Knights of the Changing Table

by Carlos

What is a successful day? I suppose when a salesman makes a sale, that's a good day. I suppose that a doctor gets full satisfaction at helping her patients. What about for me; a homemaker? What do I call a successful day? When is it that I can go to bed and say, "job well done"?
Well, lately I've felt more successful than in a long time.
After my last blog, I realized that I had lost my timing. Some how, at some point in the last few months, I lost my ability to get things done. The laundry was getting out of hand. There were clothes to-be-washed and clothes to-be-put-away and hardly any clothes to-wear. I was slipping on all my tasks that needed to be done on a computer and the grass was in the to-be-cut category for way too long.
I know how to get things done; I need to set aside a time to do it. If there is no scheduled time for it, the task will not get done. So, last week I sat down and wrote down a more specific list of my weekly duties. I knew that Tuesdays and Wednesdays were my girls tumbling class, but now I needed to put in yard duty, office time, laundry time, folding clothes time (they have to be separate times in my house), play date days, and even time to re-organize the house.
I guess it's elementary, but I needed to sit down and DO it.
But I realized something profound. Even though the laundry was done and the house was picked up and the yard was looking better, my wife didn't seem to notice much. I guess I was expecting some great big hug and a "I'm so proud of you!" exclamation. But the profound thing was not that she didn't notice much. My profound realization was that I noticed it A LOT.
After a days worth of really good work, I went to bed so happy. I don't think it was that clothes were washed and put away. I don't think it was that I finally cut half the yard.
I'm not really sure what it was. It could have been that I actually made a plan and executed it. Maybe it was that my to-do list had a bunch of check marks all over it. Maybe it was that I had a day where I wasn't meandering around the house saying to myself, "There's SO much to do, where do I begin?"
What ever it was, I feel happier at the end of the day. Am I a better daddy for it? I have no idea. Shouldn't I feel happier if I spend a lot of time with the kids or feel like I taught them something? I feel a little guilty for the reason of my happiness, but I did learn how to at least feel successful in my days. I'm sure the extreme is when I ignore my kids just to complete some tasks, but finally feeling successful can't be all that bad a thing.
Anyway, Lani is all sick today and throwing up all over the place. And nothing is really getting done on my to-do list. But I guess this is one of those days when success is just making her feel more comfortable.