A Farewell, and Feeling Guilty

Today I say farewell and thank you for all your long years of service, to Sadie, my vacuum cleaner. She has been with me through thick and thin ... until today. I was half way through vacuuming our little patch of lounge room carpet when **pop** and clouds of acrid black smoke billowed out of the little grill on the back of the machine. And I mean, it smelled awful. I had to open windows and turn on the fan to get rid of it!

I do try to get major appliances repaired where possible, but I think that after 10 years, this hard working machine deserves to take her final rest.

Just to clarify, I don't name ALL of our appliances... only the important ones. Like Gunther (spelling?), the fridge.

The reason for this inane post is because I am trying to keep my feelings of guilt at bay. My sweet Miss Naomi is spending her first day at Family Day Care today... without me. She has made some great progress in coming out of her shell, and getting a bit less shy in the last few months. We didn't want to lose that progress by moving to a town where we don't know anyone and she has no little play friends. And also, I have been feeling the need to have some time to catch up on housework, sit on the couch and get to know Ryan, and to do a few things that I enjoy. So I signed her up for 1 day a week, in family day care.

Naomi enjoyed our visit to Stephanie's (our daycare "mum") house last week. She was excited to play with other kids. But then this morning, reality hit. She cried "Mummy come too" in the car, all the way to Steph's house. I know that a short goodbye is best all round, but it was so hard to leave her crying, in someone else's arms.

And now I am feeling guilty, for wanting some Naomi-free time at all. Is it awfully selfish of me? If I clean the house from top to bottom, and do 4 loads of washing, will that help to relieve my guilt, so that I can tell myself it was productive time?