"Me" time

There was a time when I felt that I didn't have any time to get some "me" time. I worked full time, I was a single parent to a young daughter who was very involved with extra-curricular activities (dance classes, karate, Sunday school, piano, etc.), I took care of my then semi-invalid mother, plus, I was involved in my daughter's school and my temple, and there was all the regular housework, grocery shopping, cooking, etc.

It took me some time to realize that I could have "me" time - only it wasn't going to be a long stretch of uninterrupted time, which was what I was looking for. The luxury of a whole Saturday to myself, or even a whole morning or a whole afternoon, was simply not to be.

What I could have, instead, was 30 minutes while I waited for daughter to have her piano lesson on Saturday morning; 45 minutes while she took her karate class; 1 hour while she was at Sunday school; 15 minutes in the doctor's waiting room until they called in my mother, and so on and so forth - little bits of time. Often not enough to work on a project of any size, but, long enough to knit a few rows on a scarf, or read another page or two of a book, to look through a magazine, etc. I learned to have a couple of portable projects with me at all times. A book and some knitting or hand-sewing. I turned all my "waiting" time into "me" time!  And learned to take full advantage of all the small bits of time, when that was all I had.

These days, my mother is no longer alive, my daughter is away at university and I have lots of time to myself.  Of course, I spend a lot of that time video chatting with daughter, but, I still have time to play a game of solitaire on the computer, or read, or watch TV, or write to a friend.

This evening, for example, I did minimal housework after I came home from work.  I watered the indoor plant, did the dishes, looked through this week's grocery ads, but that was about it.  I didn't even need to make dinner as I warmed up some of the leftover soup from yesterday and toasted two slices of my homemade bread to have with it.  Instead, I watched some television programs, wrote to a friend, and relaxed.  Practically the whole evening was "me" time!

Today, I am grateful for:

- A relaxed evening/"me" time
- Video chatting with daughter
- Safe commutes to and from work
- A few cooler than normal days (we'll be having triple digits later this week)
-  Helpful neighbors (they brought my trash cans in for me, again)

What do you do to take some time for yourself in your busy day?  Do you long for larger blocks of time?  Or do you make use of smaller bits of time to do something fun and nice for yourself?