I had only one request for my 30th birthday this year: a "Mom's Day."
Basically, this entailed me taking an entire day off from my job as a stay-at-home mom. My husband is incredibly supportive, but he works fairly long hours. This past year was a little difficult for me because Brad got a new job a month before our third child was born. He had to work quite a lot and for months and months, I was riding solo with three kids 4 years old and younger, daily raking in 13+ straight hours on my own.
Even when you love, love your kids and are so grateful to be home with them, that amount of time is sure to drive anyone a little batty. I guess I'm a light-weight!
Luckily, Brad's work has been getting better and coincidentally, I've been getting a little more sane and less likely to fly off the handle with my kids. But the days can still be a bit long, and being the extroverted-introvert that I am, I was craving some alone time.
So that's what I got: I left home at 7:30 AM and returned around 6:30 PM.
Here's what I did during "Mom's Day:"
1) Worked out as loong as I wanted. And since I'm still recovering from an achilles injury, this basically entailed me walking on a treadmill for forever and watching HGTV, since we don't have cable at home. I threw in a few squats and crunches for good measure.
[Intermittent return to home to shower, get ready, nurse the baby, and have Brad drop me off to the BART station.]
2) Read my book on the train into San Francisco. I don't know why, but this was especially lovely.
3) Wandered around Nordstrom's. I ate a ridiculously expensive salad and cookie from the foodcourt while reading. (Book is Committed, by the way.)
4) Made my first ever in-store purchase at Madewell: two summer t-shirts and a pair of jeans. And all off of clearance because I'm still a cheapskate.
5) Went to the newly re-opened SFMOMA. I stayed for almost 3 hours. Chuck Close, you will always have my heart.
6) Made my first ever in-store purchase at Anthropologie. I bought two blouses (also off of clearance), one of which I'm returning this week. Lesson learned: things often look prettier in an expensive store's dressing room mirror than in your home mirror.
7) Stopped by Sephora and received help choosing a concealer to officially cover my very-tired, oh-so-very-tired mom eyes. All my Target attempts were not working. And this was also my first-ever purchase from Sephora. (Clearly, I was enjoying myself.)
8) Read my book all the way home on the train. (Again, lovely!)
9) Walked home and arrived to a clean house, dinner set on the table, and happy kids. (Isn't my husband great?)
I logged 24,000 steps from all that beautiful walking. I'm planning on returning the favor for Brad for his birthday, and he doesn't have a say about that.
I said this on Instagram: it wasn't cheap, but it was cheaper than an insane asylum, because that's where I was headed! Taking that day off realllllllly helped me mentally feel re-energized. Plus, I missed my family like crazy! So, my goal was met. I had my alone time, Brad bonded more with the kids, and we all loved and appreciated each other more by the end of the day.
This might become my birthday thing from now on. I highly recommend it!
