I'm tired

A few days ago I was driving with my daughter and she asked if we could play tag outside when we got home. Similarly to most people over the age of ten, tag doesn't really excite me that much. Sighing, I replied, "Mommy's really tired, maybe we can do it later." She made an exasperated noise and said, "You're always tired! When will you not be so tired??"

I realized that saying, " I'm tired" is just filler for dead conversation or (in my case) an excuse.

An excuse not to get up and jog. An excuse to eat junk food. An excuse to avoid exercise. An excuse to be sluggish and lazy. An excuse not to cook a healthy dinner. An excuse to let my girls watch the I-pad longer than they should. An excuse to avoid household tasks. Excuses, excuses, excuses!

So I'm trying to eliminate this phrase from my vocabulary and stop making it so easy put things off. Because it's a lot harder to admit saying I'm tired means, "I'm lazy and don't care enough about my kid to indulge her crazy game of tag" than to say, "I'm tired and deserve a rest so I'll let her watch the I-pad instead."