Okay, I think I'm a little more "myself" now...

It's been a whirlwhind of a week.

In spite of sprinting out of the starting gate when we arrived home from vacation, I have felt as though I've been playing a constant game of "catch-up" for the past six days. No matter how hard I've tried, the many tasks I've set for myself this week just haven't gotten DONE. I mean REALLY done, as in COMPLETED. Many, many things have been started... but... The house is a tip, Mt Washmore needs to be conquered yet again, I'm flabbergastingly backlogged on paperwork... And... and...

All of this has resulted in my becoming as Frustrated as Hell.

Deep down inside myself, I KNOW that I must not let my obsession for miraculous accomplishment steal from my girlies' precious final few weeks of summer holidays.

The knowledge of that has produced Guilt, on top of the Frustration.

And we ALL know that while this evil little combination of emotions makes for a marvellous ticking time-bomb, it does NOT make for the Funnest Mummy In The Whole Wide World (which I WAS, apparently, during our time at The Cottage, back when I was dishing out ice cream for breakfast and whipping up spectacular sand castles on the beach).

Today I woke up cranky. And on a beautiful Saturday morning, when my kids had even let me sleep in until (gasp!) nearly 8am. No word of a fib, that is considered a LIE-IN at our house...

I knew it was time to take matters into my own hands when the TOP OF MY LIST for today, this beautiful, warm sunny day... was NOT to swim with the children. Or garden. Or cook. Or even do the washing and hang it out on the line to dry.

The first goal that came to my frenzied mind was, "Goddammit. If I do NOTHING ELSE today, I'm going to scrub and sterilize the kitchen garbage and recycling bins!!"

As soon as I thought it, I looked at my three girlies and their sweet little faces looking at me expectantly... And realized that I was bordering on being out of control. Thankfully, at that moment, I stopped myself and realized that it was ab-so-lute-ly necessary for me to get the heck out of the house. Away from the smelly garbage bins and everything else I've been obsessing about. I needed to leave the girlies in the loving care of their father, who, in spite of stock market shenanigans making him wacko at work all week, still HAD to be in a fun-er frame of mind that I was...

I got up, got showered, fed the masses, tidied the kitchen (IGNORING the bins)... and went in search of my sanity.

Guess where I found it?

That's right. I got a pedicure.