Today was my day off. I mean really off. I finished at my former job last Friday, and I start a new one next Monday. We’re headed into a holiday, so this won’t be a completely stress-free week, but today was a day at home by myself, with nobody to answer to and nothing (officially) to get done. That might not have happened in the past five years! So of course I tried to do as much as I possibly could. Here’s a checklist for the day:

Biscuits! You read it right: I made two recipes of angel biscuits today and put them in the freezer. I’m going to need them at the holidays and although they’re not hard to make, they are really messy. Nicer to get done with nobody else at home, and now I’m ahead of the game for December.

Invitations: mailed. Holiday cards: almost ready to go. To say that I’m not great about putting things in the mail is an understatement. I’m horrible at correspondence — thank you notes, birthday cards, etc. More often than not they just never go out. So mailing one stack of envelopes and making big progress on another stack is huge for me.

Switch-a-roo. I went to John’s school to help out in his classroom during a time they call Switch-a-roo. When he found out I was going to be between jobs today, asking me to come to school was his first response. And I’ve wanted to do this before but with work, there’s just not a lot of time. I loved it. I liked seeing who was who and watching how they interact. Somehow, I’ll definitely try to do it again. Late lunch, maybe?

Work. My brother sent me something that he wanted a hand with for his company, and this seemed like the perfect time to get it done. I don’t think it’s completely finished, but an hour gave me a good start.

Laundry, kitchen, etc. The reality is that even on a day “off,” there are a million things to get done around the house. The difference in doing them today was that I listened to music and did them at a reasonable pace, instead of flying around trying to do a million things at one time. Much better.

So, here’s what I learned today: when I’m not trying to juggle a job and being a parent and keeping all the balls in the air, I’m still trying to juggle work, being a parent, and keeping all the balls in the air. I’ll rest later.

But it was delightful to have a little more freedom today and no chance of any outside emergencies looming. No reason to check email. No listening for the phone.  I’m happy to have a new job (more on that soon) but being a free agent for the moment is not bad! If only (as always) there were a few more hours in the day.