As much as I miss the days when my kids were little, I have to admit I love the freedom I have now on the weekends. For any of you juggling kids and a job (not to mention housework and all the other obligations we have) just know that IT’S ALL TEMPORARY. My weekends still include some obligations, but this past weekend was fairly typical for me in the stage of life I’m in.
To begin with… I work on Saturday mornings. BLARG! But it’s only 9-1, and then the rest of the day is mine. On this Saturday, I came home from work, ate lunch, and then drove my daughter to the flute section “Friendsgiving.” This was the event she was dubious about but felt obligated to attend, and of course it turned out fine. She avoided the girls she doesn’t like and made the best of it. They made bracelets…
…ate pizza, and then it turned out that almost everyone brought a dessert. She said they all ended up feeling ill, ha ha.
While she was gone, I had a delightful afternoon watching football and reading blogs. I had a furry friend to keep me company.
My husband was working all day and evening, and my daughter ate (ahem) at the Friendsgiving, so I was free to just throw together a quick tofu scramble for my dinner.
My daughter spent most of the evening in her room, practicing and talking to friends. I puttered around, getting things ready for the next day and went to bed by 10:30 BECAUSE…
Sunday morning I got up at 5:30 am for my long run. Sometimes I wonder what normal people do on their days off? I got out to the trail as soon as it was light, and had an incredible 18 mile run. So incredible I’m going to do a whole post on it soon.
When I returned home, I found that my daughter was up (sometimes she sleeps REALLY late on the weekends) and my husband had put together her breakfast. Hooray! I heated up my own breakfast (leftover pumpkin pancakes from a few weeks ago) and I don’t know what came over me, but I drank my tea from this:
Usually I’m a stickler for waiting until Black Friday to pull out the Christmas mugs, but well… rules are made to be broken, right?
After I ate I did some errands- the library…
…the grocery store, and I stopped at Starbucks to get my daughter an iced gingerbread latte. Then home for more football watching and blog reading! It was a sad weekend because the Dolphins didn’t play, so I watched the Tampa Bay game.
I started to get really sleepy, so I put my head back and just let myself drift off to sleep. I LOVE spontaneous naps like that! Once again I had a furry companion.
Funny how Sundays will turn on you. One moment you’re napping on the couch, and the next thing you know it’s time to start dinner, and throw in a load of laundry, and tomorrow is work and school… bleh.
I made skillet enchiladas from Vegan Richa for dinner, and it was tasty! We have enough left over for tomorrow’s dinner too, which makes me very happy.
Sunday night is all about prepping for the morning- lunch box, finishing laundry, cleaning the kitchen. SIGH! But the weekend was rejuvenating, so I feel ready to face the week again.
How was your weekend? Were you able to relax?
Header photo by Hansjörg Keller on Unsplash
38 Responses
This looks like a lovely weekend, but getting up at the butt crack of dawn to run too far? Pass. I did get to go for a run this afternoon when the temps got into the mid 50s. I didn’t relax much at all. Coach taught a class in Virginia. I got a call back from the lawyer that was recommended to us and I spent a lot of time gathering up the paperwork that he needed. Also, I took some of the kids to my old high school an hour away from home. There we watched our local Catholic high school play against my former high school. We have cousins that go to both schools and the team we wanted won with a TD pass with a minute left. It was a beautiful day for football and I felt like we needed a distraction from the heart wrenching basketball drama.
Yes, you need a distraction right now! That’s my favorite kind of football game- where your team wins in the last minute. I’m going to do a post tomorrow about that long run, and maybe it will all make more sense to you then. Or maybe not, ha ha. You might still think I’m crazy.
Spontaneous naps are so delicious!
I had one day off this weekend and then had to work the other day. When I only have one day off on the weekend, it doesn’t feel relaxing – I have to get all the chores done, and also I want to take the kids for a little while so the Husband can have some kid-free time. My kids, I feel, don’t need a lot of attention, but I also can’t leave them at home by themselves. So I can get chores and house puttering done, but it is highly likely that I will be interrupted at some point. I guess that is the nice thing about my job is that when I’m working in the evenings, I can have the day time to putter and move at a slower, more self-regulated pace.
I agree, it’s hard to only have one day off. At my job they want everyone to work one weekend day, but doing it early on Saturday makes me feel like I have the rest of that day off, and then the next day as well. And I agree- it’s very hard to get a lot done around the house with kids around.
I love a good couch nap! My weekend was not relaxing but it was productive – we did a lot of unpacking and a ton of laundry and I hand washed a bunch of glassware.
Well, if you can’t have relaxing, then productive is the next best thing. I bet that felt good.
A Christmas mug is not an OOPS. It is amazing. I say, bring on Christmas.
I took a 2hr+ nap yesterday afternoon which was lovely but also meant I could not get to sleep last night. Sigh. Oh well, it was worth it for the thrill of sleeping away a chunk of Sunday afternoon. The best part? While I slept, my daughter started decorating for Christmas and did AN INCREDIBLE JOB. I love Christmas decorations but don’t always love the work that is involved with setting things up. So, yes please, to having my tween do the work. She was DESPERATE to decorate so I said I was going to nap but she could do the mantle swag if she wanted…I still have no idea how she got so many things decorated in the time I was napping. If only she applied the same work ethic to cleaning her room!
Well, I will say decorating for Christmas is WAY more fun than regular cleaning. That must have been amazing- waking up from a nap to find decorations up!
And, now that you’ve given me permission I have a feeling the Christmas mugs will be out every day.
That sounds like a DELIGHT. Also YESSSSS to that skillet!!
Mmmm I’m eating the leftovers right now- even better the second day!
Yes. Normally I would be running a 15k. I thought about volunteering.
Instead I cooked, did laundry, went for a hike and met a friend for wine. Totally relaxed to start the week.
That sounds really nice! You need a weekend like that sometimes.
I’ll be interested in your thoughts on Happiness Falls!
I started it! I’m liking it so far but I’ve only read the first chapter.
It looks like you are taking a page out of Nicole’s book with that mug! Your weekend sounds great, and I LOVE a good early morning weekend run. I waited until it got light to do mine on Sunday, so it was about 6:30 but I really enjoy having cooler weather, watching the sunrise, and not having to deal with other people or traffic, depending on whether it is road or trail.
I enjoyed Thirteenth Tale, although it has been years since I read it so I couldn’t tell you why, I just remember liking it. My weekend was great; I ran with a friend on Saturday, got my Christmas cards pretty much done (need to stamp a few more, but otherwise am good) and got a lot done around the house, plus had time to relax! The perfect weekend in my book!
Yes, that does sound really nice! A nice mix of getting things done and relaxing.
I read about The Thirteenth Tale on Modern Mrs. Darcy- it sounded good, so we’ll see!
I love Vegan Richa! I have one of her cookbooks and her teriyaki sauce is a staple around here. That mug is so pretty, I am highly in favour of using it now! I myself have my Buddy the Elf mug filled with coffee as we speak.
My weekend was great! We have a houseguest – my son’s BFF – so it’s been a fun weekend around here!
I’ll have to check out her teriyaki sauce. I don’t have any of her cookbooks- I get recipes from her website.
I had a feeling you would approve of the mug! But I think in your book we’ve moved from the Tiny Secret Festive Season to full on Christmas, right?
Those enchiladas look so good! And it sounds like you had a really good weekend — a mix of relaxing and being productive.
I had a 3 day weekend which was glorious, so Thursday night after work I drove up to my parents’ (they live 2 hours away) to spend the weekend with them. Friday I did my “long” run which was only 8 miles because I’m not training yet and then my mom and I went to lunch and checked out a store with Christmas decorations. Saturday was a 4 mile run, my mom and I went to a cute outdoor wine bar and then the three of us went out for dinner. And Sunday was a hill repeats day for my run and then just relaxing for a bit before having to drive home. I’m already counting down the days til Thanksgiving break!
That sounds REALLY nice! I like all the running, and also the shopping for Christmas decs (I always love that.) I’m also counting down the days till Thanksgiving break, because my son will be home!!!!!
Well I am solidly in that stage of parenting that you speak of… It’s HARD. Our weekend was pretty good aside from some crappy kid behavior, but it was short as I headed to the airport around 1 on Sunday for my flight to NYC. I flew in with a coworker so we enjoyed a glass of wine at the airport before boarding our flight. So my afternoon was FAR SUPERIOR to Phil’s since he was solo parenting the two kids. Although he did take them to his mom’s which helps because being out of the house/a change of scenery is very good for our kids.
I LOVED The Thirteenth Tale. It is SO GOOD. So I think you will really like that. I will be curious to see what you think of Happiness Falls. I liked it a lot but felt like a part of the book could have been left out.
Okay, I started Happiness Falls first so I’ll let you know. Now I kind of wish I had started Thirteenth Tale first, ha ha. Well, I’ll read both of them.
I hope you’re having a great time in NY. And good luck to Phil at home : )
“Funny how Sundays will turn on you.” Truer words! Oh, goodness. I had a pretty good weekend in terms of getting things done but also some relaxing, which I needed after a busy week. I read The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer and enjoyed it!
Glad you had a relaxing weekend! I haven’t heard of that book- I’m going to look it up. The title is intriguing.
Um I want that enchilada skillet RIGHT NOW. YUM. Also I want more nights when everyone else in the family is getting dinner somewhere else so that I can make what I want.
I just started reading Happiness Falls, but so far I’ve only read the first chapter and I haven’t had time for reading in the past few days so it’s too soon to tell what I think about it. But it’s fun that we’re reading it at the same time.
Yes, and also fun that we’re in the exact same place in the book- I read one chapter last night.
The skillet enchiladas were so good! We finished the leftovers tonight.
I actually don’t miss the days when my kids were little (😬) but I do love the margins that older kids provide in my weekends. It’s so much easier now to make space for my own wants and needs. I was even realizing that next week, when the kids and I are home but my husband is working, that I can go for runs and leave them home alone. Now that is amazing!
Yes, it is a HUGE RELIEF when you get to that phase. I guess I really don’t miss the toddler phase… I think what I actually want is grandchildren! Not quite yet… sometime in the next ten years would be good.
Saturday morning started too early for me, so I spent most of the late morning/early afternoon “reading” on the couch, which you and I both know is code for chilling out with a cat and taking a nap. Glorious!
Ha ha, yes that’s exactly what it is! Nothing better than that.
18 miles – woohoo! I do like to get up early and get things out of the way, but Sunday was my “wake up without the alarm day”, as I had been up for workouts at 6:30 on Saturday already.
I’d hate to work Saturday mornings, but it can be nice to just have a half day ahead of you and then do as you please 🙂 Sounds like a relaxing afternoon and night.
I know- I would prefer not to work Saturdays. BUT I don’t work at all on Wednesdays, so there’s that. Wednesday is a good day to have off.
I am starting to realize that girls are more independent now and it’s okay to let them play alone. Yet, I still spend a lot of hours with them because I want to and they still enjoy me, so I’m taking it as borrowed time.
I do wonder how others spend Sunday, I see some people doing a lot on weekends and I get tired just thinking about it. I prefer to have open space, chill, let spontaneous naps, read a good book, and cooking something yummy for the family. I don’t feel the need to do exciting things… but rather enjoy our chill family time.
I didn’t know you have a cat! how cute.
I read the Thirteenth Tale years ago, and now don’t remember anything about it, except that I liked it a lot and it had some scenes that were very Gothic in feel. I hope you enjoy it!
I have Happiness Falls on hold at the library.
You eat breakfast AFTER an 18 mile run? I understand not wanting to run on an empty stomach, but wow, that’s a lot of energy out…
Skillet enchiladas! That looks so good! I’m going to have to check out that recipe.
I love when the cats join me for a nap!
Lots of rest and catching up with household chores this weekend.
I will be inviting myself over for the enchiladas, please and thank you. 🙂 Also? I am also not-normal and also up early on the weekends and also don’t know what normal people do. It’s a mystery to me.
Normal people don’t get up at 5.30am that is for sure. Haha…
The enchiladas look amazing.
And a slow weekend is so enjoyable.