The World Won't End if the Dishes Go Unwashed

During the time it's taking to recover from the removal of my very angry appendix, I've been unable to do much around the house, and I came to realize a few things.

If no one does the dishes, the world will keep right on going. If the laundry sits, clean, in the hamper for a few days before it gets folded and put away, no one will die. Things like this are only as aggravating as I make them. Getting steamed doesn't make the dishes wash themselves.

And now that I know this, I can try to be a little more zen about the housework. To that end, as I've sat here doing not much of anything, I've come up with a few post-surgery-recovery goals:

1. Spend at least fifteen uninterrupted minutes every day with Scarlet. Get a clicker, or a Snapple bottle cap, and work on new tricks and other fun things. Our first baby hasn't had anywhere near enough quality time since the human baby came along! Besides, I need to teach her to"find Shelby" before Shelby learns to walk and/or hide.

2. Spend more time at the barn. Groom Flash at least a couple times a week. Longe her a couple times a week as well. Start getting her in shape to ride this spring/summer. Clean my saddle and bridle.  Stop worrying about getting home in time for naptime, because Shelby has demonstrated many times that she can and will sleep just fine in a baby carrier, in her carseat, etc.

3. Start focusing on ecing. Have some diaper free time every day. I've been meaning to start since I read The Diaper-Free Baby: The Natural Toilet Training Alternative when Shelby was six months old, but we never actually got started. That's going to change as soon as I can pick her up again.

4. Get Shelby back on a normal sleep schedule. Finally. All of these major interruptions have taken their toll, and it's time to start going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. Not that I mind sleeping in, but it feels like so much of the day is gone when we don't get up until 10:30 or 11.

5. Gently work toward Shelby taking good naps on her own. As much as I enjoy holding, nursing, and looking at her when she's sleeping, I can get a lot done in the three to four hours she naps during the day (or even one to two hours on a bad nap day).

6. Take some of that recovered nap time to relax. Read. Catch up on the shows on Hulu. Also, spend a little bit of that time appreciating that sleeping baby, because she will only be so little for such a short while and there will probably never be another time in my life when I can just sit and hold a sleeping baby for so long.

As the sign in a good friend's kitchen says: Horsework before housework. And soon, I will be able to do barn chores again. I thought I was healed enough to pick up and carry Shelby again, but this morning I woke up with a little bit of pain below the incision site. So it's back to only holding Shelby when sitting down, at least until after my follow up appointment south the surgeon next week.