Ahhh, 1:00. You precious little gem, you. Daughters are in school, baby boys are napping. The house is quiet, and will be for the next two hours. I have time to take a breath and do something that I WANT to do. This time of day is an absolute gift. Time to rest and recharge (and well, maybe get another load of laundry done while I’m at it).

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time as a mom, it is the importance of taking care of yourself. There are a few things that are essential to me if I’m going to be emotionally available to anyone else in my household. Eating a good lunch and then relaxing at 1:00 is one of them (remember how I didn’t want to answer my daughter the other day? Two words: no lunch).

If I were to take a look at my week, and point out which days were awesome, and which ones were truly depleting, I would first take a look at what I was doing at 1:00 on each of those days. Today, I am going to kick off my shoes, fold some laundry, and maybe even snuggle up on my couch and watch a little TV. For some people, that time of day might be 9:00 at night, or 6:00 in the morning. For me, it is right now, and I’m going to take some time today to look out the window and notice, well… just how peaceful it is.