Saying No to Good and Yes to Great

After my kids go to bed at night, I see the two or three hours before my own bedtime as a chance to catch up around the house.  By nature, I am a busy person and tend to be moving constantly.  So when I am faced with what to do with those precious hours all to myself, I tend to think crazy cleaning and organizing type of thoughts.  For example, I might think it is the perfect time to:
* Fold the five loads of laundry that have piled up in baskets along the wall in my bedroom.
* Scrape the dried toothpaste from my kids' bathroom sink and wipe their greasy hand prints from the mirror.
* Organize my closet or the pantry or that one kitchen drawer full of scissors and paper and pencils and ketchup packets and other miscellaneous stuff.
* Finally mop the kitchen floor because only God knows when it was cleaned last.  And there have been a few spills since then....
* Start a project like going through pictures or recipes.
* Clean out our minivan, being prepared to face a mountain of crushed goldfish under Lucas' car seat.

I have to admit, I have been thinking about checking any number of these things off my to-do list tonight.  It feels so great to have something accomplished.  But, tonight I am battling those darn springtime allergies and am feeling just a bit tired. A bit off my normal game.  And I didn't sleep well last night, so I feel sleepy as well.  And I really just want to crawl in bed and read awhile to relax.  So tonight I am saying no to the good things that I could do and saying yes to the greatest thing I could give myself tonight-- and that is REST.
Because when I am rested, I am a better wife, mother and friend.  I feel like I can handle the daily stresses I face and not feel overwhelmed.

My kitchen drawer can certainly wait another day, and the kids will just spit more toothpaste in the sink tomorrow morning.