Pampering Yourself (Do you?)

One of FlyLady's rules of thumb is to Pamper Yourself at least once a week. Before I became a mom I was pretty good at doing this. I would try to take a bath every Sunday evening. Well, now that I am a mom, things like that, or even things that I didn't really consider pampering myself don't get done.

Example, the last time I got my hair cut (by someone other than myself) was July '07. Yes! What is that 14 months! I do have long hair, and never really got it cut that often before. But, now I would consider that trip to the salon a great pamper.

I need to find time, or rather make time, to pamper myself a little bit. On a rare occasion I actually take an evening shower by candle light. I need to start doing that more often and take a bath on the rare occasion.

Why do we need to make time for such things? Well, Sunday evening a big wind storm came through Ohio. (I live in Ohio) We had damage to our house and to my daughters swing set, which blew over. We like many in the state (I heard 2 million at one point) lost our power. We are lucky that we were only without power for about 7 to 8 hours. Most people I know are over 48 hours and counting now. But, without power, I couldn't wash dishes or laundry, iron, vacuum, or cook. These are things I had planned to do. After getting my daughter to bed, I sat in bed with my husband, who was watching a hand held, battery powered, TV and knitted by oil lamp. We both curled up and slept at 9:30.

I felt great on Monday. Having taken that break I had more energy to get things done on Monday. I got so much done during the day. Now, I am planning, hoping, praying, that I make the time in the future to pamper myself. I hope this isn't another one of those brilliant plans that don't happen because I convince myself that I don't have the time.

What do you do, or wish you made time for, to pamper yourself?

Memories and Garage Sale Pricing

I just finished pricing two more large bags of clothes for our garage sale. Yeah! Still so much more to do.

I got a little sad while pricing this morning. The clothes are so small, just like my baby girl used to be. Now when shopping for new clothes for Elena I pick out clothes that are too small. When I hold up the clothes that are the right size I can't believe how big they are. I know she has gotten so big. And I know that my just turned 3 year old is still small. But, she is growing so quickly.

I have never been one to look towards the past and miss it. I generally spend most of my time looking towards the future and the fun to be had. Becoming a mom seems to have changed that. I don't miss a day of being a single woman out on my own. Or a day of my fun college or high school years. I don't miss the care free days of my youth. But, I am going to miss helping my daughter with every single thing that she can now do on her own. And every year that passes of her youth. But, I still have the ability to look towards the future and see many great years of learning and teaching, in both of our lives, together.

Who knew that garage sale prep could bring a girl to tears?