What's your favorite pick-me-up? How do you make/find time for it? How often do you do/have it?

Get a good book. Mix a favorite essential oil with some baking soda, sea salt or Epsom salt (or all three); add to running bath water. Soak and read!

A NAP! (I am pregnant),reading a good book while laying in bed or my favorite is eating a huge bowl of popcorn with my husband while we watch a movie and then bringing the whole ice cream container to bed.

We don't have much time to go out or go to the movies (which we used to do all the time before we had our daughter) so we enjoy that time.

I have recently discobered the wide world of monthly kit scrapbooking!!! I currently get 6 different club kits a month and this is my release. I put my iPod on and I am off and away. It is so relaxing for everything to do thoughtout already and I just make the pages.
As of lately though I have had no time for this as I am in the middle of a business website relaunch.

My love for scrapbooking borders obsession, but don't get the opportunity enough for the pampered feeling to last until my next fix. So currently I pamper myself daily with a bold flavored pot of coffee with a rich flavored creamer and savor each cup at the computer journaling, blogging, designing "family management" charts and researching. If I wasn't on a budget my choice of pampering would be as many trips to Starbucks as I could afford.

Let's see. I'm not doing too badly this winter. I would have told you last year to pick myself I "buy hot lemon from the convenience store and rent a trashy video". That still sounds very good to me, but in reality what I am doing is a whole lot of exercise (never thought I would say that!). I've found that exercise really DOES pick me up and warm me up at the same time. I was just lucky that a Curves gym opened up one minute walk from my house (like my own personal workout room!) and that we got a Wii for ourselves for Christmas. The Wii has replaced the TV (don't know how healthy that is or isn't!) and the gym has replaced my lying around feeling sorry for myself in the long Japanese winter. It's been particularly important to me with all that's going on in my life right now... :-(

My favorite and easiest treat is a Tall Skinny Caramel Latte from Starbucks. I only get it on the weekends to save money, control my caffine in take and remind myself that it is a "treat". My other pick-me-up is visiting with my parents one day a week. Sounds strange, but during that time my daughter is entertained by her grand parents, I get fed incredible home cooking by my mom, I get to read a People magazine cover-to-cover, I am away from my computer and house work, and sometimes I get a nap! A day like that is a real "treat"!

O.K., there are few things involved. First I need to get "alone" time. Whether asking spouse to take over, (I'm single, so I can't do that) or Mom to take Cameron, or swap a playdate with another Mom, I need to get the time alone, however I can find it. I find I need about 2 hours to refresh alone.

It's tempting to start running around doing housework or other stuff, just because I can get it all done faster without the little guy here....but I (you too!) must resist the urge!

I LOVE good Chocolate. Who doesn't? Instead of buying a huge bag of junk, I buy a little small amount of the "good" more, expensive stuff. Then I grab a NOVEL, not Newsweek to catch up with the economy.
Then I get a cup of Starbucks Tazo tea (brewed strong) and find my coziest place to snuggle. Usually with my soft "down" throw. Once engulfed in another world of Mystery or Tudor History, with my good chocolate and hot tea...I begin to fully relax. Hey, if I fall asleep, who cares? I can be assured my son won't put a screwdriver into the Malibu outside light bulb socket like last week! (yikes-I was right there too!)

Once my 2, or so hours are up, I feel like it's been a whole day! Even if I can only do this once a week, (I try for twice) it really helps to relax and to give myself my true alone time, which is a real "treat".... just for me.

I exercise - like a neurotic looney. If I don't sweat...a lot...and feel like my heart is going to beat right out of my chest, it has not been a good day. I drop those little ones off at the childcare, put on my running shoes and run around the track a gazillion times. It's great. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's run. Some people want things- a big house, a nice car - I'll live in a shoebox, drive my ten-year-old car, and wear hand-me-downs as long as you don't take my Sport Center membership away! Fasting is always a great way to "be alone." I find that if I fast, no matter what happens around me, it all seems so much less intense, less pressing and not as important as it does when I eat. It's a great way to escape pressure when not eating puts things into perspective - like how much we need God and how much he is in control.

I recently discovered the most decadent feeling guilty pleasure - taking a half day off work. I work full time, with one toddler and another baby on the way (in just a few weeks - yikes!). Everyone kept asking me when I was going to "stop working" and I was amazed at how many people expected me to simply sit at home at some random and unspecified time to await the arrival of number 2. What on earth would I do with myself??? But, it did make me think maybe a few days or even just afternoons would be nice. Some days I feel hugely guilty leaving work for no particular reason and not picking up my daughter from daycare, and some days I have no real plan in mind, but it's so nice to know that I have NOTHING to do, no expectations, no goals, no list of things to rush around. Just the idea of free time is a wonderful feeling!

This last afternoon, I also got back in touch with my own crafty side. It turns out, I love to paint. I'm not particularly good at it, but I've started doing things for my daughter like painting her a growth chart and yesterday painting colorful frames for her new big girl room. She has absolutely no expectations, loves the colors and glittery bits I add, and there is nothing like when she points at something I painted myself and says "lion" or "fish" (aka "sheesh") with her big smile. As much as I love doing crafts with her, it's nice to take time to do them myself too so I can get lost and not worry about what she might be doing with the green paint while I'm not looking...

The best treat for myself is when I visit a girlfriend who has a child the same age as my daughter. We let the kids entertain each other. We initially intend on getting together to complain about what may have gone wrong in our lives that particular week but once we get together the need to vent subsides and we both just relax.

In the summer, my treat to myself is a pedicure every 3 weeks. There is a place by my home that I can get in and out in a half hour and reasonably priced. Its a wonderful break and my toes look great and I am not repolishing every other day since I wear sandels all summer long. Winter time, I relish evenings out with the husband or a Girls night out which has not happened in way too long.

Lately - I take out my high school collection of JD Salinger novels and short stories.
Raise High The Roof Beams is a favorite.
When the weather is nice and my son is asleep, I head to my deck and ...I SMOKE Marlboros!

I'm late, but I'll post my two cents anyway...A properly made cup of hot tea, a good book,an afghan, a corner of the couch and a quiet house...ALL AT ONCE!

With my new daughter and a toddler, sometimes it's nice not so much to be alone, but to be alone with one or the other daughter and not trying to deal with both at once. My latest pleasure is nursing outside on our back porch swing, both of us cuddled in a furry blanket, wind in our hair, birds singing, just enjoying the peace!