What's your balance denominator?

I'm feeling a little guilty this week.  The past 4 days have been wonderful.  I have been out and about with work and with friends and it's fulfilled my Extrovert tendencies beautifully.  However, I've spent little time with my boys.  This morning, to accommodate an early meeting, I took each of my 3 sleeping boys from their beds at 6am and brought them to our sitter's house.  (Who is the best!)  Like every other day this week, Mack, my smallest guy, clung to my arms and cried as I passed him off to my friend.  From their perspective, it must seem that they go from one substitute mother to the next...  On Monday, I literally picked them up from their daytime childcare provider, picked up the evening sitter on the way home, and left them all there to have dinner together.  Ugh!

This is a time when running your own business doesn't provide that perfect illustration of balance.  I have to be ready to go when the work is there and I have to accommodate extra appointments to make up for anticipated time away from the office. 

What I say next may seem like my way of rationalizing my choices... and it is.  To decrease my guilt, I am hanging onto a piece of advice given to me by someone I admire greatly.  She said, balance isn't necessarily in a day or a week, but in a season and a lifetime.  Right now, I just can't devote equal time in the day to my work and my kids.  I may not be able to make that equation true over the next week.  But, it will come.  So while my kids may be missing their mom this week; the scheduled holidays to come during the summer will provide that balance, and foster my trust that this is more an exception than a norm. 

Have you thought about your balance denominator??  A day?  A week?  A season?