Mother's Day

I hope all the mother's out there had a fantastic day.  Happy Mom's Day mom! (I know you got the card, but a blog shout out can't hurt.)

I had a splendid Mom's day weekend. Smith took part in one of the kid's classroom's dad's camping trips (lots of possessives there.) So the boys were gone from Friday afternoon until Sunday.  So I was home. alone. in my own house. with no one to cook for, clean up after or schedule my day around. (except the cat. We named her Hermione, by the way.)

What I did:
-ran 2 errands for Smith, one of which was get his car inspected - I wasn't feeling lucky.
-bought a pair of shoes.
-went to see Jane Eyre.
-Drank 1 margarita. (it's been close to 5 years since I've had a rita. why? I don't know.)
-Stayed up late watching Downton Abbey.
-Went for an open water swim
-Went for a bike ride
-Painted my toenails
-Bought pre-cut, pre-chilled, perfectly ripe splendid watermelon. and ate it.
-Went to a friend's party with just us camping widow mom's and we tried really hard to not talk about our kids or what our husbands were doing (or not doing) while supervising hoards of children. Stayed up late talking and drinking ginger mojitos.
-Apparently slept in the next day. I woke to feed the cat and lay down again only to wake up what felt like moments later to my people coming in the front door after noon. yawn.

I also had a moment of nostalgia for my very first mother's day, 8 years ago. I walked up the hill to the pool and went for a swim by myself. It was the first time I had gone anywhere without Nbear. (that was a long 4 months.) And it was a great swim. On the walk back down the hill a boy had set out a table and was selling bouquets of lilacs from their lilac bush. I don't think flowers ever smelled sweeter.

Love to all, especially those who make us mothers.

Houston, We have liftoff!

My friend Lisa has described the feeling of leaving the house, leaving the children, being off on one's own as being like a helium balloon - once let go, one drifts up and away feeling lighter and lighter.




Today as I bid both boys adieu at the gates of school, the feeling was more like a rocket had launched from my chest. and e x h a l e . I had been looking forward to this very moment often (remember this gentle reader?)

I now have some time and space alone for myself. Before now I could probably count the number of times I've been in my house alone on one hand (and Smith clicking and gabbing away in the home office is going to be ignored right now for sake of argument.) It feels good.



I ran into another person who was having the same feelings, but she was feeling guilty too. Somehow I am not. It can be painful to watch them grow up and away from me, but I am happy for my kids - they are going off on the next adventure of their lives (albeit with much less ME in it.) It is good for them. And I am happy for me, for I too am going about the next adventure in my life!

Since We Last Spoke (entry #3)

I went to Denver!

You may vaguely remember 2 years ago Sinda, Lisa & I loaded up for a mother's day trip to Houston to eat and shop (for several hours at IKEA) and overall be leisurely. I really like the idea of completely stepping out of the role of mom to celebrate it. And what better way for your spouse and children to really understand all the myriad things you do for them than to leave them?

So off Sinda and I flew to Denver to see our newly transplanted friend, sharing earbuds to watch 30Rock (with Matthew Broderick!) along the way. Those gals took all the pictures and posted almost daily about our exploits. We got little sleep - staying up late eating fabulous food and fancy cocktails (I could go for a little damselfly right now: pear whiskey, plum puree and gingerale) and then waking up early because we are just wired that way. Not even a real nap snuck in anywhere. We got to see Lisa's photo show up at the Boulder coffeehouse and a bona fide chick flick (sadly, SEX I.T.C was not yet out; we happily settled for Baby Mama.) And Sinda says I flirted with the Prahna sales chick from Tyler, but really? it was just leaving her a little note in the dressing room that we had occupied for the entire duration of a parking meter. (They had a white board in there - what else are you supposed to do with it?!)

I also got to catch up with my old buddy Liz (aka the other Liz aka Elizabeth) from high school. We stayed up late talking about all the people we'd stay up late with in high school.

You should look at Lisa's pictures of the trip here and here.
Sinda's account is here.

You will note that both accounts record the green frog wallpaper - which was my startling discovery during a slightly tipsy trip to the restroom. I was uber focused on the plastic changing table directly in front of me. There was like a novel's worth of braille on it. What could they possibly be telling the blind people about the babies? Does a blind person instinctively know where to find the braille or do they have to feel around everything and hope that they don't stumble into something gross? I was deep in the wonder of it when my gaze slowly shifted outward where OH MY GAWD THERE ARE BRIGHT GREEN FROGS EVERYWHERE! How could I have missed the frogs?!?

I wonder what we'll see in the bathroom on Mother's Day 2010!