Confession from an Exhausted Parental Unit

Village Papa and I 'bookmark' our days:
in the morning we injest delicious, fresh, home-ground coffee;
at night we injest vino, many different favourites;
throughout the day mama and the tribe dances, bangs drums, bangs walls with markers;
frugal mama wants to go out and buy a coffee,
instead she makes another pot of coffee;
mama talks to her mama friends, many are doin' similar things;
mama skims her favourite blogs, and looks for inspiring new-to-her blogs while the tribe fights over a straw;
mama can't take the whining and the 'mine!!!' debates any longer, so she showers and lathers cream, then lotion all over herself;
mama fantacizes about ordering a pizza, instead the tribe eats fridge scraps: week old cucumber coins, wilting carrot sticks, odds & ends from the pita bag, and expired yogurt;
sometimes mama and papa take the tribe to the Whole Foods Market, lunch is an eye-popping-delicious splurge, worth every penny: sweet potato horseradish, sushi and mango smoothies ready in a flash;
other days mama dives into the cd stacks,
week-after-week she looks for 5 great collections for the 5-disc player, this week's selection:

Marvin Gaye, The Best of Marvin Gaye Volume 2, The '70s, The Millenium Collection
Marissa Monte, A Great Noise
The Rolling Stones, Artist's Choice
Orchestra Baobab
The Fire This Time, Still Dancing on John Wayne's Head


What do you and your tribe do to make challenging-life-periods sweet?