Am Proud

1. Ate breakfast.
2. Started laundry.
3. Mailed contracts for assignments that have been sitting, waiting to be signed and mailed, for several weeks.
4. Funded brokerage account so that I can actually invest a little money to maybe provide for my kids in the future.
5. Brought Quicken up to date and paid my bills.

Can I just say, for Dee and anyone else who ever feels like "some sort of mom-failure" (that would be pretty much anyone with a kid she cares about, if you ask me) the one thing I have insisted upon, since I started this mom thing almost 7 years ago, is that I get to take a shower every morning before my husband leaves the house. It is his responsibility to wake me in enough time to shower and dress. If he wakes me late, he has to hang around until I am done. Now, this is not a leisurely shower, but I get my 10 minutes in hot water and another 5-7 to dress. I never bother to blow dry my hair, but that's my own laziness. But the shower and dressing? Key to feeling human.

I have also found that I am more organized with four kids than I ever was with one, by necessity. I have now added a new invoilate rule to my morning routine: I make myself a beautiful cappuccino and drink it while sitting down. It only takes a moment to prepare and 2-3 mintues to drink, but it makes a real difference in how I feel. The eating part of breakfast, I am not so good about, which generally leaves me weak and STARVING around 10:30 a.m. So I'm trying to get better.

The paperwork used to fall by the wayside regularly, but we just implemented a new morning procedure: my husband now takes our 2-year-old (you know, the one who is the primary focus of this blog's angst) along on the carpool ride. This means that if the baby sleeps or is content to be awake in his cradle swing, I can have AN ENTIRE HOUR to myself. (Yes, my husband drives morning carpool. He also gives the kids their nightly baths. But I do pretty much everything else related to the care and feeding of our children, and he did not take on these responsibilities until I informed him that they were his. Try it. Speak firmly and calmly, and if that doesn't work, simply stop cooking dinner and doing laundry and everything else. He'll come around pretty fast.)

It is amazing how good that hour is, how desperately I crave it, and how the thought of it is enough to get me through bad, bad times.

Also, can I just say how cool it is to have someone whose blog I've read and enjoyed for so long pop by mine and comment? I feel like I've gained entry to a highly exclusive club.