I cried when my kid scored her first soccer goal at age 6.  I called my folks in shock when she scored 100 percent on the state math exam.  But, even better than watching her on stage at the Santa Monica Playhouse; even better than attending the premiere of The Reaping with my sister who acts in the movie, is the rush of completing my own goals.

My parental partners in crime, you know I’m not talking selfish here but satisfaction.  I can barely get my flabby ass to the gym once a week so the fact that I just passed the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam, a 200-question, 4-hour global certification exam, after stewing about formulas and definitions and practice tests, I’m digging myself:

• I really rock, I’m not just reading about how I can rock in <i>Oprah</i>.

• Hells yeah!

• Unstoppable.

• My kid is proud of <u>me</u>.

• What’s Next?

Whoever said “do something once and do it right” probably enjoyed the luxury of showering in peace, epiphanies sprouting forth from a lush, steamed-out brain.

For those of us who struggle to find time to go to the bathroom, it’s a challenge to write down the idea, create the list or even to make the phone call that moves us forward. But, although we live in disconnected, frenetic and distracting times, this is still no excuse.

Whether it’s playing on a softball team, taking a cooking class, starting a side business or completing a certification exam that will further our careers- let’s begin again until it’s done.

When I spend my weekends hurrying from place-to-place, using gas, spending money and brainpower on arriving at a destination or completing a task, I lose two free days of rest and relaxation. Plus, I become one of those impatient people who snap at baristas. This is absolutely no good for anyone, especially employees of Coffee Bean.

Self tips to reclaim weekend:

1. Stay off the phone.
2. Exercise.
3. Limit lessons. OK, easy for me to say as I forgot to sign my daughter up for soccer.
4. Meditate.
5. Treat myself.
6. Try to only commit to ONE event per day or weekend.

Feeling a bit like peanutbutter spread out on a slice of bread. I’ve dedicated this Sunday to many hours devoted to me. I have several scenes mapped out:

• Me lying in bed sleeping or reading.
• Writing up my next freelance pitch.
• There I am on the phone talking to my sister.
• Talking to Melanie about the pitch and her forthcoming birthday. Is she going to have a baby soon?
• Go me. Walk on the beach!
• Attending church?!

Just think, then maybe balanced me can find some things that are lost.

I’m lovin’ today’s NY Times article by Lisa Belkin on house cleaning and couple-dom.

Some interesting stats from her article:

• Married women spend twice as much time on housework than husbands.
• Single women spend twice as much time as single men.
• “Women are attuned to the unseen audience, a man can sit in wacthing TV with newspapers scattered everywhere and food all over and they just don’t care. They can do it later. We women have the sense that someone’s watching us. We need those newspapers picked up because what would people think?”

–Caitlin Flanagan, “To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing our Inner Housewife”

• Employed mothers sleep an average of 3.6 fewer hours a week than those who are not employed. (That’s 187 hours a year!)

• Many women are guilty of what sociologists call “gate keeping”: building a fence around a territory, be it vacuuming or child care or grocery shopping and defending it as theirs. They set the standards in that realm, and they set them high. Sometimes unrealistically so.
• “From a man’s point of view, men feel like they’re often accused of not caring, but then, if they try to do something they are told that they’re not doing it right….their wives say, ‘Clean this up I want this clean’ but then they’re scolded because they don’t clean it right. There’s no right or wrong. men shouldn’t have to meet your specified standards for housework.”

–Neil Chethik, “VoiceMales: What Husbands Really Think About Their Marriages, Their Wives, Sex, Housework and Commitment”

Women, we all need to chill. We do not live with our mothers any more. Leave the dishes, have a martini, go to bed and have some sex or get some sleep. Let the housekeeper clean the house.