Raising two young children has left me very little time to take care of myself. But, I realized I had let things slip a little too much when I crawled into bed the other night and the bottoms of my feet snagged my new sheets. Yes, they literally pulled threads out. With morbid curiosity, I pulled my foot up to my face and examined my forlorn feet. The polish was chipped, the toenails looked like caveman nails, and the soles were so rough I could have grated Wisconsin cheese on them.

I ran to the bathroom and took a critical look at myself in the mirror. When had my scientifically enhanced red hair returned to its natural dishpan brown? When was my last haircut? And my pores! They looked like a kids connect-the-dots coloring book. How could I not notice these little things?

Everyday I do little things. I make toast for breakfast. I pick up toys. I wash little hands. I comfort, entertain, and love two little boys. Everything I do is important, but nothing I do is terribly difficult, time-consuming or monumental. If asked about my day, I would have nothing amazing to report. But, it's doing all those little things that keeps me sane, keeps my kids sane, and keeps my household functioning.

I never say that I don't have time to do these little things, because I know that if I stopped, I would never be able to catch up. Each task would seem enormous. It is the same with being a hip, pulled-together mom. So what if I don't have time to sit at the beauty salon and have professional facials, pedicures, and hair coloring jobs on a regular basis; I can still find time to take care of myself the way I did before having a family. I just need to stop feeling like it's an all or nothing proposition. And I definitely can't let it go so long that my feet begin to resemble my 85-year-old grandfather's feet!

Tonight's "To-do" list: Laundry, dishes, paint toenails, change sheets on kids' beds, facial, relax.