However, a few times over the past little while, I have found myself not able to fall asleep when I head up to bed in the evening. And as most mothers know, when someone isn't tired at bedtime, it usually means it is time to drop the afternoon nap. Okay, I know that is usually in reference to your kids, but I figure it's applicable to me also.
So I'm starting a little experimentation. The catalyst for beginning today was a blog post by a friend of mine. She wrote about how important a clean and tidy (yes, both clean and tidy - I usually have to pick one or the other!) home is to her and how she manages to keep it that way, even with two kids under three years old with a third one on the way in the fall. (BTW - she is my hero!) Her method is zone cleaning, which divides the house into five zones and then focuses on cleaning one room or "zone" each day. Choosing five over seven (days in a week) leave you a little wiggle room for illness, activities, outings, or the blahs.
While the method is interesting, it was her schedule that intrigued me. She wrote that she gets her cleaning and tidying done during naptime each day. My first thought was "well, okay, of course it's easy to keep a clean and tidy house if you aren't desperate for sleep during naptime." I started to justify my own case, that I could clean with the boys awake but I couldn't sleep while they were up, and how much I really did need that sleep.
Then that thought about naptime and bedtime crept up, and I realized that while I still might need to do some sleep catch up at naptime, perhaps I might be able to drop the nap every other day. Plus, I really don't get much cleaning done when the boys are up, because they demand so much of my attention. So today is my first day of skipping the nap. To be honest, I haven't done any cleaning yet, since I spent all morning cleaning up after being away from home for two weeks. But I did get caught up on sorting and filing my digital photos, plus some writing, and there is still a half hour left of nap during which I intend at least to fold some laundry (another thing that can't be done with a one and a half year old, unless you want to fold each piece at least four times!)
But, in honour of the blessed nap, here are some great lyrics from Hilary Weeks, to the tune of "My Favourite Things"
Bedtime and naptime and bedtime and naptime
Bedtime and naptime and bedtime and naptime
Did I mention it's nice when the kids go to sleep?
These are a few of my favourite things.
2 comments:
I remember wanting nap time to be used for 'me time' - sometimes it was and sometimes not all of it was, but I did allow some of it to be for me because I felt that I needed it - and I NEVER felt guilty if I didn't have a neat house (it was clean, just with lots of piles in it :-)
You sweet thing, you should see my house today, not one zone was tidy or clean, lol. I still nap at least once or twice a week and I get 8 hours every night, so don't feel guilty for a second!
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