Monday, November 18, 2013

Grounded

After working 2 weeks without a break, I really needed a chill weekend to reconnect with home and family. And that's exactly what we had. I know the weekend play-by-play is pretty boring for you guys to read, but I like having it here as a reminder or really a prototype of how I'd like my weekends to go!

Saturday morning the 3 of us (G, L, and myself) got up around 6. I was feeling "lazy" and lingered a bit over coffee and magazines, but left by 7ish for a run. Since we had nowhere to me, I ran longer than my usual 3 miles, but not too much since we had a full day ahead of us...maybe 4.5? It was perfect running weather, mid-40s, overcast.

After getting ready and having breakfast, we all went grocery shopping together, came home and had lunch, and the boys and I went to a birthday party at an indoor play gym (one of B's little friends). There was the usual social awkwardness around the other parents, saved partly by the fact that L (the smallest one there) frequently got himself stuck in little ball pits and needed me to get him out. I liked the low-key nature of the party---snacks and a cake, no meals. A pinata and little bags to take the candy home in, but no favors. By the way, it took the group of 15 preschoolers 30 minutes to get that cardboard princess pinata open. Some of the 5-6 year old girls were amazing with their stance and technique of bat swingings---my boys needed help from the assistants because they did not get the concept. Sports are likely not in our future. But I'm so getting (making?) a pinata for B's birthday party.

G stayed home and worked on home repair stuff. After getting home, the adults lay on the floor while the kids built train tracks around us and Skyped with grandma. Dinner, bed, hanging out with G. Good day.

Sunday morning we did a ton of cooking for the week and then took advantage of the unseasonably warm day to go to the park and have a picnic. Of course G & I got into a fight before hand and I was pissed the whole time, but I could still appreciate the nice outing. After coming home, I lay next to L for almost 2 hours so he could nap (naps have become quite...shit...these days) while G & B watched Monsters, Inc (he's moved on from Toy Story 3, which was watched every weekend for 3 months).  I thought I'd nap, too, but couldn't fall asleep and ended up just wasting time on my phone* since I hadn't thought to bring a book or magazine.  We then sped through all our chores and the bath routine because we had a sitter coming! We had a nice dinner at a new-to-us place (and I got to wear my new dress!), were home by a little after 9, and I promptly fell asleep with a belly full of creme brulee and sparkling wine.

The nice, low-key kind of weekend that keeps me grounded in life.

*I discovered GOMI and got lost in a rabbit-hole of snark about some of the healthy living and fashion blogs I used to read. I have since banned myself from it, because its awful, even as a guilty pleasure. I prefer to spend my limited leisure time on something even slightly positive and life-improving!

8 comments:

  1. I have nothing clever to say about any of the rest but there are some excellent pinata-making directions here and I'm pretty sure you can do it with the crepe paper streamers that are about 50 cents each at Party City-type places/ the dollar store.

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  2. your weekend sounds PERFECT. i too should ban myself from that particular time suck. honestly, i can't really think of a worse use of my time . . . and yet sometimes i do it anyway, esp if i'm in a bad mood. i will quit forever if you do!

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  3. Except for the the crap sleep, everything sounds quite lovely. I managed to not comment on your other posts, mostly because BLOGSPOT IS A MOFO STUPID SOB, but isn't it just so unexpectedly nice when some milestone is met, and the children magically start interacting with each other and they need you less, especially the little one, and you can finally fiddle with your phone WITHOUT the obligatory prior guilt? Aaah. I could almost watch somethign I want on the telly, but there is no way yet to have the sound match the pictures, because the sound is always the same (giggling/bickering/whatevering).

    And those nice evening, when I feel like such a better mum than I had feared I would be that morning, or the week before, just because they ate and did not whack each other on the head with the digger... It is the small graces that happiness is made of. :-)

    You sound a tad more relaxed. I todl myself over and over for many months to just let the fucking details I can do without, go on their merry way, and that led me to focus on what I need to be happy. A very unprofessional, not asked for, piece of assvice: make yourself let go of small things that annoy you, and focus more on those that please you, in your daily life with the children, with your husband, at work. It was an awful chore in the beginning, but you come to get used to the new you, and then it will be a reflex to just let anoying details go by like water off a duck's back. Of course, I do some snarking here and there, because I can let go of so many useful but blunt observations, husband. And after a blow up like that, steam is let off, and things go back to eing hunky dory again. I wish I could edit the typos, but it is either that or lose the comment, so here goes the comment up, typos and all. Sorry.

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    1. Oh Mina, but that is exactly what I'm TRYING to do...if I could figure it out, then I'd be all set! ("let go of small things that annoy you..."

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  4. I had never heard of GOMI before. Thanks A LOT. ;-)

    Glad you had fun this weekend!

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  5. Sounds like a lovely weekend (except for the fight part). I could use one of those, too.

    I soooooo miss naps! My daughter gave them up completely shortly after she turned 2. I really feel like I got ripped off!

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    1. My older son gave his up shortly after 2, and looks like little guy is going the same way.

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  6. I love Mina's advice about letting things go. Wise. And, I have a guilty pleasure like yours - a papercrafting "smack talk" anonymous blog. I've stopped reading it, because it's sort of unpleasant and doesn't actually inspire me to make stuff.

    BTW, Pinata making sounds ambitious. Would love to see your results. I have no idea where to start on that, and would probably just buy one of the awesome ones from the Mexican market near us :) I have yet to attend a party with a pinata (either when I was a kid, or with mine) so I'm kind of excited about the idea.

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