What is a productive day?

What determines a productive day?  An immaculately clean house?  Every item on the list checked? The yard in tip-tip shape?

Or is a productive day include wiping up spoiled milk? What about snuggling a small child who woke up from a nap screaming for reasons they can't articulate? Is it nursing your sleep-fighting baby to sleep?

Honestly, I tend to land in the first list. I want my house clean, which it rarely ever is. I want every item on the to-do list checked off. The yard - I'd like to keep all my plants alive.

And some days, like today, I get a fair amount done. I found the floor. I sometimes forget what it looks like. I feel like I had a productive day.

But sprinkled in there were the non-productive things. Snuggles. Hugs. Diaper changes. A lunch run for my husband. Nursing a baby to help her sleep. These things tend to irritate me and, depending on the day, make me feel like I haven't done anything.

If I stop and look at the long-term, those things really are more important. While a clean house is important and does make everyone feel better, it's the people in the house and the relationships that are more important.

It's not anything new. We all know it. But sometimes I need to be reminded.