Motivation Monday

I should have gone running this morning. When the alarm went off, after a night of tossing and turning because the air conditioner is not working, I decided I was already hot and sweaty and didn't want to be even hotter and sweatier so I stayed in bed.

But when I got up an hour later with Muffin I discovered it was refreshingly cool outside. Rats. Now I have to decide if I'm going to hit the treadmill later or try again tomorrow morning. That decision will be a little easier to make if they fix the air conditioner today.

I'm not one for inspirational quotes (if you're spending all your time reading inspirational quotes, you're not actually out doing what you're supposedly inspired to do) but when I saw this photo and quote on Pinterest over the weekend it reminded me of something I might have cut out of a magazine and hung in my locker in high school.

I didn't run, but I did get some work done this morning. And my motivation for that is a dirty little expat secret. Mike and I hate washing dishes so we are more than happy to pay a housekeeper to do that chore for us. On Monday mornings the kitchen is a mess from the weekend. As much as I like our housekeeper, I hate being home when she arrives on Mondays to see the state of the kitchen. So I pack up my laptop and my Kindle or a book and sit in a coffee shop all morning while Muffin is in school. By the time we come home for lunch, I have a clean house and I've gotten some work done.

And boy did our housekeeper have some cleaning to do -- lots of laundry today. Muffin's school wants us to start toilet training and we had two accidents in the span of an hour before leaving the house. I'm pretty thrilled that Muffin and I both left the house with a bit of breakfast, having brushed our teeth, and wearing clean clothes. What a victory for parenthood.