productivity and self-worth

Yesterday was an incredibly productive day. MQE and I sat down and, in under three hours completely finished our 2005 taxes. I joined forces with a coworker on-line and we were able to get an exam created. I was able to get another written for my class and sent off. We got to go to Mass last night and read lots of dinosaur stories before bedtime. Days like yesterday make me feel like a productive member of society, a feeling which my emotional sense of esteem seems to require; if there is nothing to show for the time I invested in a project, then on what did I just waste my time? I like to see RESULTS! MQE and I were talking about that in the context of maintaining a clean house. I was reminiscing about our time in New Orleans, how I would dedicate the first four hours of each Friday morning cleaning our house from top to bottom, getting the laundry taken care of, the wood floors vinegared, the millions of houseplants we had watered and appropriately fed, the sofa cushions turned...ah, such were the days. Laughing, MQE reminded me of the fact that we now have two destructo-monsters and it is now a futile attempt to even attempt such a schedule, as within an hour of having begun the work, there will be no evidence left of having cleaned at all.

We'll just keep with attacking the dustbunnies, I suppose, and that is going to have to do for a while longer. Will things ever go back to "normal" for me once children are old enough to be in school, at least in the mornings? I sure hope so...but until then I must watch myself to not allow the anticipation of those days overshadow the fun that we are having now.

It is an absolutely frigid day. Perhaps a good day for taking K ice skating? We will have to see if MQE will be willing to watch C for a block of time today. We haven't tried ice skating since K was just 2, and she did alright then.