Can it be Sweet to Carpe (Laundry) Diem?

Last weekend the kids needed to be in different places at the same time. We decided Ned would take Briggs (& Raleigh) to Briggs’ three day hockey tournament and I would stay home with Hudson (& Stanley) for Hudson’s swim meet.

It was such a sweet treat to have Hudson all to myself. 

For the two days of the meet I relished every second of watching her swim, eating out together, renting movies (Beaches – insert sob), and chatting about everything and nothing.

Sweet Hudson is an old soul – so wise, calm, and kind. (Just between us, she’s my favorite. Thankfully Briggs & Raleigh can’t read. Oh wait, yes they can. Crap… )

The  hockey tourney ran through Monday night but the swim meet ended Sunday afternoon. This meant there were a few options:

1. Drive 2+ hours to hockey after swim meet to catch last 3 games
2. Enjoy a sweet local adventure with Hudson – hike? museum?
3. Stay home and catch up on some (not-pressing-but-eventually-must-be-done) chores

Given that options 1 & 2 had obvious appeal and that while browsing for a movie Saturday night we watched the trailer for Dead Poet’s Society so I had Robin Williams carpe diem-ing in my head, this is the part where I might launch into the profound and picturesque way we seized the heck out of the day.

Maybe it would look like this –

Or possibly this –

But no.

When I sat still and  tuned into to the (usually crazy) voice in my head, I heard the answer in a soft but clear whisper.

Carpe (laundry) diem.

Wait, what?

Carpe (laundry) diem.

“Seize the laundry day?”

Yeeesssss.

Uh, ok…not exactly what I was expecting. No frozen glory or heart-pumping adventure. No soul food or mom/daughter bonding or pretty photo fodder.

Bleh. It was going to look about like this  –

Crap…

I’m not sure why, but somehow as soon as all the shiny options were off the table, the weekend fell sweetly into place. There was a calm, maybe even a little giddy, excitement about it.

Hudson was thrilled maturely composed with the decision.

All darn DIEM we CARPE’ed the heck out of that everlasting (gobstopper) pile of laundry and many other lurking chores. It felt so good.

I was reminded that playing hard requires working hard.

And this was a day to work hard. A day to work together with Hudson so that we were washed, piled, and prepped for the (always) full week ahead of us. A day to soak in the sweetness of organizing our life. 

This (rather boring) tale is a complete 180 from the moral of the Sweet Freak Out last spring. There’s no real enlightened reason why. Robert Frost never wrote “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I chose the one with the long to-do list.”

I guess it just comes down to our perspective at a given time:

The bonus was sweet Hudson found a great way for us to CARPE 10 MINUTES OF FUN every now and then. Each time we checked an item off the list, we jumped on the tramp together.

How do you balance work & play? Do you have a hard time knowing when to carpe diem and when to be disciplined?  Share your sweet thoughts, tips, & tricks below.